FOR INFORMATION   CONTACT:
  Natalia Bradshaw-Parson
  bradshnr@jmu.edu

The catalyst for this project was a very personal response to a very public image.  During the first few days of the Hurricane Katrina disaster when the extent of the destruction was being gauged and those spared by the initial onslaught of the Category 4 hurricane were seeking refuge in the Superdome and Convention Center in New Orleans and shelters all over the Gulf Coast, I saw a little boy on CNN.  He was pleading to the person holding the camera, “We need some help here.  We need food; we need water.  There’s a lady over there that doesn’t have her medicine.  She will die without it. Please help.”

 His pleas for assistance touched the very core of my conscience as an American citizen.  I was ashamed that children and adults were being herded into spaces that were ill-equipped to handle the numbers needing shelter.  I was angry that local, state, and national agencies were slow to coordinate their efforts to help rescue those stranded and to save lives.  I was sad that the promises that we expect as citizens of this rich and great country seemed empty.  I knew too that what I was going through was nothing compared to the problems that the victims were experiencing.  Their lives were going to be changed forever.  They had lost everything, they were separated from family members, and they were not sure where they were going or whose charity they would have to depend upon to survive.

I knew that the people who were suffering like this little boy would need a way to heal.  Because I believe in the healing power of words, on September 5, 2005, I launched, under the auspices of the Furious Flower Poetry Center at James Madison University, the “Mourning Katrina” project.  Called “Mourning Katrina: A Poetic Response to Tragedy,” it is a national poetry writing project to which those affected by the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina can respond through poetry.  The rationale for the writing project was simple: after the victims of the hurricane have been given the necessities for life and have been reconnected with family, they will need to respond to the horrific events that have changed their lives.

  The poems that you will hear in this CD collection are the result of this project.  They were selected from more than 170 poems that were submitted to the Furious Flower Poetry Center by those who were affected by Katrina and who have gone through the process of grieving, reflection, expression, and ultimately, healing. While bearing witness to one of the worst natural disasters in American history, the contributors represent multiple perspectives as they relate to gender, race, age, and experience.  As one reviewer writes, “Experienced poets can help us to understand and ‘know’ the larger implications of catastrophic events such as this one, as does, for example, poet Angela Jackson in her poem ‘Last Door,’ which sets up a ‘striking comparison between the aperture at Goree’s Slave House and the way the Hurricane Katrina survivors walked out of the flood.  Such a mature point of view balances the sometimes raw, autobiographical poems by young survivors, poems that nevertheless surprise and touch us in their innocence, hope, and insistence. . . . For example, in one striking image, ten-year-old Rowan Gryder’s poem ‘Water Line’ evokes the character of a community and, by implication, a nation.”

My Soul is Anchored is about devastation and mourning, but it is most of all about hope and healing. It is about the rainbow that comes after the storm and the revival of spirit that comes out of the depths of tested faith. It is my hope that you are inspired by these voices.  This project is dedicated to the memory of all of those souls who made transition as a result of Hurricane Katrina and to their families who are left to mourn them.

                                                                        --Joanne V. Gabbin