Renaissance Clash

This is the second of three posts featuring photographer Alan Chin's latest images from the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. The series profiles the Renaissance Trailer Park (NOLA article, April '06) on the fringes of Baton Rouge.  The BAG also asked Alan to provide some description of events.

(click for full size)

By Alan Chin

This was a "town meeting" in which residents were trying to elect a new committee of representatives. The guy in the MSPP T-shirt is Wilbert Ross, the President of the Residents' Committee, who had resigned the day before pending a new election. He wanted to continue in his role, however, whereas others wanted new faces.

The meeting started with a discussion on formaldehyde poisoning, then moved n to whether Ross should continue being the president of the residents' council. His partisans said that he should, another faction wanted to oust him.  After a woman called him a "crack head," he had to be physically restrained, as you can see.  (The woman in the next shot with her hand in the air is strenuously pro-Ross, while the woman in the shot after that -- who looks like she's having a revelatory moment --  is expressing anti-Ross sentiments.)

Without any clear discussion, the meeting degenerated into bitter acrimony with a lot of screaming and yelling, ending up in a crushing emotional deflation and no resolution of anything.

My photos could be of a church meeting or a personal dispute. But even without the specifics, I think they show how this as a place that is emotionally wrought, on edge -- and chaotic whenever the residents officially gather.

People actually don't socialize much, however, even though there are 1500 people in 600 trailers.  Most stay inside the air-conditioned trailers and keep to themselves, or just a few others. There did not seem to be any real sense of community or solidarity, despite the fact that they do acknowledge their common interests and problems.

Part of it is the heat. There is no shade anywhere among the rows and rows of trailers, and it's scorching hot half the year in Louisiana.  Several residents said that they did not really know the families living right alongside them, regardless for months or years. One man died right before I got there; his body lay in his trailer without anyone noticing for three days in the July heat.

Probably in the autumn and winter people do hang out more. But in summer, even the basketball court is empty all day long. Another reason, also, is that this is a disparate group of people who did not naturally choose to live in the same neighborhood. And it is not that stable a population.  As the more capable families leave, they are replaced by new people coming from smaller trailer parks that are progressively being closed down.

Many of the residents are there because they were the kind of people who didn't have great family or social networks to begin with, and were estranged or alienated even before Katrina. They had nowhere else to go, and once in the camp, they got stuck there.

So Renaissance Village is the largest FEMA camp, and will be, at some point, the last. Which means that the population at each stage becomes the most impoverished, the most vulnerable, the most unemployable. And that, in turn, means that the social element breaks down more and more, as the more natural leaders leave.

(Previous Chin New Orleans posts at The BAG: Renaissance Village From The Outside (8/16/07); The Katrina Landscape (5/3/06); St. Rita Ongoing (10/8/05);  And Then I Saw These (9/27/05).  All images courtesy of Alan Chin.  Louisiana. 2007.  Posted by permission.)

Comments

[mdhatter]

How long until the fences and dogs are deployed?

Those photo's are gold, by the way. Awesome work.

[PTate in FR]

Wonderful photos. Interesting to see the individuals at a gathering.

I also appreciate the commentary. I have a sense of a budding community here, but I assume the transitory nature of the Renaissance Village will keep that fragmented. In your commentary, you answer a question that I was wondering about on in the last thread--that the people here are the most vulnerable, unemployable, impoverished. This is a hard, hard, social problem, quite apart from the devastation of New Orleans.

Again, in a society that is obsessed with individuals, we are blind to the idea that leadership is necessary to form community. Or we assume that the leadership can and should emerge from within the group, spontaneously. Leadership provided from outside would be "institutionalization," god forbid.

Oddly enough, as I look at the isolation suggested by these photos, I was reminded of the many, many old monasteries I have visited in France this past year, and, in particular, about the orderly, meaningful lives that were made possible within such intentional communities. They were guided by wisdom and structures handed down from the past. I think that it would never, ever occur to Americans, that post-Katrina help might include help with social structures.

[Doug]

In the commentary accompanying today's photos by Alan Chin regarding the town meeting at Renaissance Trailer Park, the point is made that most of the folks stay inside their trailers and have little to do with one another. This phenomenon points to a new reality in our troubled land -- namely, that 'community' is no longer an experience that arises naturally and automatically from the proximity of place -- that is, where people reside. Rather, we live in a world of markets, networks, organizations, friends and family. And our most important social grouping (beyond friend and family) is the organization -- whether that organization is formal or informal, small or large, governmental, nonprofit or for profit.

In our new world, the experience of community -- the experience of belonging to a real 'we'' (again, beyond friend and family) -- arises not through place but through purpose and specifically through shared purpose; that is, purposes that groups share and hold themselves accountable for implementing and moving forward.

Electoral politics is a challenging vehicle for creating and sustaining shared purpose. Indeed, look at Atrios' comments today about the possibility that the Minnesota government is slipping into acrimony over what to do about the broken bridge. My point is not to bash electoral politics -- or democracy. Quite the contrary. But, when we ask whether any collection of individuals -- whether in Renaissance or the Minnesota legislature -- are actually a real we, we must look to see if they share a purpose or purposes they will pursue together. Democracy is a powerful mode of problem solving -- of figuring out what purposes to pursue and how to best pursue them. But democracy involves -- indeed requires -- much more than just voting.

Alan Chin's photographs, then, depict an absence of shared purpose; and, also our cultural trope that suggests 'voting' is the exclusive and best means to establish and pursue purpose -- that voting is all that democracy entails. I have little doubt that there are lots of purposes that the folks at Renaissance could and should pursue together. And, little doubt that for those who 'joined in', the magic of shared purpose would convert Alan's photographs into more hopeful tableaux. But the folks at Renaissance are more likely to find a shared path to shared purpose by organizing themselves to identify and achieve one or more shared purposes than by voting in elections.

As ever, though, thank you and Alan for bringing these unique photographic and image perspectives to the rest of us.

[readytoblowagasket]

PTate, when I compare the Wal-Mart-grade Renaissance Village with the wealth and power of French monasteries, the obscene disparity makes me ill.

Ever since FEMA set up [Renaissance Village] in October to shelter victims of Hurricane Katrina, religious charities have been active. Cosbar, who oversees most of the agency's trailer [65] communities in the state, says he was unaware that Christian groups were regularly leading Bible study classes and holding Sunday school and other religious services.

After learning about the religious activities, he announced on February 16 that FEMA would no longer allow them. An independent evangelist named Pastor Judah, who had parked his 40-foot motor home on the site and was handing out tracts and praying with residents, was told to leave.

"If we let one group do it, we'd have to let every group do it," Cosbar explained. During a tour of the site in late February, he said that church groups were welcome to transport residents to services elsewhere and that residents could invite members of the clergy into their trailers to pray. But the park should be considered a "gated community," he said, generally off-limits to outsiders, including clergy wanting to hold services in its one common area.

Residents protested: "When they take God away from you, they've taken everything," said James Waller, vice chairman of the trailer park's citizens' council. Complaints soon reached agency headquarters -- and the White House. Within a week, FEMA scrapped the ban.

Instead, Renaissance Village now has a sign-up sheet for any resident who wants to schedule an event of any sort for the park's single public gathering space, an unheated 60-by-30-foot canvas tent erected by local charities. FEMA officials say they had not grappled with the church issue before because they don't generally set up a "community tent" when they provide emergency housing. The sterile, treeless "park" was not designed to have a gathering space, because it is meant to be temporary.

To contemplate the concepts of "socializing" and "community" from the point of view of people on a short leash who are not allowed to put down roots, read this. Then listen to Amy Goodman's brush with the First Amendment at Renaissance Village.

Alan, if security is so tight at RV-ille that they chased Amy Goodman off the premises, did you a) have trouble getting permission to photograph and b) what were the parameters (if any) of your visit? While your photographs are beautiful, they feel distant and detached. Is that because you weren't allowed to get any closer to people (I mean, inside their barracks)? How much time did you actually spend there, and were you required to have a FEMA Big Brother with you? (If you don't give us enough "dots," we can't connect them.) Thanks.

I also want to know what sick f*ck named the place Renaissance Village. Michael Chertoff himself? Does anyone know?

[Hubris Sonic]

beautiful photos. These are people without a country

[Alan Chin]

if security is so tight at RV-ille that they chased Amy Goodman off the premises, did you a) have trouble getting permission to photograph and b) what were the parameters (if any) of your visit?

Actually, after massive contention over this issue, as you know, FEMA relented and finally allowed journalists to come and go freely. Some of the security guards wanted me to identify myself as i walked around, i did so, and that was that. most, however, did not want to be photographed.

While your photographs are beautiful, they feel distant and detached. Is that because you weren't allowed to get any closer to people (I mean, inside their barracks)?

Wait for Part III tomorrow :)

How much time did you actually spend there, and were you required to have a FEMA Big Brother with you?

No, no escort. Free to be on my own. I spent two entire days, and on the third day went up in a small airplane to get the aerial view. I wanted to be there longer, initially, but in all honesty I was emotionally and physically exhausted after only two days. I don't want that to come across as an excuse, but rather a reflection of how the place really does beat down on you. Every one you talk to has their tale of woe. You want to be sympathetic without condescension. You want to really understand.

At the same time, you think to yourself, man, if i were in here, even if i were initially without any money, I would do anything and everything i could to get out. I would work at McDonald's or Wal-Mart for $6 an hour, slowly save enough first to get a used car and then to get an apartment somewhere, anywhere.

But then you listen, how residents DO get jobs, but if it's for an odd shift there's no public transit to get to or from work. How they are demoralized because they're STILL waiting for their aid money. How, if they were renters, their former landlords have doubled or tripled the rent. How, even if they have family, siblings and parents have not offered to take them in. And how, with what money they do have, they get satellite TV and junk food, because that's all there is around.

so the psychological realities sink in, and I for, one, was left with a feeling of true hopelessness and despair. All the more so, even, because it's not as if these people are truly starving -- rather, it's that they have been allotted the absolute bare minimum of shelter -- and not one tiny bit more.

[jtfromBC]

'While your photographs are beautiful, they feel distant and detached.'-rtbag

'Wait for Part III tomorrow :)'- Alan

I think i know the answer :) but i will wait :(

[Steve]

The emotional impact of these pictures is too much. These are the Native Americans of today. Should be called 'Reservation Village'. Did you stay in the village over night during those two days?

Thanks for these photos, this is news to me.

–––

Bag, if at Pajaro there was a strong un-passworded signal out of the first building of Shorebirds (a few weeks ago, at least). On the steps to the right.

[Phredd]

Alan, once again your work and your commentary is stunning, devastating.

Yes, beyond food and shelter, to participate one must coordinate transportation, proper clothing, dependent care, the wherewithal to make it through at least a couple of paydays. Where do you start? It has to be simultaneous. That's a problem faced in urban areas as well, young mothers. A modicum of leadership would assign a social service agency. It would be far, far less costly to fund a couple of MSWs to help work out the various issues, than to prolong this into the, what? third year?

The place is so sterile. Jesus.

[The BAG]

Steve, Thanks for the G2. Just posted #3 from outside Starbucks in Watsonville. Actually paid t-mobile. Uchh.

[Elaine Flore]

I chanced on this website while looking up information about Renaissance Village. I was an American Red Cross volunteer at the River Center, Baton Rouge following Hurricane Katrina. My fellow volunteers put together a school on the mezzanine and this is where I met some amazing people; some were evacuees and some were Baton Rouge citizens who were actively involved with the residents. I followed the children to Renaissance Village and have since visited when ever possible. Usually I do art because it is something we can easily do together. I know some of the story of the village and your photographs capture the place very well...the tent my friends paid for and erected so there would be a place to gather, the faces of the teenagers who have lost their childhood, and the isolation. It is essential that people from the outside like yourself continue to make public those whose misery continues. We must have affordable housing available and job placement help for those who can work. Above all, we must make certain that the teenagers get an education..I am afraid that too many Katrina kids are not attending school regularly and have terrible reading/math gaps. It seems to me that more needs to be done in the case of Renaissance Village to see that kids are in school and succeeding.
Thank you for the great photos. I will be visiting Baton Rouge this December and your pictures remind me how much I don't want these people to be forgotten.