People of the NINE

PEOPLE OF THE NINE

Taken on location in New Orleans, Louisiana's Ninth Ward | March 2016

“In New Orleans, there were families who had signs saying "we will shoot you", big stories about a learning disabled man and his brother across the east who were shot by the police while trying to get help, people greeted at the parish line by the law enforcement saying "y'all can't come this way”, New Orleans is filled with people who feel like their on their own, which leads to a lot of our violence. It's every man for himself. Nobody wants to live that way.

What hurts most is knowing that there was so much more that could've been done... Loving New Orleans is like living a man who don't love you back, you can do all you can but at a certain time you realize: this person don't care about me...I love this place, with every fiber of my being. I love it here. There are people who say New Orleans is backwards because we do things in an old way, or because we have these old streets, but I tell you what, I love it. I’ve been to places that are “forward” and you know what, I’ll take my backward.”

-Elizabeth "Mama Liz" Fletcher | Director: Adinkra NOLA

"They ask what happened to the working class people in the lower 9th ward? I say, these people have always been hard workers. We would not give in, we would not consider giving up our community. People like Rush Limbaugh would say, "we're waiting for handouts". We ain't never waited for handouts."

- Ronald W. Lewis | Director/Curator: House of Dance & Feathers

Collin: "I moved to New Orleans when my mom and dad divorced, well, to be closer to my dad. It's been a bit of a transition"
Trey: "Yea man, it's somebody gettin' killed almost every day, but you know, I love the football part of New Orleans. And...the soul of the city"
Collin: "Yea that's why a lot of people come here, the soul of New Orleans".

- Trey Hand & Collin Smith | Students

"As black police officers, we always busy, imma just put it to ya like that. I mean it helps sometimes because it puts me in a position to be able to relate to our younger kids, especially the females. That's always a plus, I can relate to everybody.
Hearing stuff like "F the Police"...my feelings get hurt, I'm like come on, but I mean it is what it is. At the end of the day I still win people over, even if I take 'em to jail they still come back and see me after the fact. Because ya know, if I'm right I'm right, if they wrong they wrong.
But listen, I've been doing this for so long that everybody that comes through these doors is family. I don't care what their problem is. Imma "sir" you and imma "ma'am" you til you can't take no mo'! Imma be like hey baby you alright? you good? I just treat everybody like they family.

- Officer Victoria S. Gidrey | Police Officer, NOPD

"my name starts with a K"
*guesses endlessly*
"Nooooo it's Kyren. Kyren Colby Joseph. Guess how old I am!"
*says 5*
"noo..wait, yes I'm 5!! Which hand is the rock in?"

-Kyren Colby Joseph | Student, Adinkra NOLA

“I remember a lady coming up to me after she spoke and saying : “Girl did you sleep in my bed last night?” I was like what! She said “baby we don’t know eachother so say good morning” It’s just courtesy ‘round here. You can’t just walk up to somebody with no salutation.

And by the way, I liked the song. The “Formation” song. I feel like the least bit of something that the girl wants to stand out against they wanna be like “Oh! She’s actin’ out, she with those revolutionaries!” I mean like, Katrina is a sensitive topic for a lot of people, and the natives that I talk to about Formation think that Solange is rubbing off on Beyonce. ‘Cause you know she’s living here. Shoot she might be riding her bike around the neighborhood right now. We love her out here.”

-Mama Irie | Teacher, Adinkra NOLA

"Well I'm from San Diego, California. Lived there 'til I was like 12, and then when my dad, who's from New Orleans, retired we moved to Hammond, which is about 45 minutes outside of New Orleans. It's when I moved out on my own that I came to this city. So that makes four or five years that I've been here.

Becoming a teacher just kinda, happened. I always knew that I was passionate about education, but it was journey.
The cultural transition from California to Louisiana was crazy. I’ll never forget walking into church here and the mothers were like “WELL HEY!” They want you to interrupt their conversation to say hey. I thought that was wild. Now I find myself doing the same thing!”

-Mama Joc | Teacher, Adinkra NOLA