August 28, 2015

Dear Reader,

After a much needed break, we are back online organizing and preparing The WIP's Feature Articles for our archive. One decade ago, Hurricane Katrina turned the lives of neighborhoods and families upside down and forced Americans to look inward at human rights injustice happening at home. One was hard pressed to overlook the pervasive and systemic racism that led to what we viewed on our television screens during and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Today we  posted two stories from our archives reflecting on the hurricane. Michelle Chen predicted the displacement, demolition and development that became the norm in the areas hit hardest by the floods. Kimberly Chase highlights one of the many activists who was integral in the rebuilding of an equitable New Orleans. 

We still need your support in our effort to build a permanent home for these articles and the 1000 others that gave us a critical feminine perspective on world events during the The WIP's publication. Please make a donation today! 

Onward!
FROM THE HURRICANE KATRINA ARCHIVES
 

by Michelle Chen -  It took Kawana Jasper over a year, and all the stubborn will she could muster, to get back to New Orleans. Broke and exhausted, she arrived in the city last spring from Houston, only to find that the last leg of her journey - back to her apartment at the St. Bernard housing project - would be the toughest yet.  Her home survived Hurricane Katrina, but it will crumble under the city's plan to demolish low-income housing in the name of "redevelopment."



by Kimberly N. Chase - Since moving from Massachusetts, Pam Dashiell has come to call New Orleans home, and is now a well-known organizer; Dashiell's work in the Holy Cross neighborhood in the city's Lower Ninth Ward took on added urgency after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Trying to bring the area back to life, she now helps evacuated families decide whether they can make the move back to their city and rebuild their homes.


Thank you for your support of The WIP and our vision over the years. We are working diligently to transform The WIP into a permanent archival resource. Please consider a final donation to support this critical step that will immortalize the hard work of our editors and contributors over the years.

Sincerely,
Kate Daniels
Founder and Editor 
ABOUT THE WIP

Based at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, The WIP® Internet News Service is your global source for women's perspectives. The WIP promotes diversity and is not associated with any particular religious, political, or cultural affiliation. We provide an opportunity to balance the under-representation of women journalists and strive to bring together divergent cultures and opinions in solution-based dialogue.


The WIP is a publication of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.