What an amazing, wonderful month StoryCorps has had in Louisiana! It’s almost impossible to sum up. A pot of images will have to do as we get ready to bid farewell to the incomparable song of New Orleans.

We couldn’t help but notice that there’s something about New Orleans that goes beyond the vibrant stories, jamming music, colorful characters, and delicious food. It’s the hats. Once you start noticing them, they’re everywhere.

Hat while enjoying fresh air.

Hat while sitting.

Hat while waiting.

Hat while browsing.

Hat while delivering food to restaurants around Jackson Square. Soul Man can carry boxes, sing, and wear this smile all at the same time..every, single, time we see him.

Hat on facilitator named Brett while talking with the Soul Man near his truck.

Hat in New Orleans. Model: Facilitator Nelson Simon.

Hats from New Orleans.

Fortune telling hat.

Table waiting hat.

Dancing hat. Miss Lollipop plays the flute in the incredible Treme Brass Band.

Hat Store. The oldest one in the South.

Hat Shopping.

Hat stocking.

Hat selling.

Hats off to New Orleans–but only long enough to tip the musicians!

Welcome to Antoine’s, one of the French Quarter’s finest dining experiences. Facilitators Brett Myers, Laura Spero, Nelson Simon, and Veronica Ordaz get ready to treat themselves to a world-class dinner.

We were told we couldn’t leave New Orleans without trying oysters rockafeller.

Richard is a career waiter at Antoine’s, and here he is carrying baked Alaska. We weren’t sure what baked Alaska was until we saw it, but when we asked Richard if it is traditionally flambéd, he said no. We were disappointed, so he went ahead and lit it on fire for us. Now that’s top noch service.

How many civilized facilitators does it take to finish a baked alaska?

Even with a great deal more field recording than usual, the booth is staying busy in Jackson Square.

Facilitators have spent a fair share of time down the road at Cafe du Monde. Waitresses Ming Smith and Rua Thi Vu returned the visit with hostess Cam Ming. All three women are Vietnamese immigrants and have been working at Cafe du Monde for 25 years.

Voodoo Priestess Miriam Chamari was interviewed by her husband, Allen Villeneuve. She recalled caring for nuns through their sickly retirement, and reflected on spirituality. “Seek the Kingdom within yourself,” Priestess Miriam advised. When asked how, why, and when she decided to become a spiritual practitioner, she answered simply, “My path has chosen me.”

Composer and lyricist Cosmo Matassa came to the booth with his friend Jack Stewart.

It’s called THE SECOND LINE, and it’s a die-hard New Orleans tradition at weddings and funerals alike. The first line is made of friends and family of the deceased, who walk with the casket along with a brass band, sending their loved one off in a celebratory fashion. Then there are all the folks who tag along for the music, dancing as they go and waving white hankerchiefs. That’s the second line.

We were invited to wave our hankies at StoryCorps participante Jolène Bouchon’s marriage to Bryan Christian. (This is Bryan waiting patiently, with the second line brass band in the background.)

After the marriage ceremony, the bride and groom often form a street procession behind the second line brass band. These joyous parades have come filing through Jackson Square a few times while we’ve been here, waving white hankerchiefs, sporting the distinctive second line umbrella, and dancing.

Well, sometimes there’s a good reason to have a large mob of people making a WHOLE lot of noise outside the recording booth, eh?

Residents of St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward were kind to welcome us into their trailers and homes for two days of literal “door to door” recording. The drive out reminds us what our participants are facing daily: closed businesses, broken buildings, and pile after pile of debris.

Roy and Tony Calabrisi, 77 and 83, took us into Roy’s trailer. His home was first flooded, then burned from the top when the house next door caught on fire.

Roy and Tony talked about how the storm has intensified their relationship with each other and their elder brother Sal, as well as with their neighbors.

They see each other daily at nearby Emergency Communities, a volunteer effort that has become a colorful community center amdist these bleak conditions.

Tony worried that they would not live to see St. Bernard Rebuilt, but agreed with Roy that there’s never been any question of leaving New Orleans.

“When I go, I’ll go out feet first,” Roy told his younger brother. “Don’t worry Tony, we’ve made it this far. We’ll make it. We’ll make it.”

Trisha Roberts and Donna Banks became close friends at the Common Ground Women’s Center, located in the Upper Ninth Ward. Donna is currently the coordinator at the Center, which provides a home for women and children whose homes were destroyed in the storm.

Trisha and Donna were instrumental in transforming the Women’s Center into a tight-knit family unit where everyone lives together, works together, eats together, and prays together. Trisha is newly married and has moved into her own home. They reflected on how profoundly their friendship and work at the center has impacted their lives.

Sydney Roux was interviewed in her trailer by her friend Dagmar Booth. They reflected on the differences between hurricanes Betsy (1965) and Katrina.

Sydney’s trailer sits in the lot where her house used to be before it was washed clear across the street last August. Sitting on the steps of her temporary home is a strange experience with the house looking back at us.

Chalmette High School became a refuge for hundreds of people stranded in St. Bernard Parish when it flooded from end to end. Boats came and docked on the roof over the walkway to the school entrance; refugees included a woman who gave birth, a man on dialysis, twins on ventilators, and many people with lacerations and other injuries.

Facilitators Brett Myers and Laura Spero spent a day listening to conversations between school administrators who served fruit loops and half glasses of water to the crowd for nearly five days. Chalmette High School has reopened as St. Bernard School Unified and is home to elementary, middle and high school students; it is now the only public school open in St. Bernard Parish.

In the next few days, we will be doing field recording in some of the areas most heavily affected by Hurricane Katrina. These images are just a glimpse of the devestation in St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward.

In the lower 9th Ward, this area next to a broken levee is essentially unsalvageable. Most homes will have to be completely demolished. Try enlarging some of these images to get their full impact.

Above is a rebuilt levee in the Ninth Ward. It had a barge stuck in it, which channelled water around this tree, which is the only thing left standing a in a field of debris.

Below are pictures from a neighborhood in St. Bernard Parish where the levee was topped, not breached. Many homes will need to be gutted after sitting under water for many weeks; others were destroyed completely. Water rushed through the streets, smashing cars against lamposts and picking up everything in its path.

The contents of a decimated house in St. Bernard Parish. In the background is the levee. Below, the same levee through the window of a partially gutted home.

This house and its concrete foundation were swept right into the middle of the street. The entire structure remains in the road.

Piles of rubble indicate buildings that have been gutted, or striped down to their bare frames, which is the first stage of rebuilding. But many homes have not been touched since they were submerged up to the second floor eight months ago. Inside, furniture and belongings look as if they were at the bottom of a swimming pool. Residents who return to their homes must face emptying all of this debris before they can rebuild.

A calendar in a girl’s bedroom, inside a house waiting to be gutted. It’s edges are curled over a month notated with birthdays: August, 2005.

We discovered an unexpected gem in St. Anna’s Church, where local musicians play at a community dinner every wednesday evening after a short service. We were welcomed to the intimate gathering with open arms; five dollars got us a home cooked meal, and all proceeds go to the artists. Next week we’ll be better prepared for the open mic segment!

Yes, Brett’s sandwich is bigger than his head. The muffuletta is a classic New Orleans specialty sandwich filled with provolone cheese and Italian meats. This delicacy is said to have been invented at the Central Grocery in 1906, and it would be hard to leave New Orleans without eating one. Then again, it would be hard go anywhere AFTER eating one, so our conclusion is that when you come here, you have to stay a while. The rest of us have been impressed with Brett’s agressive attitude toward conquering the muffuletta…he’s a hard worker.

Musician Benny Jones Jr was interviewed by his friend Henry Griffin. Mr. Jones, a base drummer who comes from a long line of New Orleans Jazz musicians, helped found the influential Dirty Dozen Brass Band in the late 1970s. Now he leads the Treme Brass Band, which can be found playing all over New Orleans.

Rufus Burkhalter and Bobby Brown were working at Pump Station Six when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005. They and their co-workers stayed at the station through the storm, well after they knew their own houses had been destroyed, sandbagging the breached 17th Street levee. In the StoryCorps booth, Mr. Burkhalter and Mr. Brown reflected on their breathtaking experience.

Raphael Fransen, who grew up in Nicaragua, told his daughter Cynthia about watching two hundred pound sea turtles emerge onto the beach. “My brothers and I would find the eggs–they are very soft, or the turtles would crush them. You poke a hole in the top, and eat the inside. We were always very careful to take just one or two from each nest.” He also told facilitator Laura Spero that her name means “Parrot.” Incidentally, it’s only green parrots that talk–the colored variety can’t be taught human language.

If you’ve ever wanted to sit peacefully on a park bench in the craziest outfit you own, try it in the French Quarter! It’s hard to stick out in bustling Jackson Square, which is home to performers, musicians, clowns, plam readers, and tourists.

Guitarist Dorise Blackmon and vocalist Michaela Harrison of Mother Tongue warmed up our ears on our first day in New Orleans.

People watching is music to our ears!

How are four facilitators all going to fit in that little airstream?! We’ll figure it out after we clean up the powdered sugar we blew all over each other at world-famous Cafe du Monde. Veteran facilitators Nelson Simon, Veronica Ordaz, Brett Myers, and Laura Spero return to the road for the month of May. With the extra manpower, StoryCorps will be able to stay open longer hours in Jackson Square.

See that spec of silver off in the distance over Brett’s head? That’s the airstream, sitting at the corner of St. Ann and Chartres St.

Cafe Du Monde is known for it’s coffee and beignets. The beignet is not a donut, and it’s not funnel cake, but its kind of like a fried pillow covered in powdered sugar.

StoryCorps pulls up to Jackson Square, New Orleans, for stories from the mouth of the great Mississippi River. We’ll be here for the month of May, parked outside the Louisiana State Museum.

After three weeks of collecting Texas stories, StoryCorps is preparing to hit the road again. Maybe we can grab that hat before we go.

Seven year old America put her parents, Daniel and Sara, in the hot seat during our last day of Austin interviews.