NEW ORLEANS (NNPA) – "We are still swimming up­stream,” said Carol Bebelle, executive director and co-founder of Ashé Cultural Arts Center – alluding to New Orleans’ continuing struggle to rebuild since Hurricane Katrina struck and the government-build levees failed – during a recent press conference, where she discussed the upcoming performances of Swimming Upstream at the Mahalia Jackson and Apollo theatres in September. The performances coincide with the fifth anniversary of Hur­ricane Ka­trina.

Swimming Upstream, written by 16 New Orleans women and directed by Eve Ensler, tells the story of living through Hurricane Katrina in the voices of local artists and residents.
The press conference started with an excerpt of the production that moved both the audience and the performers. For them, the stories are still alive and vivid:

“Before the storm I had a home full of things,” said Anna Deavere Smith. “My things,” Smith continued.

“Full of African art and books. Full of history and love. Before the storm I had a convertible that made me feel free. Younger than my years and unrestricted by time, people and politics. Before the storm I had a job.”

“There’s water all around me,” Troi Bechet sang, “but I can’t get a thing to drink.”

“Why don’t you stay in Houston,” one woman was told. “You have a better chance of rebuilding your life.”

“What? New Orleans is my life!” the woman yelled.

“Refugee?” said one artist. “…. Louisiana is a part of the United States and Ms. Evacuee to you.”

“Those of us who didn’t fly walked on water,” said another.

In one story, an 81-year-old woman tells how people wondered why she was always so happy, like she “ain’t got a right” to her joy. “I’m just not in the mood to be around folks who don’t know that breathing is enough,” she said. Tommye Myrick was asked by an audience member to talk about her “roof story.”

“Oh my God,” Myrick, said, covering her face. She explained that she had hired contractors to fix her roof. When the painters came, later, they asked what was wrong with her roof. “Your roof is not completed.”

Myrick was driving around town when she saw the contractors working on another roof. “I took the ladder away from them. I guess it was about 98 degrees. They yelled and cursed. I refused to put the ladder back. They said they were going to call the police. I said, ‘Don’t bother; I did.’ The people who were driving by were yelling, ‘Good for you.’”

Eventually the police put the ladder back but Myrick never got her money back. Her story is one of themany threads in the fabric "Upstream."

Ashé’s website explains how stories such as these were woven into the tapestry that became Upstream: “As a city of what was once 500,000 struggles to rebuild, the rest of the country [has] probably forgotten the brown water line that still stains homes, stores, and churches. Many have forgotten the thousands who lived through the terror of leaving their homes, the hours of waiting outside in the rain, the nightmare of the Superdome…. We think the country should never forget.

“… For a year and a half following hurricanes Katrina and Rita … a gospel singer, a teenage filmmaker, a former Vegas showgirl, and a Mardi Gras Indian matriarch – met monthly to share stories and [write] about their experiences before, during, and after the storms.

“In a process facilitated by playwright and activist Eve Ensler  (The Vagina Monologues) and Carol Bebelle, the writers crafted a powerful theatrical production that tells the raw and soulful stories … with grace, rage, humor, strength and great resiliency.”

Bebelle noted that Eve Ensler “is the original godmother because she saw the potential for this kind of a work being an important piece. [She] came here. Worked with us. Helped to raise the funds. And is coming back again in her own healing process to be in New Orleans with the healing spirit that we have working here and to come together again for this sisterhood.”

Bebelle said, “We discovered that this specific work for us was very, very personal for lots of people who find themselves in the circumstance of having their world turned completely over. The work has a kind of spiritual connection to women all over.

“We also want to dedicate it to our sisters in Haiti and our sisters down in the Gulf communities who are themselves now going through their own kind of hell,” Bebelle said. “Swimming Upstream is … a prayer, a blues ballad, a hallelujah, an affirmation, a nightmare, a battle cry, a eulogy, an incantation, an epic poem.”

Local performers include Anne-Liese Juge Fox, Karen-kaia Livers, Troi Bechet, Asali Njeri DeVan and singers, Michaela Harrison and Leslie Blackshear Smith.

The writers were: Carol Bebelle, Troi Bechet, Reverend Lois Dejean, Asali Njeri Devan, Anne-Liese Juge Fox, Adella Gautier, Briceshanay Gresham, Herreast Harrison, Karen-kaia Livers, Tommye Myrick, Cherise Harrison Nelson, Kathy Randels, Dollie Rivas, Dina Roudeze, Karel Sloane-Boekbinder and Carol Sutton.

Swimming Upstream will be performed September 10, 2010, 8:00 p.m., at the Mahalia Jackson Theater.  For more information, call 504-569-9070.