The City of New Orleans has been long referred to as “The Big Easy,” but since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city and its inhabitants, that “Easy” has been hard to come by. Fighting to regain normalcy, the city and its residents were forced to reconfigure some of the longstanding New Orleans traditions since the devastation left after Katrina. As part of our episode this storied city, we looked at one church’s unorthodox response to the city’s continual violence.

New Orleans and its residents continue to fall victim to unnecessary deaths, adding to the toll of a city’s depredation. Sadly, murder victims have been framed as statistics, especially in high crime cities. Father Bill Terry grew tired of the apathetic way in which these victims were regarded, so he decided to do something about it. He found a way to bring caring back into the equation by humanizing these victims through his New Orleans Murder Board.

For links to Father Terry’s church and additional stories of New Orleans from Al, visit our episode page.

Sadly, murder victims have been framed as statistics, especially in high crime cities. Father Bill Terry decided to do something about it and found a simple way to humanize these victims.

Visit our New Orleans page to listen to the Murder Board segment in our full hour radio episode or for further information about what we found in the Big Easy.

It was only weeks after the SOTRU team was in New Orleans that the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico began sending millions of gallons of oil on a slow creep towards the Louisiana shore. We spent much of our time in the Crescent City talking to people about the slow, painstaking work of recovery from the winds and floods of Hurricane Katrina—and here they are, facing another natural disaster. (more…)

Listen to the episode and check out our video documentary, podcasts, images and articles on New Orleans!

If you’ve listened to our NOLA episode, we want to hear from you. Please tell us what you liked, what you didn’t like and what you thought we could have done differently. The SOTRU team appreciates your feedback!

The foliage is in bloom and spirits are high because spring is here! And that means that State of the Re:Union is ready to release its first five episodes. Al and team visited some truly amazing cities and towns and captured compelling stories of these communities and their inspiring residents. (more…)

It’s a Sunday afternoon in New Orleans, and we’re stuck in traffic on an ordinary street in the Central City neighborhood. The reason? We made the mistake of trying to drive through the route of a second line. For all the fame of the city’s parades around Mardi Gras, New Orleans residents take to the streets every weekend for a good chunk of the year to second line… yes, it’s both a noun and a verb. Second lines stem from the city’s jazz funeral tradition: the main line is made up of the somber mourners; the second line is the folks following behind—celebrating and dancing. (more…)

The front cover for one of the Neighborhood Story Project's books

I’ve learned something, talking to people who’ve lived through a tragedy—be it the death of a loved one or a tornado destroying a home or an entire town: there is something profoundly healing about the telling a story. This is a lesson the city of New Orleans offers plentiful evidence of; everywhere you turn, there’s another organization recording stories, from oral histories to anecdotes, legends of the city’s Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs to tales of Hurricane Katrina mayhem. (more…)

If you’ve heard State of the Re:Union, you’ve heard our Dear City Letters, in which we ask listeners to write a letter to the city or town they call home. We’re working on our New Orleans episode right now, so if you live in NOLA and have something you want to communicate about it, here’s your shot! Whether you want to write from a place of love, anger, humor, to express your likes or dislikes or to break misconceptions, we welcome them all.

All submissions should be 400 words or less and submitted via e-mail to me at,tina@stateofthereunion.com. Please submit your letter no later than April 7, 2010. Selected letters will be used on the program and aired with the show.

Stepping through the door of Jim Russell Records is truly a revelation for record collectors, music enthusiasts and appreciators of community culture alike. The Sounds of the Re:Union recently visited New Orleans to film our inaugural podcast. Our on-the-ground insiders and our own research consistently pointed us to this area staple. (more…)