L9 Center for the Arts: Helping a City to Heal

The NewsHour on PBS ran a wonderful piece recently featuring photographers Keith Calhoun and Chandra McCormick and their L9 Center for the Arts at 539/537 Caffin in Holy Cross. The Center was launched after Katrina in a restored double shotgun – as a place to celebrate the arts and culture of the Lower Ninth Ward.

In “New Orleans Art Exhibit Aims to Help City Heal”, Keith and Chandra are interviewed by reporter Jeffrey Brown as part of a segment on the citywide Prospect.1 exhibit:

JEFFREY BROWN: Through layers of slime, a trumpet is raised, a trombone pokes out, and you can almost hear the sounds of New Orleans. These photographs once documented the vibrant life of this city. Now they capture something else: the destruction wrought by Katrina.

KEITH CALHOUN, photographer: They're not photos anymore. They're objects now. The water took it to another level.

To view the entire NewsHour story, go here. For more on the L9 Center for the Arts and their ongoing mission, go here.