USA-KATRINA/MUSICIANS VILLAGE Post-Katrina Musicians' Village keeps New Orleans' heartbeat ticking

Record ID: 143204

  • Title: USA-KATRINA/MUSICIANS VILLAGE Post-Katrina Musicians' Village keeps New Orleans' heartbeat ticking
  • Date: 20th August 2015
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF HELEN GILLET, AVANT GUARD CELLIST AND SINGER, PLAYING AND SINGING HER SONG "ATCHAFALAYA"
  • Embargoed: 4th September 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2JN64D1JZOW03JIHGTHD0QMW6
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Music - It's the heartbeat of New Orleans. Combined with the city's unique cuisine, it's a duet that gives the city its culture and spice.
    You can hear the booming brass bands on the streets of the French Quarter and jazz in the homes - many of which raised some of the greatest musicians the United States has ever produced.
    But when the floodwaters created by Hurricane Katrina 10 years ago inundated New Orleans, most musicians, along with other residents, evacuated. The city's heartbeat stopped. Rushing water and the sound of rescue helicopters provided a different soundtrack.
    Concerned that musicians would not be able to move back, two of the city's famous musicians banded together with Habitat for Humanity - a non-profit organization dedicated to building houses for low-income families.
    Jim Pate, Executive Director for New Orleans Area Habitat For Humanity, says the idea to build a Musicians' Village within New Orleans was sparked by a phone call by Harry Connick, Jr., and Branford Marsalis.
    "So Harry and Branford, and their agent, Ann Marie Wilkins reached out to me in October of 2005, just six-eight weeks after the failure of the levees, and said, 'what can we do to get our musicians back? We want them back. We want their homes to be affordable, because of all the devastation, rents on what was available were skyrocketing, and we want them to have the sense that New Orleans is their home, and their home for a lifetime," Pate said.
    The city and its musical heritage were undergoing an existential crisis.
    "Losing that heritage would have taken away the beating heart of New Orleans, and damaged it forever. We're such a unique and fragile environment - that we needed to get our musicians back, and actually the Musicians' Village was one of the first places that musicians got, were able to put down roots and get back," Pate said.
    But the Musicians' Village broke ground in April 2006. Fueled by an army of 40,000 volunteer labourers who helped with construction, in the following years 72 single-family houses were built. Ten "elder friendly" duplexes were also built, according to Pate. Each house is elevated over five feet (1.5 meters) - well above the government recommended height for flooding in the neighborhood.
    With low labor costs, and because Habitat for Humanity is a non-profit and large enough to buy construction material in bulk, the houses are inexpensive for the region. The musicians who moved into the village financed their homes for about $80,000. They're now estimated to be worth about $140,000, Pate says. Monthly housing expenses for the musicians are about $600. The average rent in New Orleans is now $1,100, Pate says.
    Approximately 170-180 people currently live in the village. The "Ellis Marsalis Center" at its center, serves as a teaching facility, but also features a performance hall and recording studio.
    Helen Gillet (JILL-EHY) is a classically trained cellist. She first moved to New Orleans 13 years ago to learn how to incorporate improvisation into her musical repertoire. But a few years later, the roof blew off the apartment she was renting, when Hurricane Katrina struck. A friend recommended that she apply for the Musicians' Village.
    "It started on a construction site. So, I learned the empowering feeling of actually learning how to do construction, when I thought I would be hopeless at it. I - it was a great feeling, and then meeting other musicians in that context really brought us together," Gillet said.
    The move has helped her grow as an artist, she says. Not only does she collaborate with other musicians in the village, but just having an affordable home has allowed her to thrive... musically.
    "I was young. I never thought I'd own a home by 27. And, as soon as I moved in here, I was able to relax enough not to worry about where the next rent check was going to come from, and not worrying about where I was going to live in six month, or a year, and constantly focusing on that. And, I immediately made an album. I was so happy and proud, and I just started recording and I've been making an album once a year, ever since - just celebrating my musical life. It just kind of helped me get my 'stuff' together, you know?"
    Hurricane Katrina was ultimately responsible for 1,833 deaths and damage estimated at $151 billion, including $75 billion in the New Orleans area and along the Mississippi coast, according to the United States Census Bureau.
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