I’m getting excited about my next project, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, which debuts on SMITH Magazine this weekend (which is also Smith’s one-year anniversary). Following (belatedly) in the footsteps of Anthony Lappé and dangoldman‘s critically acclaimed (and justifiably so!) Shooting War, A.D. is about Hurricane Katrina and its effects on the lives of five real New Orleans residents.
I’ll also be dealing with the effect of the storm on other regions, such as Biloxi, in the parts of the project dealing with my personal experiences as a Red Cross volunteer.
This is my most research-heavy project ever, and is going to be a major focus of my time for the next six months (at least). I plan on putting up a new chapter at least once a month, and hopefully more often than that. And it’ll all be free for viewing at SMITH.
As part of the research, I’ll be visiting New Orleans this weekend (along with A.D. editor/SMITH founder Larry Smith), where we’ll meet with the characters from the project, tour around a bit, and take lots of photos. This’ll be the first time I’ll be visting NOLA since shortly after the hurricane, when I came through just for an afternoon.
We’ll have the good fortune to be put up right in the French Quarter, in the guest-house of one of our subjects, a doctor and local NOLA character. And dinner at Galatoire’s is on the agenda!
Should be quite a trip.