After several days in New Orleans, I decided to dedicate more of my time towards doing field work. I refreshed myself on my original research goal which was to learn more about the physical and social landscape of New Orleans and how the affects of Hurricane Katrina have influenced it. Although my approach this time was still largely interactive-based, I added another dimension to my work by preparing a survey which I could hand out to interviewees and generate data from. The survey I made was composed of several basic demographic-related questions followed a series of statements to which the respondent could answer according to a Likert Scale (a scale rated from 1-5, 1 being Strongly Disagree and 5 being Strongly Agree). My plan was to distribute this survey to as many random people as possible and hopefully gather enough substantial information to use in my work. Although I learned a lot from the survey’s, I learned even more about how to properly conduct this type of work.<\/p>\n
I took a streetcar down to the French Quarter and only a few blocks down from my stop I approached my first interviewee. He was 24-year-old black man named Jeffrey. Before I approached him, Jeffrey was performing a style of spoken word similar to rapping but without any beat or accompaniment to go along with it. He was friendly and gladly obliged to fill out a survey and chat with me. He said he was not originally from New Orleans and that he didn’t move there until after Katrina had happened. He said he originally moved there for school but was now working as a tutor and performing around the French Quarter whenever his schedule allowed it. I thanked him for his time and moved onward.<\/p>\n
A few surveys later, I realized that all the people I was approaching all shared something in common: they were all expressing or showcasing some type of art form. I realized that I was gravitating towards these people only and that in turn, I was subjecting my intended research methods to my own bias. Although I intended for the survey to be distributed randomly, there was no possible way to do this as long as I was going to be selecting and approaching each person myself. I worked around this slight complication and decided that I would just use artists and musicians as the focus group for my survey.<\/p>\n
Several hours later, I had made my rounds through most of the French Quarter and had accumulated about 15 surveys from various musicians, painters, and street performers. By this point I was becoming aware of the fact that I had barely met a single artist or musician who had lived in New Orleans before and after Katrina. However, I soon met someone who completely changed my outlook on my research and affirmed my already forming skepticism about what I was hoping to find in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
A couple blocks over from Jackson Square, I found myself gazing at vintage movie posters and art deco-style lithographs inside a small art gallery called, \u201cRue Royale\u201d. There I introduced myself to the gallery’s director, Deborah. She was a middle-aged white woman who had been living in New Orleans since 1993 and was there to witness Hurricane Katrina, before and after. She assured me that the only street musicians I would find in downtown New Orleans were mere \u201cwannabes\u201d who conveniently swooped in on the work left behind by all of the city’s previous musicians who were displaced by Katrina. A painter I talked to in the French Quarter described this is as \u201ccycling\u201d. The native musicians and artists were washed away and younger musicians from around the country came to New Orleans while all of the permits were left available to them. Although some of the new artists I talked to described this as \u201cnot necessarily a bad thing\u201d and maintained that it provided work for the next generation of artists and in some ways even refreshed the scene in New Orleans. Deborah argued that these people were entirely phony and just trying to capitalize on something that wasn’t theirs to begin with. She also described what it was like to be in the city during the hurricane and how she witnessed the dark side of humanity unfold outside her gallery window when citizens looted the streets and in panic and desperation, turned against one another. She felt that all of this was portrayed in the media as a giant spectacle that attracted the interest of national politicians, investors, and celebrities alike. I appreciated hearing this very candid and radical perspective.<\/p>\n
Although I didn’t find the exact information I had originally sought after in my survey, it was through the process of interviewing and experimenting with the survey that I found answers to some of the “bigger picture” questions related to my project. I felt inspired to become more critical about my investigation of New Orleans and intrigued to delve deeper into the seedy undercurrent beneath all of the idealism and tourism on the city’s surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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