Protect our Coastline Benefit was Awesome!

Michael Fedor has an amazing array of photos from the event on his FB page that capture just how much fun we all had dancing to Rockin' Dopsie and the Zydeco Twisters, and Cyril Neville and Gayneille Neville. It was awesome. The art auction went great. We had a lot more items then we anticipated. The readings were beautiful. The two sets the band played were jumping, and the tribute Cyril paid to our dearly missed friend and mentor, Eluard Burt, was poignant and touching.

I woke up depressed August 29th and couldn't stop watching the news footage of where we were five years ago. By the time, we went to set up for the benefit, I was ready to put it all behind me and look forward. And by the time Rockin' Dopsie and the band got going, I was ready to dance and celebrate being in a city that five years ago nearly washed away and some months after that, a city that people and politicians were saying shouldn't be rebuilt. It's surreal, here we were five years out, dancing our funky butts off at the Gold Mine in a place that almost wasn't anymore and trying to save our waters and our way of life still. You can't write or make up this shit. We have to dance like our lives depend on it and we have to fight for everything we love; but I will always put my money on New Orleans' people. We are the most resilient city in the nation at this point.

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported Protect our Coastline. Thanks to all our sponsors. Thanks to all the poets, artists, musicians and friends who made this possible. This is just the beginning.