Giselle Avenue

The untold stories of black survivors, and black creators: we must amplify their voices … our voices, every chance we get. As a black creator, I am on a mission to inspire all of us to find our voices, and be heard. I’ll never forget Hurricane Katrina, even though I lived in Alabama at the time. I was in high school, and I was in a leadership position so we immediately organized a clothing drive and funds drive to help those displaced from the storm.

I even recall us having a ton of new students with cool accents, all of whom were displaced after Hurricane Katrina. We weren’t in NOLA, but we were close enough to see the immediate impact of what was going on in NOLA. There was no social media, only word of mouth and the news channel, reporting what appeared to us as gross neglect of all the black people in NOLA. I mean, we knew New Orleans, we listened to Cash Money and Master P and them, this was at a time when NOLA was on the map for their music and unique dialect. Anyway, that was then, and over ten years later, their stories are finally being told in the mainstream media.

I’m grateful to hear the stories of the children that found themselves in the midst of a catastrophic, traumatic, life-changing event: Hurricane Katrina.

As featured on TIME Magazine’s cover story, Katrina Babies is now streaming on HBO Max. This documentary creates space to share the untold stories of the black and brown children caught in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

“Nobody asked the children how they were doing, so I am.” — Edward J. Buckles

KAtrina babies on hbo max

Watch the Official Trailer Here:

Read our previous blog post about Scene In Black, featuring Edward J. Buckles, and follow the real-time conversation on Twitter by searching the hashtag KatrinaBabies.

Brilliant storytelling, extremely grateful for everyone involved!

Times Magazine Cover Artwork by Atlanta-Based Fine Artrist, Charly Palmer