New Orleans Project

Overview of New Orleans Project

The Bard New Orleans Project was started by several Bard students soon after
Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. Over 400 Bard students have participated in our projects, which is now focused in the socioeconomically and racially diverse Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. Broadmoor was severely damaged by flooding and was initially slated by city plans to become green space. A grassroots movement led by the Broadmoor Improvement Association (BIA) has proved the neighborhood's viability and continually works to bring back residents and re-open the neighborhood school, library, and other institutions. We have worked on a numerous of projects, including a GIS mapping project with Harvard’s Kennedy School, a needs assessment and case management project, and we have worked as teachers aids at Wilson Elementary School. We have offered a numerous of credit-bearing courses on New Orleans at Bard. These courses offered a framework for the academic study of disaster and its aftermath, focused on a case that many Bard students have hands-on experience with. We will continue to use the resources of Bard College to work under the direction of neighborhood organizations in the vital process of rebuilding. Three years after the levees broke and flooded 80% of New Orleans, it is clear that yes, New Orleans is rebuilding. What remains unclear is which parts of the city will be rebuilt and who will be able to return home. These are questions that we as students can address through critical thinking learned in the college setting, and also questions that we can directly impact through hands-on work.

Club Officers

Maureen Crittenden
Lindsay St Onge