Highway 61 Revisited*

The week flew by quickly, and all of the sudden it was 4th of July. It was weird to think that I had reached my half-way point in the summer. I remember sitting down with Marc our first week of work and saying, "After 4th of July, we'll start wrapping things up and leave Ashe something to work for next summer." After Allie convinced us that the 2 day stay in Mississippi would be worth the 5-hour drive, Marc, Tim, Liz, Leah and I decided we would go to the Robertson mid-summer get together after all. But before we could head off to the land of cornfields, we had a lot of work to get done back in New Orleans.

Marc and I worked with the Ashe website during the week, meeting with board member Lloyd Dennis and communications exec Viola Johnson. We handed in our work, and Lloyd (also webmaster) was very excited with it. The website is updated so check it out!
On Friday we somehow managed to get relieved of our shifts at Essence Festival (it's not as cool as it sounds. We would have had to run a booth at the entrance for ours, sans music). Instead, Tim, Nick, Marc and I had a 4th of July adventure and took a scenic drive down St. Bernard Hwy. We made stops at a Blackcat Fireworks stand, St. Bernard State Park, Family Dollar Store, the Battle of New Orleans, and someone's private home. We got a cooler and packed up lunch and way too much snacks and celebrated America's birthday (we said, "America!" about a million times). Our first stop was the site of the Battle of New Orleans. The site looks a little artificial but it was the perfect place to visit on America's Independence Day--a pointless battle fought only because of pride. We climbed Jackson's memorial and trespassed and walked around a dock. We waved at the Natchez steam boat and headed to our next stop. We then stopped by the Family Dollar stoor, where we bought Mondo and waterguns. We drove around and saw a sign for Fireworks, and drove to the Blackcat Fireworks stand where we spent $50. We lit all of them at a random lot next to a cop. We then ate lunch at St. Bernard State park (which is filled with bunnies!!) and then tried to go swimming in the pool, but it was already closed. We bought more fireworks and then headed home, all of us in desperate need of a shower. We were a little late to drive over to the French Quarter (it was closed off by the time we got home), so we watched the fireworks from our porch. We went to sleep early because we had a very busy day ahead of us.

I woke up at 4:45am Saturday morning. Marc and I had to go in to Ashe and help set up for the annual MAAFA. This celebration is in memory of all of the victims that died from the Slave Trade. It starts at 6am at Congo Square followed by a joyful march to the Mississippi River. Here we threw carnations into the River in memory of the victims and people's ancestors. The celebration was beautiful and eye-opening. We stopped by a hotel that used to be a nation's top slave exchange, and it gave me chills. The celebration finished off with a spoken word and songs by Maquela from Mother Tongue and Zion Trinity. We walked back to Congo Square and headed to the OC Haley Summer Festival. We bought a huge bbq burger before heading back home to pack and shower. We headed out to Mississippi by 2:30pm.





*yeah, Bob Dylan!