Sweet Home New Orleans

Who They Are: A collective of non-profit agencies serving New Orleans musicians, Mardi Gras Indians, and Social Aid & Pleasure Club members. Since Hurricane Katrina, a network of service providers and music institutions has worked tirelessly to revitalize New Orleans music community. Sweet Home New Orleans (SHNO) is an umbrella organization that integrates these efforts, connects musicians to an array of services, and provides direct assistance for relocation and housing.

Their Mission: to revitalize the music and cultural community within the neighborhoods of New Orleans by helping our tradition bearers access resources and secure stable, affordable housing.

Why They're Here: The history of American music, amazingly, reverberates out of the residential neighborhoods of one city at the water’s edge. New Orleans music, from the earliest jazz bands, to R&B, funk, and beyond, is defined by its rhythm. This syncopated beat, rooted in Congo Square, a traditional congregation point for slaves, has driven the development of all of these styles. Combined with improvisation and call-and-response, the New Orleans sound conveys a beauty and tragedy that unites and strengthens the communities that create it. It is a universal expression that has crossed boundaries all over the world.

New Orleans music is communal; it comes from families and neighborhoods. Brass bands parade through neighborhoods calling out chants that are completed by the crowd. These traditions are learned by example within the community. Children in New Orleans are likely to pick up instruments because their parents play music, to learn to sing from Aunts and Pastors, to dance from cousins and neighbors. These traditions are alive because each generation absorbs the teachings of the past, and adapts them to their needs.

New Orleans music is part of a living culture that extends into daily life, beyond the stage or recording studio. Often, this music has important social and spiritual functions. In addition to professional musicians, Mardi Gras Indians and Social Aid & Pleasure Club members carry New Orleans’ rhythms into the streets. Mardi Gras Indians trace their history back to the interaction of slaves and American Indians. They are beloved for their elaborate hand-made suits, and their songs, considered sacred, permeate the rest of the culture, from Earl King to the Neville Brothers.

Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs date to the late 1800’s when people of color in New Orleans organized their own insurance system: excluded from the mainstream system, they formed community-based organizations to pay for members’ burial expenses. The jazz funeral is rooted in this tradition. Pre-Katrina, “S&P” Clubs sponsored second lines, brass band led parades, through their neighborhoods on Sunday afternoons: they are the original patrons of live jazz.

Pre-Katrina, around four thousand predominantly low to moderate income families earned their livelihood creating the distinctive rhythms that drove the city’s tourism industry. Thousands more devoted their lives to practicing and teaching the communal rituals that define New Orleans. The practitioners of these arts were rarely paid in proportion to their contributions. Ironically, the very authenticity of music made outside of the recording industry is a commodity. Hundreds of thousands of visitors flock to the city every year, eager to hear New Orleans music. These unique rhythms became the driving force behind the hospitality industry, the city’s main economic sector.

When the levees failed on August 29th, 2005, 80% of New Orleans went underwater. The city lost about 200,000 housing units, and most of these were occupied by low and moderate income families. While the flood seriously affected everyone, regardless of class or race, New Orleans’ tradition bearers face particularly daunting obstacles to reviving their communities. Many owners of damaged homes have found that their insurance settlements and government-allotted funds do not cover the cost of renovations. There are no rent controls in Louisiana, and many renters have found the cost of rent has risen sharply, doubling in some cases, in response to new market conditions. While the economic impact of New Orleans music is tremendous, the neighborhoods that created and develop these traditions do not have the resources to recover from the flood. New Orleans’ culture has been a gift to the world for more than a century; its future depends on our capacity to bring life back to these neighborhoods.

Katrina’s devastation did not stop when the water receded; many Gulf Coast residents still struggle daily with grief, separation from family, and crippled public health and education systems. New Orleans’ tradition bearers face daily crises as the equipment, venues, and social networks they relied on for employment remain in shambles. The depopulation of the city and dramatic drop-off in tourist traffic has limited opportunities for musicians to earn a living. Thousands of musicians had supported their families by engaging in a cultural practice particular to this city. Apart from it, they struggle to earn a living.


New Generation Social Aid & Pleasure Club second lining through the streets of New Orleans:



Ernie K-Doe’s Mother-in-Law Lounge, ten days after the levee breach:


Photo by Josh Levin

Gutted Home After Hurricane Katrina:


Photo by Edgar Mata

Drop In The Bucket

Drop In The Bucket was formed by a group of friends by a group of friends from Los Angeles that felt like they could make a difference. In the past they have learned so much about the people they have been helping and about themselves. Before they went to Africa for the first time they imagined desperate depressed children in need of serious help, but instead found villages full of happy, fun loving kids. However the children are drinking disease infested water and suffering and dying from illnesses that are easily treated. Medical assistance only works temporarily if the source of the disease, contaminate water, continues to be consumed. All it will take for many of these communities to stay healthy is a clean water supply, as simple as a well and a drop in the bucket.

Drop In The Bucket drills helps to make this possible. They spend little money in operating costs. No director or board member takes monetary compensation, and even pay for their own travel related costs. It is their belief that people who help the cause should know that every possible cent of their donation goes straight to the cause. They were drilling their first two wells before they held their first fundraiser, and put funds into action immediately.

In addition to drilling wells Drop In The Bucket is working to have water and sanitation systems installed in large African schools whose only access to water is miles away on foot.