Analyze

Why is the rate of incarceration in Louisiana so high? How do we critique the way prisons are part of infrastructural solutions to anthropocenic instabilities? As Angela Davis writes, “prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.” One way of imagining and building a vision of an anti-carceral future is practiced in the Solitary Gardens project here in New Orleans: 

The Solitary Gardens are constructed from the byproducts of sugarcane, cotton, tobacco and indigo- the largest chattel slave crops- which we grow on-site, exposing the illusion that slavery was abolished in the United States. The Solitary Gardens utilize the tools of prison abolition, permaculture, contemplative practices, and transformative justice to facilitate exchanges between persons subjected to solitary confinement and volunteer proxies on the “outside.” The beds are “gardened” by prisoners, known as Solitary Gardeners, through written exchanges, growing calendars and design templates. As the garden beds mature, the prison architecture is overpowered by plant life, proving that nature—like hope, love, and imagination—will ultimately triumph over the harm humans impose on ourselves and on the planet.

"Nature" here is constructed in a very particularistic way: as a redemptive force to harness in opposition to the wider oppressive system the architecture of a solitary confinement cell is a part of. It takes a lot of intellectual and political work to construct a counter-hegemonic nature, in other words. Gardeners in this setting strive toward a cultivation of relations antithetical to the isolationist, anti-collective sociality prisons (and in general, a society in which prisons are a permanent feature of crisis resolution) foster.

My interest in NOLA anthropocenics pivots on water, and particularly the ways in which capitalist regimes of value and waste specify, appropriate, and/or externalize forms of water. My research is concerned with water crises more generally, and geographically situated in Flint, Michigan. I thought I could best illustrate these interests with a sampling of photographs from a summer visit to NOLA back in 2017. At the time, four major confederate monuments around the city had just been taken down. For supplemental reading, I'm including an essay from political theorist Adolph Reed Jr. (who grew up in NOLA) that meditates on the long anti-racist struggle that led to this possibility, and flags the wider set of interventions that are urgently required to abolish the landscape of white supremacy. 

Flooded street after heavy rains due to failures of city pumping infrastructure.

A headline from the same week in the local press.

Some statues are gone but other monuments remain (this one is annotated).

A Starbucks in Lakeview remembering Katrina--the line signifies the height of the water at the time.

Reading:

Adolph Reed Jr., “Monumental Rubbish” https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/06/25/monumental-rubbish-statues-torn-down-what-next-new-orleans

P.S. In case the photos don't show up in the post I'm attaching them in a PDF document as well! 

there are some pollutants that affect the community and in other places:

• particle pollution and ground-level ozone pollution
• sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide
• lead
• carbon monoxide

in March of 2016, environmental officials had finally decided to remove over a century worth of toxins and waste from the lower 8 miles of the Passaic River. This part of the river was known as the most dangerously tainted portion of the river. 

one of the main vulnerabilities is that there is a large amounts of sewage and trash polluting the water and it gets sucked into the overflow system that are used to prevent flooding. this further pollutes the surrounding are and further poisons the environment. 

nothing was really done to prevent anything from happening. The river was known for its dirty and polluted waters which occured due to years of industrial toxin buildup in the waters. 

the community as a whole, along with the CSO, can be seen as a resilience due to the fact that the CSO community and many peopole in the community as a whole have helped to improve the system that is currently in use especially since many of the systems  are outdated. granted, there are those who could care less in the community, but there are those that are taking steps toward the end goal of cleaning up our environment.

New York governor Andrew Cuomo ordered over 2000 National Guard troops were deployed to Long Island, New York City , and the hudson valley. Defense secretary Leon panetta had issued a prepare-to-deploy order in case the hurricane relief effort needed more support. Each service had to have 6,500 active duty troops ready in case they were called upon. 

I agree that Newark had terrible water but a big issue is the funding to fix the problem... and the artical goes into all the research about the water but neglects to talk about federal and local funding. 

as stated in the article two things have been done to help prevent sewage in overflow systems.one is that, "Nearly 65 overflows already have been permanently closed off, according to the Dept. of Environmental Protection." also, many other communities spent millions of dollars to install grates and shields on the overflow pipes. this would help prevent most trash from entering the system.