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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! 

Emergency responders are portrayed in the film as being understaffed and overwhelmed by the outbreak. They show hospitals having to turn patients away due to being overwhelmed. They also show how Liberians were frustrated with this lack of communication between doctors and the patients. Nurses started dying from the disease, forcing hospitals to close. Responders had to deal with the community's denial of the disease, the lack of education, the rapid spread, and the number of patients. 

I thought every aspect of the film served a purpose and helped shape the documentary.

I looked up bioterrorism agents and cases in which they were used. I looked on the CDCs website where they discuss preparation and planning to review their protocol for bioterrorism. On the same website, I also looked at the information for first responders to bioterrorism. 

Emergency response is not really discussed in this article, since the focus is the investigation carried out after disasters have been cleared. He does mention responders at the Hague Street Explosion and the fire departments role in both that, the Iroquois Fire, and 9/11. He also mentions that had there been better fire response, the outcomes could have been different. 

The author uses extensive data analysis in order to provide a perspective of the policy and its effect on France's social framework. He uses history and outlines laws in order to support his argument and bring in data. By using various anecdotes and stories about immigrants as well as his own field notes, the author was able to produce claims and create an argument about the health rights of immigrants. These stories also provided examples of how these health policies affected patients' lives directly. Statistics also helped the author validate his argument. 

1. "Despite the overwhelming need for mental health services, few residents were able to access mental health support for their symptoms, simply because health care facilities and health care personnel were so scarce. Most health personnel were themselves experiencing the trauma of displacement, and few clinical facilities survived the disaster."
2. "...in the months following Katrina, that the suicide rate had tripled..."
3. "Lakeview, a predominantly Caucasian upper-middle class community, had perhaps made the most progress in rebuilding."
4. "However, for most urban poor residents, it became clear fairly soon after the disaster that they would not be welcomed back to the city."

Research using data from previous studies, interviews, and case studies helped the authors produce their claims. A strength to their methods is that they used anecdotes from not only doctors, but patients as well. Statistical data analysis also helped shape the argument about lack of mental health assistance and research. Their own professional capacity and knowledge also helped present their argument and formulate a cohesive, wholesome discussion.