Search

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! 

This policy affects the insurance coverage for some populations, so that may impact how willing people are to be transported. The policy mostly deals with IMDs though, and those aren't as frequent for emergency responders, unless the individual was trying to harm themselves.

Membership is an ongoing thing, and other countries are notified when a country joins. They may sign treaties for safe nuclear use, but this is not required for initial joining. Since there is no "completion" of the program, there is no certificate.

This article appears to be cited in a variety of different publications, from papers on managing diabetes to aging.

Most of the data came from the MSF book of essays as well as other humanitarian aid studies and data.

There arent any references along with this document, but the author presumably researched where dontaions go, conducted interviews with the volunteers that travel to help out on the island, as well as investigating how the rebuild process is going in comparison to the state of the island before the disaster.

The film is best for anyone over the age of 10. Everyone has the potential to find themselves in an ER at any point, so seeing this film is very good for giving perspective and probably makes the lives of the staff easier if the people coming in know a little more. It's hard when they can't do much to make the wait shorter but they are still being sworn at, so if everyone watched this film and had their eyes opened a bit more, then maybe they would find more patience and understanding for those around them in an ER. Nobody wants to be there and a little kindness to go around would only help. It can't make the wait any longer.

The authors cite their own previous work and how rates of diseases and deaths changed. They also researched other programs and studies, similar to their own but in different areas or working on other issues. They also familiarized themselves with how things work within a physicians office - how diseases are presented, how promininent social issues may be, and other factors that the physician might see.