American Experience: New Orleans

To be honest, I really didn’t understand why anyone would want to live in New Orleans. After watching the video “American Experience: New Orleans“, it became a little more clear. Of course New Orleans is famous for Mardi Gras, Jazz, and food, but I learned that there are deeper reasons that people love it so much. Chapter seven of the video was the most interesting to me for several reasons. This chapter was all about the historic Dooky Chas’s restaurant. Dooky Chas’s was the first restaurant that African Americans were allowed to eat at. It was destroyed after hurricane Katrina, leaving the owner who worked there every day from 8 to close since 1941, with nothing left. The woman who owned the restaurant goes on to talk about why food is so special to the people in New Orleans, explaining that it’s like a healer to everyone and when they share food with other people it’s like they’re doing something great for them. There’s one thing in particular that she said that stood out to me, “People wonder why you do what you do, why you stay in the neighborhood, well you stay where you’re comfortable and you stay where you’re needed, and I feel that we need to be here, we need to save our neighborhood.” After hearing this it all started to make sense. This was the beginning of my inspiration. When this clip was over, it became apparent to me that this wasn‘t the only inspiration I would have. I‘m sure that I‘ll meet other interesting people and learn more things in seven days than I could in a quarter long class. Seeing the passion that this woman had for her restaurant and for her community made me realize why people would want to continue living there. After all if something so tragic were to happen to me, I wouldn’t want to leave the only place I’ve ever known.
After watching the clip I had to know more about the woman who owned Dooky Chas’s, so I googled her. Turns out her name is Leah. I read an interview that she had with “Global Gourmet” The article about the interview was published in 1997. She talks about a variety of things. For example, the people who’ve eaten there, her husband who is Dooky Chase II, and the “Creole Feast” book. So if you’re at all interested you can go to this link.
http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/egg/egg0197/chase.html. It’s entertaining. I feel like I have to meet this lady!