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| Biloxi- Mobile (click on the photo for slideshow) |
Blog for Biloxi & Mobile
Howdy blog devotees!
We’ve been away from catching you up on our many accomplishments and milestones because we’ve been so busy.
I’m currently in Biloxi (pronounced /bi lux’ ee/), sitting with Elia Arce and preparing for a meeting today with representatives of the diverse communities found here (Vietnamese, African American, Latina/o, Croation, to name a few). Today’s meeting is focusing on making a walking tour brochure to show the civil rights and struggles of the area as well as to bring more arts to the area. Some of the groups represented are the University of Southern Mississippi – Long Beach Campus, Hands Across America, East Biloxi Relief and Redevelopment Agency, and more. The people we’ve been meeting are devoted to the intersections of people that we know as community (broad sense of the term, and yet the personal sense too). They’re devoted to social activism, including the arts as a significant part of this. Elia and I are so impressed with them all that we’re referring to them as “the real deal.”
We’ve found the real deal in unsuspecting places: an owner of a Latina/o store named La Bamba who’s so excited that she was already planning an entire event for us. :-) We spoke with shrimpers who explained their business and how Hurricane Katrina is still have a detrimental effect on their business (shrimp boats are commonly being sold for half their value as people leave this long-standing local business). We saw Lady Patrice singing at a local bar, Just Us, that we’re hoping to meet because she knocked our socks off.
And of course we’ve had some fun moments to ourselves as well, drinking beer on the beach (don’t tell the authorities we had glass bottles!); putting on the Waffle House songs from their juke box; chatting with wait staff and counter staff at various places. Although a little chilly, it’s been very sunny and we’ve shed the humidity of Houston – ahhhhhhh.
Oskar Sonnen
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