Be A New Orleanian. wherever you are.

People have a tendency to associate their own mental images and ideas with different places. It’s a way to give yourself a definition of an unknown or to create a snapshot of a memory so you can visit it time and again.
This type of word and image association comes naturally when you think about a city as unique as New Orleans. People all over America, all over the world, have a vivid idea of what this city looks like and feels like even if it is a place unvisited thousands of miles away. Maybe it comes from being a city steeped in cultures and traditions so foreign to the rest of the country. The food, the music, the architecture…Mardi Gras…are all so symbolic of this place and so unlike Anywhere, USA. The after effects of Hurricane Katrina introduced a whole new set of associations to New Orleans. Images of devastation and rebuilding have added to the long list of definitions of what New Orleans is.
Being from a small town hundreds of miles from New Orleans, my own associations of “place” with New Orleans were based on hearsay and pictures. I immediately of Mardi Gras and the wild times I had heard of. I pulled images from my mind from media coverage after the levees broke and the city was under water. I thought of the taste of Jambalaya and the sounds of Jazz music.
Arriving in New Orleans I was confronted with all of these preconceived notions about what makes this city “who” it is and what makes someone a true New Orleanian. The blight and disrepair I expected was confirmed as was the sense of abandonment. Fresh coats of paint and new roofs became symbols of hope for the future. However, I soon realized that buildings and landscape were not the only things that made up my definition of New Orleans. Sometimes a person can embody all that is New Orleans as well.
On the night of August 29, (a date that will forever be associated with this city) in Tipitina’s, (a place that symbolizes the past and present of this city’s culture and spirit), there was a New Orleanian I think of as The Tambourine Lady. She has created a new association for this city for me, one of the spirit of the New Orleanian. My previous ideas of what makes this city weren’t tossed aside, but sewn together and brought to life.
In her “No Evacuee Left Behind” t-shirt, tambourine in hand and clapping, she danced to the jazz music through the crowded audience. Completely at home, the Tambourine Lady was like a wave of energy through the crowd. Her spirit was contagious to everyone that she paused by to share her music. In this hot, crowded space somehow she never broke a sweat; never let her bright smile fade from her face. As the night wore on and people grew tired and the atmosphere lulled, her liveliness remained a constant. The rhythm of the music mixed with the beat of her tambourine made me feel like I was catching a glimpse of what New Orleans is all about, who a New Orleanian really is, and the spirit of this city.