Jose Torres Tama & ArteFuturo Productions - New Orleans, LA Performance -Artist

The following are excerpts of the text from the ensemble theatre piece called "Raising the Spirit: Self-Portraits Performed" directed by Jose Torres Tama.

"Raising the Spirit" will be performed on Thursday and Friday, June 8 and 9, 2006 at the Ashe Cultural Arts Center at 5:30pm each evening.

What is home?
Home. When I think about home, I think about family. Born and raised here in the city of New Orleans. Born in 1965 to Herman Emma Price, one of 14 kids, also a twin, a home where I've lived and come accustomed to knowing, where I found myself nurtured, and sought after, loved, a place of richness and culture and food, home, a place called New Orleans. ---Darrel Price

Home, a place where it is better to be understanding than it is to be understood, a place that's broken as my ankle is. Home, never really understood what it is to have a home, born in another place, been to so many states since '98, but I never really understood until Katrina.

I didn't understand the different areas, but I decided to call New Orleans home, a place that needs to be mended as my ankle does. It's time that I become more understanding than always trying to be understood.

But some people may ask what is it to be understanding? Understanding is to see things clearly for what they are, not what they may appear to be. When I came here, it didn't appear to be much until the disaster. My ankle didn't appear to be much, but I would give anything to walk right on it, at this moment.

I'm broken. New Orleans is broken, but it can, too, be mended. All I have to do is be more understanding than it is to be understood. That's what I call home. ---Tyrone Collier

Home is in Baton Rouge. New Orleans used to be my home. As a young boy, I worked in New Orleans at the French Market. My father owned a store in New Orleans, but my home is in Baton Rouge. New Orleans was a home away from home. I worked in Baton Rouge. I played in New Orleans. Bourbon Street was my playground. Then, came Katrina. The playground was gone. I hope the city is rebuilt, again so I can make it my home. ---Gerard Jackson

(Dramatic movements performed by Brother Duhon as he improvises across the stage accompany this short poem. His movements are quite stylized and informed by a sort of geometric dance as he creates an outline of a home through space with his hands.)

Home. New Orleans is my home. There is no place like home. Home is love, faith, hope, charity. Home. ---Royal Duhon

What does the American Flag mean to you?
. . . And he tried to teach me that this flag represented freedom for all, but as I've grown up I've come to know that this flag does not represent what they're teaching you it does. And so today, I have a choice whether to stand and honor this flag or not. And it's sad to say, but this flag does not honor me. And so, this what I choose today. Just stand on it

(He drops the folded American flag to the floor and stands on it with his right foot.) Just stand on it.

(Brother Price's piece inspires a dialogue concerning patriotism and the injustices made real by the government's inaction after Katrina. He later continues with another piece about the flag to develop his point on why he chooses to step on a flag that does not honor him as a an African American man and does not honor the black people who suffered through Katrina.)

. . . And when you think about the flag, you know, and having an opinion, people would say, well, you're anti-American. But I'll tell you this: If the president of the United States, could come to Louisiana and fly over and look on the city, I mean in ruins and not have the compassion to send help, waiting for days and then yet, you know, hours have passed, lives have been lost, and then send help. And this is a man that represents this flag.

See, this what we have to look at. It's not against hatred, against white and black. It's against doing an injustice towards people. And see that's what has happened here in Louisiana in New Orleans.

And, you know, it's not about black and white with me. It's about looking after God's people. You see, and so this is what we're going to be judge for whether you be a president, a senator, congressman or whoever you be.

But it doesn't look good for the president of the United States to ride across and see people, I mean fighting for their lives, high above in a helicopter and everything at his disposal, and then yet, these people suffer for dear life.

And this is a man that's leading you. This is a man that's representing this flag. Something's wrong with that. Now you make the choice, you see, and this is what we have to do. I'm not talking against America because, you know, I live here in America. I'm talking against their policies, and so this is where I stand. And I tell you we need to start doing that more. ---Darrel Price