I have not had a permanent residence since September 2007.
New York City was a temporary residence where I fought to return to Montreal, then let fall away, abandoning the air mattress I slept on in Brooklyn.
2009 was a vagabond year. I lost count of cities I visited, places I stayed, people I met. Most visits lasted no more than a month, sometimes as short as a day or two.
Life is hard on the vagabond trail. It is a challenge, a flurry of new experiences so dense that a year feels like five. It has ups and downs. It is a life of constant iterations, variation and shifting ground under your feet.
I would not trade the experience for anything.
Yet change is only as fresh as your mind is constant. As your mind adopts the fleetingness of all things, permanence becomes a stranger, familiarity a mystery.
This past fall I found myself returning over and over again to New Orleans, LA.
At first it was for a conference, then for convenience, and now it is because of attachment. I have fallen for the Crescent City.
I find myself talking about New Orleans to whomever will listen. Explaining how the city which nearly sunk under the waters of Katrina has recovered, how infrastructure and government failed, how communities refuse to abandon the places they love.
When I talk of the reconstruction, the work being done by so many people struggling everyday, I tear up. A city has never done that to me before.
What is it about the pothole ridden streets? The gnarled trees cracking sidewalks? The visible decay that attempts to pull the city down every day?
New Orleans is a city in constant change, yet tied deeply to rich century old traditions.
It is is lush, vibrant, decaying, rich, poor, alive, struggling, thriving, hot, humid, cold, wet, corrupt, holy.
Jazz was born in New Orleans. Jazz is arguably America’s greatest artistic contribution to the world. It is entirely American. It laid the groundwork for rock’n'roll, hip hop, and so many more musical styles. Combined with African dance and European partner dance, it was the inspiration for my first passion in life – lindy hop.
Life in New Orleans is a melange of food, music, soul, art, and dance.
You can’t separate one element without losing the feeling. It is greater than all of its parts and has a soul and life unto itself.
New Orleans has me. It’s nice to be home.
Alongside two fellow former nomads, Taylor Davidson and Sloane Berrent, we have created a website to document our entrance into a new life in New Orleans. We want to give back to the city for all the wonders it has given us and will continue to give us.
Thus, NOLAlicious was born.
Welcome Home.
