Beyond Katrina - Public Relations

Greenberg Talks

Beyond Katrina featured contributor Paul Greenberg was on the Jim Brown show today.  99.5FM New Orleans.

http://www.thenew995fm.com/cc-common/podcast/single_podcast.html?podcast=jimbrown.xm

Blog Contributor's Photographs Selected for Exhibition

Matthew White's Landscapes Featured in Grand Isle's "Vanishing Horizons"

"Gulf of Mexico, Cameron Parish, La 5/06" (copyright Matthew White)

Baton Rouge, La. (PRWEB) April 7, 2007 -- Matthew White, a landscape photographer and "Beyond Katrina" contributor, has been selected to show some of his photography in an upcoming exhibit in Grand Isle, La. "Vanishing Horizons" runs from April 7-15 at the Grand Isle Community Center, on Hwy. 1.

"I feel really happy having my work be part of an exhibit in a place as special as Grand Isle. Seeing how well the island has come back since Katrina is a good sign," explained White. "I hope that the exhibit, as well as my work, will show people the real beauty of the Louisiana coast and let them see how important it is to restore it."

The photos White will feature in the exhibit are Lake Borgne, La. (#2)" and "Gulf of Mexico, Cameron Parish, La 5/06". A New York native, White moved to Louisiana in 2000 and soon thereafter began photographing most of the notable locations along the Louisiana coastline. His mission, to convey the beauty and uniqueness of the Louisiana landscape, didn't waiver after the storm. His collection of landscapes continues to speak for a state that has survived the worst from nature and continues to evolve after an unprecedented tragedy.

Lake Borgne, La. (#2) ---copyright Matthew White

"From his initial contributions six months ago through today, Matthew continues to elicit strong emotion and thought at the blog," explained award-winning blogger Margaret Saizan, "Beyond Katrina" creator. "I'm thrilled that now more people will be exposed to his perspective and amazing talents in person, rather than simply online."

White's photo essay series at www.hurricane-katrina.org begin with where Katrina made landfall, then document White's photographic journey before and after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita starting in 2000. Each post includes a photo, a narrative of White's experience at that location, and then supporting commentary from the Saizan, which echoes the themes of "Beyond Katrina."   

The Grand Isle Community Development Team, Inc. with support from the Grand Isle Port Commission and the Town of Grand Isle, are sponsoring the exhibit to showcase works with themes relating to the nature, natural beauty and potential loss of the only inhabited Louisiana barrier island and the surrounding wetlands. Organizers say the goal of the exhibition is to raise awareness of Louisiana's coastal erosion through an artist's eye and to encourage the creation and preservation of images of this culture and its disappearing habitat for future generations.

About Matthew White
Matthew White is a native New Yorker who made Louisiana his home and his artistic focus in 2000. For five years he photographed nearly every notable location on the Louisiana coast. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita changed the landscape, but not Mathew's vision and desire to show Louisiana's unique beauty. While hundreds of others have documented the tragedy wrought by the storms, Matthew's body of work captures the beauty that the storms of 2005 could not erase. Rather than clichéd incongruity and depressing devastation, Matthew's photos capture a landscape touched by and triumphing over catastrophe. Matthew shares the same vision as blogger Margaret Saizan, looking "Beyond Katrina," and lending a silent voice to disaster and recovery. Matthew White's fine prints are available through gymnopedies13 @ yahoo.com.

About Margaret Saizan
Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton Rouge, La. native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in U.S. history - Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media. Her blog, "Beyond Katrina," won the 2006 Society for New Communications Research Professional Award.

To download press release in various formats go to PRWeb.com.

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• Bloggers Team Up with Online Nonprofit to Deliver Christmas to Katrina Families 2006-12-08

National Writer and Journalism Teacher Brings New Voice to Beyond Katrina

Contributor Recounts Daily Experiences and Common Concerns in “Post-K” Louisiana

BATON ROUGE,  (March 21,2007) Paul A. Greenberg, a writer, teacher and New Orleans resident, is the latest contributor to “Beyond Katrina: The Voice of Hurricane Disaster & Recovery,” a blog focused on changing the future with the knowledge gleaned from the past. His stories of daily life in New Orleans after the nation’s largest natural disaster paint a picture few in traditional media have been able to expose. From a day of gardening amid gunshots in the distance to eavesdropping at a local po-boy shop where long-time residents announce they’re leaving the city, Greenberg’s perspective is gripping and painfully real.
    "I've been at Katrina's ground zero for 16 months, having returned to New Orleans seven weeks after the storm," explained Greenberg, who teaches journalism at TulaneUniversity. "My constant presence here, plus my vocation as a writer place me in the unique position to tell the real stories of this crisis. My goal is to keep the public informed of one very important element - Katrina is not over. Katrina is still in the present tense. You have to be here to know that on a gut level, and my goal is to offer that perspective."
    Greenberg began chronicling post-Katrina New Orleans five days after the storm, even writing a Katrina-focused blog for America Online. When that forum recently ceased, he seized the opportunity to continue enlightening an informed group of readers about his post-Katrina experiences via the established community at www.hurricane-katrina.org. His philosophy is to tell compelling stories succinctly and with the right choice of words, rather than a rambling first-person account of daily life. The storm hit the Gulf Coast more than 18 months ago. While politicians, insurance companies and private enterprise squabble over how and why to move forward, locals, like Greenberg, are living in anger and in danger.
    “I began my “Beyond Katrina” blog on the eve of the disaster expecting to document the storm and move on,” explained blogger Margaret Saizan, “Beyond Katrina” creator. “But with the two-year anniversary on the horizon, more and more influential readers on our radar and contributors like Paul lending unique and critical voices, Beyond Katrina is more than one bystander’s account. It’s a forum for ideas, experiences and hopefully solutions to this crisis.”
    Greenberg joins a series of other noteworthy contributors now online at www.hurricane-katrina.org, including coastal photographer and essayist Matthew White, cultural anthropologist Maida Owens, Japanese jazz musicians Yoshio and Keiko Toyama, television videographer Rick Portier and Carol McClelland, PhD., a transition expert focused on helping people get back on their feet after their lives have been turned upside down by natural disasters.

About Paul A. Greenberg
    Paul A. Greenberg teaches journalism at Tulane University in New Orleans. A believer in the power of words to change the world, he also writes for a number of local, regional and national publications. Greenberg has been chronicling post-Katrina New Orleans  since five days after the storm and continues to witness daily the effects of the disaster in his local New Orleans. For more information, visit www.greenbergwrites.com. 

About Margaret Saizan
    Margaret Saizan (www.margaretsaizan.org) is a new media publisher, personal/ organizational coach, and community activist. The Baton  Rouge La.native became a blogger during the largest natural disaster in  history – Hurricane Katrina. A graduate of Newfield Network, one of the best regarded international coach training schools, Margaret focuses on empowering leadership and facilitating action during transition, crisis, and disaster as the pathway to new vision. www.hurricane-katrina.org and Big Vision Media aspire to ignite wise action, new vision and positive change through transformational media. Her blog, “Beyond Katrina,” won the 2006 Society for New Communications Research Professional Award.

To view and download press release in other formats go here.
 

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