Donney Rose's poetry bears witness to Katrina stories
As the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Baton Rouge native and poet Donney Rose offers a deeply personal and profoundly important contribution to historical accounts with his latest project, "Down By The Riverside". Set to be performed live in New Orleans and Baton Rouge this week, Rose’s work brings together poetry and oral history to honor survivors and reflect on the storm’s enduring impact.
Hurricane Katrina’s devastation reshaped the physical geography, education system, and communal identity of the city. Its impact continues to be recorded in mainstream retellings and during local commemorations of a tragedy that altered countless lives. Rose’s "Down By The Riverside" adds to the vital record keeping by delivering a powerful fusion of spoken word poetry and first-person testimonies from ten New Orleanians who lived through the storm. The project was born from months of conversations and interviews, with Rose drawing from the memories, pain, resilience, and hope shared by his “neighbors to the east.” Their recollections form the backbone of a narrative that is part tribute and part reckoning of the natural disaster, manmade negligence, and the long road to recovery. Rose, a Baton Rouge native who resides in New Orleans, said the project was "jarring" at times. It is witness and testimony that ensures that the stories of those who lived it remain vivid, urgent, and impossible to ignore.
On Tuesday, August 26, the award-winning poet will present "Down By The Riverside" at the Adinkra Lounge, 1719 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. in New Orleans, and Wednesday, Aug 27, at the Mid City Ballroom, 136 S. Acadian Thruway, in Baton Rouge. Both events are free and open to the public. This project continues Rose's larger work, The American Audit, a multimedia series of spoken word poetry historical accounts chronicling the nuances of Black American life. The collection is an artistic act of remembrance and resistance.
Rose is a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist Fellow, a teaching artist, and creator at Observations In Blackness.
