State of the Culture - OffBeat Magazine

Last Thursday, Irvin Mayfield delivered what was referred to as a State of the Culture speech to City Council. Here’s the text of his speech, but for those who don’t have the patience to read it, he advocates that the city adopt the Bring New Orleans Back Culture Subcommittee’s five recommendations:

(Objective #1)

The first objective of their plan was to rebuild our talent pool in the city.

Our success as a city rests upon our ability to encourage and sustain our most talented folks.

(Objective #2) The second objective in the committee report was to support Community-Based Cultural Traditions and Repair and Develop Cultural Facilities.

This objective addresses the need to invest in our cultural infrastructure.

(Objective #3) Objective number three is to market New Orleans as a world-class cultural capital.

The message of New Orleans’ cultural vibrancy must be communicated to the world.

(Objective #4) The fourth objective is to teach cultural traditions to our children.

The educational policies of the city and state are of central importance to the cultural sector.

(Objetive #5) The final objective of the Culture Committee’s five-point plan is that we attract new investment, and information resources.

In general, he calls for city government to put culture at the center of the decision-making process, and he suggests that the city form a culture subcommittee:

I have been cultural ambassador to the city of New Orleans for over seven years now, and as the last and most important undertaking of this position, I want to work with the city council and the cultural community toward establishing a charter-sanctioned commission for culture at the level of city government.

Here’s the full text:

TOOTIE and HEROES PAST

I’m excited to be standing in front of you today and I want to thank you for the opportunity to address the council on behalf of the cultural community in New Orleans.

As you know the cultural community of New Orleans is much like its citizens: it is diverse, complex, and democratic in its makeup.

It’s challenging to give a snapshot of the culture of the city, much as it is to represent each and every citizen of New Orleans.

Unique to the culture of this city, there is always a responsibility to represent those that are no longer with us, some of whom have departed long ago, and some just recently departed. I’m speaking of the co-founder of Ashe community center and prolific visual artist, Douglas Redd, of the great trumpet player of Preservation Hall, John Brunious, and the great New Orleans saxophonist Earl Turbinton.

I’m especially humbled when I’m reminded of the big chief Tootie Montana who stood in these very chambers, to make an impassioned plea on behalf of the Mardi Gras Indians, and New Orleans culture literally with his last breath.

It is those who have sacrificed, some with their lives, who really show us the true importance of what the cultural community provides for the city.

Much like the people who make up the cultural community, the accomplishments of the organizations and individuals have been monumental.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

I’ve had the honor of participating in several cultural summits over the past few years where the cultural community has done some important work on our infrastructure. These include work with the Bring New Orleans Back Cultural Committee, which provided us with 5 key objectives that we need to consider seriously and more recently, the Douglas Red Cultural Summit that offered insight into current cultural issues. Just a few weeks ago, the University of New Orleans sponsored a Jazz Retreat where the city’s jazz community came together, including Loyola and Tulane, to look at how jazz functions as an industry.

We have reached many important milestones, such as Prospect One, the unprecedented arts exposition lead by Dan Cameron, which was a great success. We have been able to enjoy the return of essence fest to New Orleans, and 10 years of the Voodoo experience. We also marked the centennial of the Hubble library branch in Algiers, and the centennial celebration of the Zulu social aid and pleasure club.

Along the way, strategic partnerships are being created, such as the New Orleans Public Library working with Dickie Brennan, Chairman of the southern food and beverage museum, to house a significant culinary collection.

We as a community recognize that a lot of work needs to be done in the cultural arena. We face some imminent challenges, some here at home, and others outside the confines of the city limits.

Here at home, we have an institution such as La Petite Theater, facing significant issues of occupancy and revenue. Our very own Arts Council is trying to address serious funding challenges. And we face the threat of a reduction of 83% in the state arts’ budget. We applaud the house for their challenge to those cuts, and we encourage the senate to uphold that challenge.

Life has been made harder for artists across the board in the city of New Orleans. Support has not been easy to come by, as there is no relief structure for individuals. In the eyes of existing public service models, the artist is not seen for who he or she is. In the arts industry, the person is the business. An artist is the service, the product, and the entrepreneur all-in-one.

But collectively both individuals and institutions in the community continue to fight through these challenges because they love the city so much.

There is a real need in New Orleans for facilities that are dedicated to housing arts organizations from the large ones that serve the entire community, to those that are neighborhood-based, right down to the individual artist, and the organic spontaneous arts that are unique to New Orleans.

EDUCATION

There is a real need to address the decline in young people’s participation in our city’s culture. The cultural community understands the role that education plays in this issue.

Vital to this is that in every school, private, public, charter and recovery, every school, we must have dedicated music and arts programs, so that young people can benefit from their own rich heritage.

The City of New Orleans should lead the efforts to protect and advance the universities that bear its name UNO, SUNO and Delgado are all valuable assets. UNO has graduated over 70,000 students, a very large portion of whom remain in this region as productive citizens, building our economy and perpetuating our unique culture.

Despite the promise of having a major cable TV series, like Treme, being shot in New Orleans, and successfully using our artists for entertainment at sporting events like the NBA all star game and the cultural performances that accompanied the Saints on their historic venture to London, we’re still leveraging only a small percentage of the assets that the city has to offer.

There is an opportunity for greatness if we can invest in the core of our city – – our culture, instead of in auxiliary investments. By sustaining the organizations, groups and individuals who breathe life into the city everyday, culture becomes the number one investment we can make in our community.

The community feels that there is great promise in what culture can do at such a critical time for the city of New Orleans. The survey jointly commissioned by James Carville’s nonprofit research firm Democracy Now and Tulane University shows that culture is the one issue that the citizens of New Orleans are more united on.

We all know that the great culture of New Orleans represents excellence, and we feel that this culture of excellence can be a model to address many of the day-to-day challenges of life here in the city.

Interestingly enough, the issue that I’ve been urged by the entire community to address today before the council is the gap, so to speak, between culture and the city.

The cultural community shares the same concerns as all of the citizens of the city – -crime, housing, race issues, education, and business. However there is a growing gap between the discussion of the issues that plague the city and the very members of the community that are entrenched on the front lines, and face the totality of these issues on a day-to-day basis.

When these issues are discussed, the cultural community is rarely involved in finding solutions to despite the fact that they are directly concerned and affected by them.

This gap is an example of the larger disconnect the city has within itself. We have a gap problem. We in the city of New Orleans do not know each other.

The recommendation is that we reposition culture to not only close the gap between the community and the issues, but to close the gap between the city and itself.

There should be an approach of putting culture at the center.

JAZZ

When you’re talking New Orleans culture, we are not talking about some run-of-the mill or generic use of that word; We’re talking about something that has been built through innovation and dedication for 300 years. We already have an excellent culture.

Jazz is a great example of that culture of excellence.

Just like you can’t play a great jazz song without knowing what every instrument is going through, we can’t expect folks from the 9^th ward to understand what folks in lakeview are going through if they don’t ever go there.

The city is just like a jazz band, neighborhoods of instruments.

Jazz has overcome many of the challenges of our neighborhoods, including challenges of race as well as political agendas to get to the truth of what is beautiful.

It is not only important that each instrument sound good individually – – but we must invest in their success as a group. For a jazz group to sound good, every member of the band must get to know and trust each other. For our city to succeed, we have to get to know and trust each other.

CULTURE OF EXCELLENCE

Using the assets of our culture of excellence we can provide a framework for the city to get to know itself.

This is a cultural issue. Just like our longstanding challenges with our educational system, it is a cultural shift that needs to be made to overcome the challenges of race.

A city that has a culture of excellence understands that the race discussion is one of triumph, although initially the discussion may be difficult and fraught with tragedy. It is an important conversation that requires a lot of give and take.

It takes a learned city to overcome the challenge.

There is no difference between a learned city and a cultural city. The tools and assets necessary for all New Orleanians to know the sounds, tastes and words that are indigenous to our city are the same tools and assets that can be leveraged to address the challenges that we face with race, crime and a faltering educational system.

These assets are available to us now, but they need to be invested in and enhanced. Our libraries, schools, need to be enhanced. Most important, we need to enhance our individual artists and engaged citizens who can be leaders in mentorship and become role models for every child in the city.

CRIME

A culture of excellence is also a culture of safety. There are long term solutions that include community policing and addressing poverty. But we can immediately start the hard conversation about safety in our community with potential lawbreakers by using our indigenous culture to stand against the violent culture of drugs. Instead of a culture that speaks to drug dealers, we must show them that they can own a culture that speaks to the angels.

A culture of excellence is also a culture of wellness. At the end of the day, if we are not healthy as a city and as individuals, all bets are off. Taking steps toward resolving our mental health and healthcare issues will ensure that we are able to reach our full potential.

This community is in the neighborhoods, and understands that the issue of violence won’t go away by neglecting or simply arresting individuals.

We must invest in ourselves.

It must be recognized that this approach is not a business approach. Much like the Brennans or the Marsalises, this cultural shift looks to the model of a family that runs a business.

HOMELESSNESS

Family takes care of one another.

A family takes care of those who are mentally or physically prevented from taking care of themselves.

A family takes care of those who have been forced to live away from home and have a desire to return.

We’ve all been homeless before.

Every time we evacuate as a city we have that experience.

Everyone has a right to live in a home. Permanent supportive housing is definitely within a culture of excellence.

In terms of this business that we as the family of New Orleans runs, culture has created the third largest Fortune 500 company in the state – tourism — worth 3 billion annually. Unfortunately politics has too often been the parent company.

POLITICS

Instead of culture at the center, we’ve had politics at the center.

Politics should be removed from the strategic center and be put along side of assets.

Along with a learned city — a safe city — politics can assist us in refining the intersection of government and the everyday citizen.

Fortune 500 companies set their direction or their culture by using mission statements. Once a company drafts a mission statement; that statement governs every aspect of the operation of that company. If we were to look for a mission statement for New Orleans, it is nowhere to be found. So a city famed for its culture has not instituted its own, by way of a mission statement.

We challenge the city to use this critical point in our history to include a much needed mission statement to be adopted by ordinance by the city council as part of the city’s new master plan.

We challenge you to ensure that the master plan puts culture at the center of our planning for the future. We challenge you to use culture as the river that feeds and nourishes the city. We challenge you to see culture in a way that not only nurtures artists, but to see culture as a catalyst that inspires individuals and inspires civic pride and engagement on the part of the entire community.

BRING NOLA BACK COMMISSION

After the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the Bring Back New Orleans Commission was established to help chart a course for the future.

As co-chairs of the Culture Committee of the commission, Wynton Marsalis and Attorney Cesar Burgos worked for many months to develop a plan to repair and rebuild the cultural fabric of New Orleans. Their work resulted in a five-point plan with a series of objectives designed to rebuild our cultural infrastructure.