Arriving in Pass Christian and DeLisle. The New Center

My name is Youme Landowne. I write and illustrate books for children and adults. I am a community artist, which can mean a lot of things, but in my case it means that I work with local people around the world to create collaborative art works, to develop the awareness that everyone is creative and we can employ creativity to engage in struggle. This summer I have accepted the invitation to participate in Making Art Everywhere's pilot program in Misissippi. We are scheduled to work afternoons with a daycamp, a few mornings with seniors, and invited to work with our local young people. Our workshops have been developed by Pamela Lawton through her work in Sri Lanka after the Tsunami. Our materials are charcoal, oil pastel, sumi ink, watercolor, acrylic, sketch paper, bristol board, watercolor paper.

Pamela Lawton is the artist and teacher who developed Making Art Everywhere with her students three years ago.

Monica Scheerer is a student of Dance and arts education at Eugene Lang college. She is volunteering her time to be here with us.

I have so many wonderful things to share about all of us, but I am hoping that Pamela and Monica will introduce themselves.

We arrived in a rainstorm at about ten in the morning. A long gray sky meeting the long gray coast. Mindy Pizzetta , the Executive Director for the Marsha Barbour Center greeted us warmly, approaching three dazed New Yorkers with,"We hug in the South." We are so grateful and excited to be here. We are also very sleepy from our 4am departure.Mindy grew up in the area. During Katrina her house was spared the water, but she had had to swim to her brother's house. She drove us the 64 miles from New Orleans to Delisle and Pass Christian. Pointing out "Katrina houses (also called Mema houses), the kit houses designed to replace trailers (they come in pink, blue, green, Mindy tells us, "most people want yellow, but you don't get to choose your color.") She shared with us some of what recovery efforts have been like here, "many businesses are waiting to see if a walmart is going to open up, because they don't feel they could compete, but walmart hasn't said yet whether or not they will build." We see many platforms from which the houses have washed away and we see Dayton Scoggins carved oak trees. We are Making Art Everywhere, here to share skills, make art and learn from local artists and community workers. Through generous sponsorship by the Illumine company and the Marsha Barbour Community Center we will be here for two weeks working with children in a summer camp and with the community of diverse faith which gathers at Mt. Zion church. At the end of the evening Monica cooks an amazing meal, later to sit on the quiet back porch, singing into the soft night " I am going and I am gone."