Uprooted:  The Katrina Project
www.alternateroots.org

Alternate ROOTS is an artist membership organization that was founded in 1976 at the Highlander Center in Tennessee by a group of southeastern performing artists creating original, community based work. Following the devastation of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast Region last August, efforts were initiated to provide immediate relief for the artists of Alternate ROOTS who had been impacted by the storm. In September, some of the artists’ immediate needs were met, and a plan was put in place to create a response from the artists to the storm’s devastation and to the devastating conditions of poverty and neglect that preceded and precipitated the social disaster that has followed the natural disaster. The outcome of this effort has been the development of UPOOTED: The Katrina Project. In collaboration with Alternate ROOTS, Holden & Arts Associates now offers a remarkable performance of music, dance and theater by New Orleans and Gulf Coast artists.  UPROOTED focuses on rebuilding community and energizing activism.  Stories from before, during and after the storm are performed by Junebug Productions, Artspot Productions, M.U.G.A.B.E.E., Mondo Bizarro, Moving Stories Dance Project, dancer/choreographer Millicent Johnnie, and individual artists Saddi Khali, and Valentine Pierce.  True to the diversity of the region, UPROOTED  includes performance art, contemporary dance, hip hop, theater, music, storytelling and traditional tales based in a culture and spirit that will never be washed away.

Along with performance, community/story circle events with evacuee groups are an integral part of UPROOTED. In the coming season the artists will visit: San Antonio, TX;  Chatanooga, TN; Reston, VA; New Haven, CT; Scottsdale, AZ and a special performance  will take place in New  Orleans itself.  Please contact us if you would like  to engage with this project and with evacuees in your community.