People

Mixed Media: Water Systems brought together artists, researchers, planners, scientists, journalists, facilitators, curators, Sewerage & Water Board staff, and resident leaders to produce civically-oriented artwork, media content, and public events.

Artists

Carole Alden is an outsider visual artist. Her work draws inspiration from her surroundings. She strives to uplift and expand perceptions by repurposing ordinary materials for extraordinary projects. Learn more about Carole and her work here.

Christine “CFreedom” Brown is a New Orleans visual and performing artist on a mission of bringing back positive images, music, and happenings to the Black community. Connected to photography in 2007 by Carol Bebelle, Douglas Redd, and Ashé Cultural Arts Center, CFreedom became a freelance contributor to Essence Magazine in 2009. Soon after, she founded The Essence of N.O.W., a photography party that celebrates, features, and archives New Orleans women. Visit cfreedomphotography.com and @cfreedomphotography to learn more.

Maggie Hermann is an audio/visual documentarian and researcher, committed to amplifying narratives of human relationships to the social and physical environments in which they exist. She recently worked with Central City Renaissance Alliance to implement and document community engagement and experiential learning programs across issues like water, health, transit, and economic opportunity. Maggie currently works with the Children & Youth Planning Board, co-creating positive youth narratives in New Orleans.

Anne Nelson is a painter and Professor of Practice in painting and drawing at Tulane University. Originally from Minnesota, Anne has been living and working in Louisiana for the last nine years. She is a founding member at Staple Goods Gallery and Collective. Nelson’s work is usually rooted in abstraction, a painterly language rich with the possibility of evoking emotion, disorientation, and remembrance. Her work can be viewed at www.postmedium.com/annecnelson.

Mixed Media Team

The Mixed Media team is comprised of individuals passionate about civic issues, creative practices, and community engagement. Together, they use their skills in research, design, documentation, curation, writing, and web development to further collective learning and civic around critical issues that affect New Orleans. The team members are:

Aron Chang
Liam Grealy
Maggie Hermann
Bridgette Ortiz
Eriks Reks
Alex Stokes
Lilith Winkler-Schor

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Partners

New Orleans Advocate/Times Picayune

Our local daily inspired the multi-platform nature of this project, and the desire to bring new voices and new forms of storytelling into mainstream media. We’re grateful to the Advocate for connecting their wide regional audience to critical civic issues through Mixed Media print features and artist interviews. (https://www.nola.com)

Water Leaders Institute

WLI envisions communities driving climate adaptation alongside technical experts and policymakers. Water Leaders was instrumental in the conceptualization and development of Mixed Media: Water Systems, and contributed critical resources and thought leadership in every phase of the project. (https://www.waterleadersinstitute.com)

Central City Renaissance Alliance

CCRA and Executive Director Tanya James supported the Mixed Media team in the framing of the project, particularly in regards to understanding the ways in which documentary photography can help shape public perception and understanding of infrastructural systems, public policy, and community resilience. (https://myccra.org)

Mixed Media Dinner Participants

Joseph Becker, Engineer
Amanda Coleman, Architectural Historian
Anjelina Durio, Community Engagement Assistant
Chasity Hunter, Poet and Student at UNO
Eric Labat, Operations Director at SWBNO
Chuck Morse, Executive Director at Launch NOLA
Cyndhia Ramatchandirane, Research Scientist at The Water Institute of the Gulf
Gordon Russell, Investigations Editor at the New Orleans Advocate/Times Picayune
Andrew Sternad, Architect at Waggonner & Ball

Sewerage & Water Board of New Orleans

We thank Executive Director Ghassan Korban, Communications Director Richard Rainey, General Superintendent Bob Turner, and Drainage & Sewerage Superintendent Gerald Tilton for providing access to the drainage pump stations and the opportunity to speak with pump station operators. We’re grateful to each of the pump station operators we observed and spoke with in the summer and fall of 2019.

Conard “CJ” James, Drainage Supervisor
Kenneth McGuire, Supervisor Assistant
Larry Boudreaux, Relief Operator
Lionel Jupiter, Relief Operator
Dominique Coleman, Pump Station Operator
Renaldo Green, Pump Station Operator
James Taylor, Pump Station Operator
Sterling Young, Pump Station Operator
Robert Barrow, Utility Plant Worker
D’juan Boudreaux, Utility Plant Worker
Louis Johnston, Utility Plant Worker
Jonathan Foster, Utility Plant Worker