NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Second lines are second nature in New Orleans. The marching and the music even add life to funerals. But, should the streets be filled with second lines on the Saturday that marks 10 years since Hurricane Katrina?
Angela Pinder says she’s not going to any.
“I’m gonna be home just relaxing because I lost some family members in the hurricane. I lost a cousin; I lost a friend… so it’s going to be a regular day for me to relax and try not to think because it was so bad.”
Some people are using Facebook to vent.
Lisa on the West Bank says “Not sure if it’s just me… but I have no desire to celebrate the anniversary of Katrina…quite honestly, I have no desire to reminisce…”
Others, such as Charles Picciola, are looking forward.
“I don’t think you can look at it like that. I think you need to set that as a benchmark of how bad things got and look at where we are today and celebrate the progress,” says Picciola.
For celebration organizers such as Sess 4-5, the parades also are part of the healing process.
“It’s not a party where we just celebrate in that fashion, but we’re celebrating the life, the resilience of the people, and the nature and the culture of all the citizens of this city—and we do that in second line fashion,” says the founder of the Katrina Anniversary March.
A Lower 9th Ward resident who suffered, but survived, he expects more than 10,000 people to join the celebration Saturday and says many will be displaced residents returning to honor those lost. Click here for more information the 10th annual Katrina March and Second Line.
“When you hear that music and those beats and those drums and everything going together, it brings something out of you. It brings life. So for all the folks that passed, this is the way to honor those folks and second line one last time for them,” says the music artist and merchandiser who runs “Nuthin’ But Fire” Records at 1840 North Claiborne Avenue.
Even the woman from the 8th Ward who lost family and friends to the storm, understands that.
“A parade’s a celebration! I mean, celebrating that the city is coming back from something devastating. So it’s a good and a bad thing for that day,” she says.