Ashé Cultural Arts Center

 

Hurricane Katrina represented a turning point in the history of Ashé Cultural Arts Center. Carol Bebelle, Ashé’s co-founder, remembers, “We were struggling before Hurricane Katrina. By virtue of Katrina shutting everybody else down while we were able to come back so quickly, the storm positioned us in a way that people could now see us.”

 

After Katrina, the New Orleans community needed a place to embrace culture and build community more than ever. “We became a repository for things to distribute to the community; importantly, we were able to place artists and culture bearers into the conversation.”

 

Ashé saw Katrina as an opportunity to advocate for the affected people, especially the artists. “People thought of churches, teachers, police, firemen. They thought of lots of folks but the artists and the culture bearers never came up. It’s part of the way our society thinks about art and culture; it’s taken for granted and consequently it’s not noticed.”  

 

Ashé put a spotlight on those New Orleanians who were pushed to the wayside during the hurricane. “It bubbles up to the artists who learn things that they ordinarily wouldn’t get to learn and that becomes art, which helps to further pass the word and teach and advocate,” Carol says.

 

Carol recognizes that part of their success in enduring the hurricane was that she was ready for anything. “Often people think about resilience as a feature that shows up once when something presses against you. I think resilience is really an ongoing commitment to do what our name is about; Ashé means 'to make things happen,'” says Carol. She says that resilience is about “understanding that there will be problems everyday, but being present, being faithful, and having a spirit allows you to handle whatever is thrown at you and to do the best that you can with it.”

 

Carol also considers taking action to be a key component of resiliency. “Sometimes people can feel as bad about what happens to you as you do. Well, that is not helpful. What you want is somebody who is going to make you feel better, and help you find a way out of the despair you find yourself in,” Carols says.

 

Carol also praises the attitude of people in New Orleans. “We live here because we are a city that can come back from this; not every city could. There was a time when America was talking about whether it was important enough to keep New Orleans going, and part of why they turned around on that is because we didn’t turn around on our conviction that we belong here.”