Welcome back to The NERVE! Conversations With Movement Elders a podcast from the National Council of Elders featuring intergenerational conversations between elder and younger organizers about important topics in our movements today.

This episode features a conversation about how we can navigate climate crisis and survive on the frontlines in the immediate moment, while still moving forward with power building for a new world? Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast Crisis that unfolded in 2005 marked a major social movement turning point in the United States. Katrina exposed the combination of a heightened climate crisis and how the state and private forces are arranged not to protect or rebuild but to extract, abandon, and displace our people and our resources. This episode digs into community responses to Katrina 20 years ago, and current organizing in the face of Hurricane Helene and flooding across central Appalachia.

This episode is hosted by Aljosie Aldrich Harding (she/her) a member of NCOE, a community organizer, a memory worker, and a strong believer in political education and spiritual healing.

Joining Aljosie in this conversation are:

• Artivista Karlin (she/her) grew up in Miami, Florida and is a current college student based in Durham, NC. Artivista organizes with the Sunrise Movement a movement of young people fighting to stop the climate crisis and win a Green New Deal.

• Willa Johnson (she/her) lives in eastern Kentucky where she was raised. In 2022, Willa and her son lost their house in devastating floods. She has been doing flood and tornado response work in rural Appalachia ever since. She is the Disaster Recovery Communications Coordinator for Invest Appalachia
• Ms. Oleta Garrett Fitzgerald (she/her) is based in Jackson, Mississippi and has been working across the gulf coast region for decades. Oleta is the Executive Director of the Children's Defense Fund Southern Regional Office. She is also the Regional Administrator for the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative for Economic and Social Justice. She was active in Hurricane Katrina support work.

CREDITS: Created and produced by the National Council of Elders podcast and oral history team: Aljosie Aldrich Harding, Frances Reid, Eddie Gonzalez, Sarayah Wright, alyzza may, and Rae Garringer.

RESOURCES:

• Report produced by the Children's Defense Fund which Ms. Oleta Fitzgerald mentions during the podcast: What It Takes to Rebuild a Village After a Disaster: Stories From Internally Displaced Children and Families of Hurricane Katrina and Their Lessons for Our Nation
• Documentary Recommendations from Aljosie Aldrich Harding:
  • Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time. Director Traci A. Curry. Hulu/Disney and NatGeo
  • Katrina: Come Hell and High Water. Executive Producer Spike Lee. Netflix