Community Empowerment: In the Shadow of Katrina
It was lunchtime on Monday the 29th of August and for the people living in communities on the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Mississippi, life had already been up-ended. The eye of hurricane Katrina made landfall that morning at 6:10 a.m. in a place called Triumph, Louisiana. By Monday afternoon stories of devastated communities on the Gulf Coast were capturing the nation’s attention.
At the same time, a small team of Mastery Foundation volunteers and sponsors were watching the hotel televisions at the Comfort Inn in Clarksdale, Mississippi. It was already clear that Katrina’s path would take it to the far side of the state – Clarksdale would only get some high winds and rain – nothing like what was happening 300 miles to the south.
The volunteer Mastery team was in town to keep alive the conversation of a new future for Clarksdale’s 20,645 residents. During the previous three years, more than 100 local leaders had attended one of Mastery’s two-day Community Empowerment Programs. Steve Stewart, then editor of the Clarksdale Press Register, had done much of the organizing of those events, but now Steve had moved on to become editor of the Meridian Star in Meridian, Mississippi. The Mastery team had come to energize the Community Council that had taken up Steve’s role as well as all the local grassroots leaders committed to continuing the conversations and empowerment begun in 2002.
The first public event was to be a dinner planned for that evening at a local restaurant called the Resthaven. The dinner was for Mastery alumni who had come to one or more of the past Community Empowerment Programs. It was to be a celebration of who they are for the community and a re-energizing of the network of local leaders committed to a new future for Clarksdale.
With the arrival of Peter Block (a best selling author on leadership and management and Mastery volunteer) the Mastery team totaled five. In addition to Peter, who would lead a program on Tuesday evening, there were Ann Overton and Allan Cohen who would lead two Mastery Leadership Clinics during the day on Tuesday, and Nancy Judah and Jens Brasch, Mastery Foundation Sponsors who were also pitching in to make things work.
Just before dinnertime, the rain began to pour down, and the winds picked up. Trees were bending to remind everyone of what happened earlier in places like Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, and Biloxi. As yet, no one knew what was about to happen to the levees in New Orleans.
Power and cable outages at the hotel indicated that power lines were down somewhere nearby. The team headed for the Resthaven unsure if anyone would show up in the storm. Twenty people came anyway – out of their commitment to Clarksdale and to each other. It became an extraordinary dinner attended by local activists and educators, ministers and engineers, the head librarian, and a retired doctor.
As they began to dry out, people sat around two tables of ten. They were invited to engage with questions about what had brought them to Clarksdale and what would be possible for Clarksdale with nothing more than the support of its citizens.
As Katrina moved over land Monday and water surged into Lake Pontchartrain, the straining levees could not hold, and on Tuesday they broke in three places allowing water to pour into the city of New Orleans.
The Comfort Inn, which had been sparsely occupied Sunday morning, was now filled to overflowing with those who had evacuated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast areas. All Clarksdale’s motels filled up, and notices began to appear in the lobbies and under doors announcing a pot luck dinner for those stranded by the storm.
On Tuesday, the Mastery team headed to the old Greyhound Bus Station, now a beautifully restored information center donated to us for our day of leadership clinics. Although the programs were designed as independent, three-hour sessions, nearly everyone from the morning session returned for the afternoon session. The morning leadership clinic explored tools for generating involvement. The afternoon leadership clinic explored tools for generating results. In the unique space that is only possible in a small group, everyone got to know each other, their dreams and aspirations, their gifts and their commitments.
Then on Tuesday evening, with many people dealing with friends and family from stricken areas, Mastery presented an Evening with Peter Block at the Carnegie Public Library. Twenty-five people came out in the shadow of Katrina to engage their own capacity as citizens and grassroots leaders.
Peter shared his experiences as an activist and convener in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Then he divided everyone in small groups and had people engage with questions about the gifts they have to give their community as well as the ways in which they have contributed to the problems they want solved.
For the Mastery team, it was an extraordinary time to be in Mississippi. The gifts of the Clarksdale community were never more visible – from the culture and art at Cat Head Blues and Folk Art, the Delta Eye, the Blues Museum, and McCarty Pottery; to the great Southern cooking in places like Ground Zero Blues Club, The Gallery in Merigold, Uncle Henry’s on Moon Lake, and Doe’s Eat Place in Greenville (said to be Bill Clinton’s favorite restaurant, at least before his heart surgery); to the extraordinary culture of hospitality extended equally to strangers from around the country and displaced brothers and sisters from the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Pastor Elbrist Mason of Haven United Methodist Church and one of the leaders of the Community Council, wrote after we left: “Things are hopping in Clarksdale. The seminars were great, and I believe most people had a really valuable learning experience. The next step is for us to enlarge the conversation; and we’re doing it this way: Next Tuesday we are meeting and inviting more alums to the conversation. I am inviting my eight members to continue the conversation with each other next week. Finally we are doing all we can for the evacuees in our area. Thanks again for all that you do in helping people be empowered!”