# Documenting Katrina and Rita in Houston

Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston is the first large-scale project, anywhere, in which the survivors of a major disaster have taken the lead in documenting it. The project's goal is to voice, as intimately as possible, the experiences and reflections of those displaced to Houston by the two major hurricanes that pounded the Gulf Coast in August and September of 2005. The heart of the project is stories: stories told by survivors, to survivors, on the survivors' own terms. Project co-directors Carl Lindahl and Pat Jasper hear in these narratives the seeds of recovery: it is the conviction of the project and its many participants that to survive is not merely to secure food, clothing, and the essentials of daily life, but also to help shape one's future by taking control of one's own story. While media treatments of the survivors have too often depicted criminals or, at best, victims, the voices of the survivors themselves have portrayed selfless friends, compassionate strangers, loving neighbors, and, above all, heroes. Lindahl and Jasper described the genesis of the project and the field school that they developed in conjunction with the American Folklife Center to train survivors. They discussed current research on the 432 interviews conducted to date, and described public programming that has brought the survivors into contact with their new neighbors in Houston through panel discussions, radio broadcasts, museum installations and musical events.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2009
- By: Library Of Congress
- Genres: Education, History
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2021687533/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Teens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/2021687533?play=1)