FRIDAY

• Home
• Video
• Podcasts/RSS 
• Archives
• Young Voices
• About the Show
• Tell Tavis
• Features
• Mobile

RELATED LINKS

• Musicians' Village
• Article by Ms. Harrison
• Article on Musicians' Village
• Habitat for Humanity - New Orleans

E-mail a friend

"They told me I should go to Houston. New Orleans is my home. Why shouldn't I come back here?" (3:09)
 

Tavis: Jonathan, here we are for night two. Good to see you.

Jonathan Demme: Same here, Tavis.

Tavis: It is night two of "Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower Ninth Ward." Last night, we met some wonderful folk. Tonight, we're going to meet the Harrison family. Tell me about the Harrisons.

Demme: Well, we contacted Mrs. Herreast Harrison, who is the wife of the late Big Chief Donald Harrison Senior. Herreast is also the mother of Donald Harrison Junior, the great saxophone player, whose music we hear on the soundtrack of tonight's film. Also, she is the grandmother of Christian Scott, who's been on your show.

Tavis: Absolutely.

Demme: And is the Grammy-nominated hip-hop trumpet player, and his music's on the score. And we're going to meet Cherice Harrison and Michelle Harrison, more of the - this is a great family, Tavis. And they opened their doors to us, and we spent several visits - this was our first visit with the Harrison family in the spring of '06.

Tavis: So it is night two of "Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower Ninth Ward," courtesy of Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme. Here we go.

Herreast Harrison: (Unintelligible.) Yup, they survived. Look at that.

Michelle Harrison: We can take one (unintelligible).

Herreast Harrison: They survived in the top of the closet. That's Donald Jr. That's amazing. I was always thinking that they were going to have mold on them, but they do not. Well, I think they all survived. That's all I have what's left of them, too.

Michelle Harrison: Boy, look at this inside.

Herreast Harrison: The names of Donald Senior and everybody that was involved in that.

Oh, wow. Well, look at that. That was our commercial project. (Laughs) I knew the value of trying to commercialize him. Yes. Keep the artistic aspect going, but at the same time, make a little money. (Laughs) Why not? Yes.

I'm Herreast Harrison, wife of the late Big Chief Donald Harrison Senior. And I'm welcoming you to my new home. (Laughs) And if you're interested in how I came about having this new home, it is due mainly to Hurricane Katrina. To that storm, I owe the fact that I no longer have a permanent residence. It was destroyed after the storm, really, by floodwaters that remained there for four weeks.

Fortunately, we had enough insight to leave. Unfortunately, was unable to get out all of the things that I had accumulated in the house that I lived in for 40 years.

Cherice Harrison-Nelson: I chose to make my home in the neighborhood where I grew up, because I thought it was important for me to come back here and have my studio here. Because this where the art is created, and I didn't want to transport my art to the suburb. I wanted it to be still community-based and neighborhood-based, so that was my big plan. And then Katrina came. (Laughs)

She was really not a nice girl. And then dealing with the government and all of that. I lived in 15 hotels from August 28th until March 15th when I was put out of the Fremont Hotel. Evicted. They told me I should go and live in Houston, why'd I come back to New Orleans? New Orleans is my home. Why shouldn't I come back here?

This is where I grew up. I lived here all my life, 46 years. Why should I go to Houston and make my home? They even told me that I could get a job in Houston. My regular job as an educator or program specialist, but I would have had to go back to a classroom with kids. I wasn't emotionally present the way I need to be present for children.

I don't think that I should go in a classroom and try to teach seven- or eight-year-olds when I'm thinking about my property in New Orleans. That's not fair to the children. But it's all about the bottom line to them. They don't really care about people. They really don't. 'Cause they'll hang up the phone in your face. I just thought that was so rude - FEMA hanging up on you?

I couldn't believe that. Just hang up. Mid-sentence, they will hang up. "Miss, I don't have to talk to you anymore," and hang up. And I'm not rude, I don't use bad language. I'm just trying to find out what the procedure is, what recourses I have to get back to my home. And they were pretty much, "If you don't want to go to Houston, there's nothing I can do for you."

Herreast Harrison: When I had this building, it took three months to get it finally done. But we stored some things in here. This is not the shoulder piece, but the head piece. And it was - by being in this black plastic bag, it was saved. My nephew, Johnny Booker, wore this. And he was Donald's wildman. And we created this piece for him.

And this is about the only thing that we have left of that. And you can see the tiger tail feathers, and pheasant feathers, and hackle. And he was great in this, because he had the greatest legs. And all the women on the sidelines (laughs) were looking at his legs. And one of them even said, "I know who - " because he had a mask on - "I know those legs."

She knew who he was. She said, "Is that you, Johnny?" (Laughter) And my husband loved him as a wildman, because he knew that he had everything that it took to be a good wildman in his group. And he wanted to see someone wear this, so he got that chance.

Demme: Did the wildman have a particular job function?

Herreast Harrison: Yeah, he's supposed to protect the chief and keep control, keep the crowd back. In fact, he has a major function. I don't think there's anything else down there. And here are some of the (unintelligible). Here, if you can see. (Unintelligible.)

Demme: Here's a photo.

Herreast Harrison: That was taken in Lafayette, Louisiana, probably 1991. That's our famous Donald Harrison Senior pose, isn't it, Michelle?

Michelle Harrison: Yes.

Herreast Harrison: We've used it on everything. In fact, it's even on his funeral program.

Michelle Harrison: Also, there's a drawing that Kyle did of that right after he passed.

Herreast Harrison: That's the famous Harrison photo.

Michelle Harrison: Half of it is ruined; the other half is like he just drew it.

Herreast Harrison: And these are some of the cards that people sent after his funeral. This one's from Janine.

Michelle Harrison: That's my best friend.

Herreast Harrison: This one is from the Kennedys. (Unintelligible) but most of these are from - if I could see - that was something. Yeah, most of these are from the funeral. And so I've gone through a lot of things, and thrown a lot of things away. But then a lot of things, I haven't. Now, Donald's record collection that I was talking about is back here somewhere.

I just can't get to it. When they masqueraded in the neighborhoods, they brought beauty, eloquence, power - everything to the people in the neighborhood. There was some that didn't like them, didn't like the aspect of it, because they were hearing that negative feedback about what these men were doing, not knowing what these men really had done was to retain all of those African elements.

Right in plain view of people who said, "You cannot have anything African going on here." They used that relationship with the indigenous people, crossed it all up, and did their thing. Everything about New Orleans was sold on the fact that they have this uniqueness, this specialness about it, and it all comes right from the neighborhoods.

From those traditional things that these men - whether it's second-lining, brass bands, the jazz that was created, Mardi Gras, what have you - it comes from that. And this is what happened to these (unintelligible).

I don't have the drums here. The drums are in storage. But of the two, Brian played drums, Kyle played guitar, and Chris played the trumpet. He was the cutest little thing with this when he was about nine. He was like a miniature rock star.

I had a real problem with wanting to eyeball everything. That was my mission. I had to see this stuff. I gotta see it, nobody else can see it except me, so I came in here every day and I was doing it.

Michelle Harrison: It was like someone - like a giant had the books way up there and just slammed them into the floor. They were just flat stuck to the floor. It was amazing.

Herreast Harrison: Some were stuck to the floor -

Michelle Harrison: And we had to scrape them up (laughs).

Herreast Harrison: Yeah, we had to use a shovel.

Michelle Harrison: And we just piled them over here and said, and then we (unintelligible) -

Herreast Harrison: We'll try. Sometimes we had to - the cover, you couldn't see what was -

Michelle Harrison: Yeah, there were wet pages, and we were, like, (unintelligible) it.

Herreast Harrison: Yeah, we would have to pick through to see if we could find the title. But here's "Hidden in Plain View," I think. Is that "Hidden in Plain View?" Yeah, I see (unintelligible). This one was given - I had two of these given to me. One was given to me by Al Kennedy, Dr. Al Kennedy. And his wife, Vicky Kennedy. And another one was given to me by Mick and Maggie Morgan of Texas.

If you look in there you'll probably see that's Mick and Maggie's. You see, they had written a note. But I had two of them. And there's one in there. But there were so many books - we had thousands of books. And so many new books. Just brand-new books that we maybe had read one time. Sometimes you want to read them again and all that kind of stuff, and I had so many new books because all of my friends, that's what they give to me. They'll give me a book.

And so by being in school, I didn't have a chance to read the new ones. So I had all of those new books, signed. And I was just in love with them - I'm out of school for a minute, I'm going to read these books. Because I do plan to go back, if I live so long and get that degree. Maybe have a Ph.D.

Harrison-Nelson: We've been working with a group of children at a school in Kenner, and we've gone in to try to use art to help children work through some of their feelings around the hurricane. Because one of the first things you have to do is recognize that children are having issues. So we - it is actually a writing project, and children were able to write and draw pictures about their experiences.

And we didn't want to start off with, "Oh, Katrina; what happened with Katrina?" We had to remind the children that they had a life before Katrina that wasn't all this devastation that you see, so the first activities the children did was to remember the good times in their lives and to write about those good times and what they really liked about their lives before Katrina.

But then you have to recognize what happened during Katrina, because that was traumatic for children, and let them get that out. So they wrote about that. They wrote about what happened afterwards, how they started putting their lives together, and we ended with - the last writing activities were - for them to imagine the world that they wanted in the aftermath of Katrina.

And through those experiences, we see the hope that children have for our world. And I think it's incumbent upon us as adults to make sure we actively work to give our children more than this. This can't be our legacy to our children.

Herreast Harrison: The house has been remediated; we do have some photographs of it when it was - when it had all the furniture and all the debris and everything. And I think the only thing that's left now will be for the beams to either be removed or for them to put kill on them. And all of my children grew up here. My husband found this house in 1965, and I hated it.

Just hated it. Hated it. I don't think I really ever fell in love with it until after he was gone. 'Cause, like, we were supposed to get another house. I always thought it was too small, or wasn't constructed correctly, and just everything was wrong with this house (laughs) for me. I didn't like the way it looked outside, I was always planting flowers or doing something - painting it different colors. It's been every color in the book.

One time I painted it a peach color and my neighbor said it looked like a Halloween house, (laughs) so I immediately took that off. And then I made it a beautiful bluish-grey one time, and I really liked that look. And then I had it painted in December, before the storm, and it came - it was this dark a blue. And it all - everybody talked about it. It was like a stand-out in the neighborhood, (laughs) this dark blue house.

But I really love this house now. I really love it. 'Cause all my memories are here of a life with the Big Chief, Donald Harrison Senior. What a man. Quite a man. And I miss him so, and I want to put it back together in his memory. I started what's called Guardian's Institute. And it will be to promote education about culture, and to be of service, I hope, to the men that still practice keeping this tradition alive.

My husband had this wonderful glass that he used to drink his vodka out of (laughs). And I don't know if I'm pronouncing this correctly, but baccarat? It was that, and it was gorgeous. I still I have it, because these men that were taking the furniture out, when they got to this china cabinet and they saw all those things in there - and I had some pieces that Donald Junior had brought me back from - brought back to me from overseas, some from Israel and different places, this beautiful little artwork.

And so I would always put them in the china cabinet along with the crystal and china. And all of those things were inside. The glasses were not broken, and I had the massive buffet and that was here, it was just gorgeous. They started - one of them started crying. He said he couldn't throw it away because he remembered his grandmother's china and crystal.

He found old boxes and baskets and he took all that stuff out and put it in, and that's how it was saved (laughs). So I saved Donald's glass - Donald Senior's glass, and I still have that. This little modest house is the family's home. It's our legacy. We don't have a lot of money. This is what we have, and this is what I have to leave.

And I want to see it restored so that I can do that. And I'm having a hard time, but I'm going to get it done. And I just hope whatever supreme being is out there that I would receive some type of blessing from that source so that I can stay strong and live long enough to do this. It's very important to me. Very important.

Announcer: Stay tuned for more from New Orleans as Tavis, Jonathan Demme, and Professor Cornel West pay a visit to some of the people you just met during tonight's episode of "Right to Return."

Tavis: What a pleasure to meet you.

Herreast Harrison: Tavis Smiley.

Tavis: How are you?

Herreast Harrison: Oh my God.

Tavis: It's such an honor to meet you. And when I found out that that was your grandbaby -

Herreast Harrison: Yes. No, the honor is mine.

Tavis: Oh, please.

Herreast Harrison: The honor is mine. And this, too.

Tavis: No. That's my friend right there, yeah.

Cornel West: Oh, how you doing. What a blessing; what a blessing; what a blessing.

Harrison: I am so honored.

Tavis: This is so wonderful.

Harrison: This is - what a wonderful - oh my God.

Tavis: We are so excited about being able to tell your story, so. How you holding up?

Harrison: I lived all these years (unintelligible).

Tavis: No, you too -

West: We're blessed to meet you. We are blessed to meet you. (Crosstalk.)

Harrison: Oh. (Laughter)

Tavis: How long you been here in the Lower Ninth?

Harrison: Oh, for 40-something years.

Tavis: Forty-something years you been living there.

West: Forty-some years. Lord. Lord have mercy.

Tavis: That is amazing.

Harrison: But this has been a tremendous struggle.

West: The Lord been blessing, though, huh?

Harrison: Yes, yes.

Tavis: So you decided to stay. You didn't want to leave the Lower Ninth, huh?

Harrison: Right. Too much history, and for me, I wanted to carry that particular legacy of having it documented.

Tavis: How's the project coming, not coming, what are they telling you?

Harrison: It's coming really slowly, but I'm getting there. If you'd like to take a look, you can.

Tavis: I'd love to.

Harrison: - wrote a smiley face on there and she said, "Do not throw me away." And that's why we have (unintelligible).

West: Really?

Tavis: I love it. This door is, like, I survived Hurricane Katrina.

West: Wow, that's right. That's right.

Harrison: And she stripped it. She stripped it.

Tavis: I love a nice - I love architecture.

Harrison: Yeah, she stripped it.

West: I love (unintelligible).

Harrison: So all the other doors (unintelligible).

West: That was (unintelligible).

Tavis: Michelle was on it, doggone it.

West: She was on it, she's on it.

Harrison: She has been on it.

West: She's on it. (Crosstalk.)

Harrison: So all of these doors are new. All of these. But I like (unintelligible), so I (unintelligible).

Tavis: Coming together.

Harrison: Yes, coming together.

Tavis: Coming together.

That's our show for tonight. Tomorrow night, part three of our "Right to Return" series, and the inspiring story of community organizer Carolyn Parker.