Voices from the Storm

Barry Lemoine, a refugee (or are we saying "evacuee" now?) from Hurricane Katrina has been living in Troy, writing for the local paper. Mostly he's been writing features about refugees living around here -- some good stuff, but I haven't been linking to it unless the story contains an element of something local residents can do. So far as I can tell, the folks who have settled locally seem to be doing pretty well, since by my best estimate they have increased our local population by only about 2-3 percent, and we have a bit of a labor shortage anyway.

In any case, Lemoine had written a play about Hurricane Betsy, ironically intended to educate younger people about what the storm meant. I suppose the intended audience now has stories enough of its own. The next few days will have some readings from his play on our Montgomery, Troy, and Dothan campuses. I want to encourage everyone in those communities to attend, since it's a two-fer, supporting both Katrina relief and the arts locally. Plus, since the play is an award-winner I'm suspecting it will be pretty entertaining.

Here is the University press release for “An Evening with Betsy, Voices from the Storm." I plan to be there at the Troy reading on Monday; I hope to see you there.