Brian boyles talks about the days following the 2013 new Orleans Saints super bowl victory. We will have mr. Brian boyles and hell be reading from his work new orleans boom blackout one hundred days in americas coolest hot spot mr. Boyles is the Vice President for content at the louisiana endowment for the humanities. His work has been featured in oxford american, vice. Com, the classical, offbeat magazine, lens, the brooklyn rail, slam, and louisiana culture business. Is the author of ne track and coauthor of new orleans, the underground guide. So without further ado, mr. Brian boyles spewing thick as much and thank you all for coming out on this lovely day in baton rouge and thank you to the book festival. This really is one of the great events we have in laveen, arizona, in louisiana. This deliberate of louisiana deserves a great credit for what they put in for this festival. I want to talk today in overview of the book which was published in january and was named the one book in 2015 in this 10th anniversary year following the federal levy fails. Im almost at the end of the book of two or which is fantastically lasted for i guess close to 10 months, thanks in most part for this one book one new orleans, and have had a lot of time to think about both the conception of the book and also the things i think that a continued in new orleans since its publication, things i would have guessed wouldve continued and other things were perhaps more unplanned. Anyone from new orleans knows that youre not from new orleans if you can name your high school or i guess your favorite flavors. I am not from new orleans but have lived there on and off since 1995. I am from pittsburgh. When i was growing up in pittsburgh it was a time before nfl game four on six different stations and we were still well known for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Whenever there was a National Game at the beginning or the end of the commercial break or during halftime to which a clips of molten steel coming off shoots, and maintaining iron with hammers. I knew no one that lived that life by the time i came along in the 80s and 90s. The Steel Industry had died pretty much of the same time the Pittsburgh Steelers had become famous. There was this disconnect between what you saw on television in which he knew about the place where you were from. Fastforward to the mid 90s when a move to new orleans and sort of felt a different way about the city and the city i didnt think anybody could possibly understand without being there. I grew to love it into and to understand as unique and insulator places that a large part ignored what was going on in the rest of the country despite being a great port city in summer folks always move to. He sort of came there and were absorbed by. I remember leaving new orleans in 1999 and funny of things i was like electronic music. I didnt care county for people my age. Fastforward to 2005, im living in new york city, accidentally unemployed and ive cable for the first time in my life. The federal levies break and to watch this on television and go through a different process than people who lost their homes went through but certainly something that was heartbreaking to be a frustrating and maddening in many of the shape should describe the people who did live in the city at that time. I moved back in 2006, and i think at that point sort of felt that zeitgeist that people still do not understand the city, was manipulate, understood, exaggerated. As more and more people start to filter back into the city many of whom were not live at the time of the catastrophe or even as i did in the 1990s in a much different down, but there were things not being captured. There were things that were not fully fleshed out when people talk about what new orleans was. Some of those things were great positive people seem to generalize the city and some were things we heard politicians in other places in the country talk about. To the new orleans will forever be a protein place to resist the generations it attracts. I had this feeling, this sort of defensiveness i think a lot of people in new orleans has. I start work at the humanities and will begin a new programming around new orleans history prior to the storm for people to better grasp especially as what to the polls in 20092010 of what they were getting into when they decided what was going to come next in new orleans. Really since i think 2010, theres been a narrative of a new new orleans, a nebulous, positive glow about a city that is somehow much better that it was, that has reformed its infrastructures, its attractive to investment, young people, technology and surveyed the taurus. Many parts of that are true, but when the 2013 super bowl came into focus and i could see it coming, there was a feeling this would have a crowning achievement moment that the rest of the nation was going to arrive and see just how strong we were. Unfortunate the remaining many parts of the city they continued to be quite weak, places ignored but also political and Economic Issues that might be smoothed over in the weeks progress of the country came to town, spotlight was on new orleans but someone who live there and deeply people should understand more about this complexity, i wanted to look both at how the narrative of new new orleans was crafted also where there was definite discrepancies between that narrative and what i as this is a new, i as a public as we knew of its longerterm history. And what you think all around you. New Orleans New Orleans boom blackout cannot of interest to see the machinery around new orleans imagery work. I spent the 100 days leading up to 2013 super bowl talking to a few different stories and moving chronologically in america. I begin with new orleans taxicab drivers who were forced into a lot of reforms leading up to the super bowl because the city governmenkevin felt that they wt doing what they should do and not being sort of the first ambassadors that a tourist would meet. There was a tourism master plan developed in 2010 for the city and the cadres came into the crosshairs of that master plan. The idea was there would be a supply chain where in a door slams at the airport, get into a cab and its a new tab. They reached the French Quarter and the stitch all fixed. The hotel works well. They can put the music venue that is easily found. The tickets are able to be caught without cash. All these things make a spirit curated and smooth and easy so the city could generate revenue. So you needed reforms to infrastructure but also to businesses like the cabbies in order to make that experience appealing to tourist. Im not someone who thinks that tourism is bad thing. I think it can be a great thing. I think its floated the ball for a lot of our culture in the last 10 years but what you saw was the workingclass people, the cabbies being one of them, were getting caught in the grind of these reforms. In this rush to get ready for really a weeks worth of visitors for the super bowl people were losing their jobs, income, taxes because i was trying to cram reform it down their throat. I continue to go and find working people who worked very much in the orbit of the super bowl, so that would be bourbon street workers, strip club employers, tarot card readers, people to work in restaurants, people to work in marketing. Anyone who had a livelihood that would depend on this again. Because it may please the Service Industry workers in new orleans usually knew more about what was going on in the city especially in the French Quarter and Central Business district that our politicians. Serving a visiting writers that would analyze this new new orleans and trumpet in its return. Those people sometimes cant avoid it in that conversation got a lot of times we talk about crime or talk about tourism, talk about taxes and what to look at people who generate all the money that goes into this image of new orleans which is sold throughout the world. I really focused on them. Some of that was done through musicians because musicians specific in the book, brass Band Musicians travel the brass band musician. For the most part comes from a disadvantaged neighborhood, hard hit by the storm and the cost of living and crime problems weve had in the last 10 years. Yet they also will play at the most gala wedding. They will travel the world representing new orleans. You see on the brochure of new orleans. You take the instrument away, ma sometimes even before you take the instrument away and this was a young black male in a city that is continued to fail to protect its young black males. Rather than talk about the problem i thought it was important to talk to them directly to see what they thought about the idea of new new orleans, after going to make money during the super bowl and what they thought the city could do to make life easier for them. I featured to be continued brass band in there. I talk to tarot card workers on Jackson Square who had been kind of right in that targets when they try to clean up the entire area leading up to the super bowl. You would no longer a lot of signage, no longer a lot of sort of Free Enterprise that is associated with life down there, some who works in the cash economy. I also talk to the members of occupy new orleans who defeated the city and nfl when it came to doing to clean it. I really wanted to talk to folks who knew more about what was going on the ground. That was going to be easy to know whats going on in the sky. Easy to go to events, press conferences cure the great boast of what the super bowl represent. It was ironic that you because it was the same year as hurricane sandy. You had anyone in new orleans which was trumpeting its recovery and crediting spores and thick spectacles in doing that, and you had new jersey the following year which was perhaps could use the same model to recover from its own tragedy. There were things going on industries that didnt necessarily have to do with new orleans but that were important in that hundred days. I think any hundred days in new orleans would generate a multitude of stories but this particular time was very pressurized. Some of it had to do with the reforms and the drives that mayor Mitch Landrieu had, comine to fruition but hed been in office since 2010. He had made some commitments to doing some fairly big things. Around the time of the super bowl happening we saw some of that start to hit a point of difficulty. The federal consent decrees that were attached to the New Orleans Police Department and the new Orleans Parish prison were both supposed to go into effect around this time. The problem wa wasnt that the t for implementing those things were not what the city that they would be. Specifically the one for the jail was portrayed as sort of a surprise to the city. Suddenly you had the mayor of a major American City who had just three months before had a press conference at which he had declared handinhand with eric holder, the attorney general, that is going to clean up the New Orleans Police Department and if youre a cop and didnt like it, you could get that out. Several months later accusing the federal government of being schizophrenic and his own share of with having taken into the city center that kind of conflict i guess you could say i lucked into having it happen and explode during the 100 days, but i think it was indicative of attention of looking at and analyzing. On the one hand, you have the will to reform. Unit condition for some people that were getting quite good, a new national interest, but these deepseated problems in the New Orleans Police Department, the prison had been deepseated, highly malfunctioned institutions for quite a long time and continued to be that way today. They were not something you could gloss over. You couldnt say the nfl is there, its put to the side is a big deal we had to actually had to do with it. I think it was a struggle going on during that time. The other big thing that happened at the time was ray nagin had been invited. We knew something was going to gone with them. I would say if we look at the last couple months when we had the anniversary of katrina, ray nagin was hardly ever mentioned. You did we see ray nagin. Of course, ray nagin is in jail but he wasnt part of the dialogue when it came to this talk about new orleans had recovered. But he was indicted really just a few weeks before the super bowl, and again this is sort of a ghost of the past coming forward and remind people that the recovery was not just about the saints winning the super bowl or a numeric come into town. Much of it was a horrible struggle, people on the ground had to be stronger than they think ther they will ever be abo be credited for to go through the corruption, the inaction, the things that slowed all of that down. Its not easy to tell that story in a halftime show. Is not easy to tell the story in the book but those things kept popping up as the hundred days unfolded. As the game itself finally came into focus, i wanted to look at historical precedence for some of the things that have gone on. That has been a big part of my work in the last six years is, its one thing to say that we have an industry coming in for a new boom coming in, whether its driven by tech over the state for education, but there have been other boom point in history of new orleans not even that far back. As we talk of this boom i want to go back and look at well, what happened in the 1980s . How did the oil boom and bust workout . What ideas were kicked around at the time about the future of new orleans . In 1982 on new years day a real estate reporter declares that the new new orleans is at hand and this was the we finally turned the corner and jumped into the 21st century the 20th century i think it mightve said. Why does new orleans always feel that lack a . Why does he feel it needs to declare itself to be caught up . What are the things that held the back and what are the things that contributed its feeling of being inferior somehow i dedicated a chapter to the 1984 worlds fair, another time when new orleans was supposed to be coming into a collective money, a lot of new infrastructure, and showing to the world that he could do it, perform a. It was a a rhythmic failure, a bankrupt failure to left behind a Convention Center and the seeds of private investment in the Warehouse District that benefited many of the families that you continue to see in power in new orleans today. Again i think have so much every propulsion of drawing these lines but it is how you understand the organism of the city. You cant look at it in a 100 day period and sometimes that is how new orleans is summed up. Everything is worked out or not, and it is complicated. I got closer and closer to the game endegame and then i was inn the circus. The parade, big parties, different pronunciations that happen. The money of the super bowl, new orleans debuted its new streetcar line. I think any day has felt to me like an anniversary of the first day of the new new orleans this is probably it. You at all the National Media in town. The chairs of the super bowl committee. Unit representatives of federal, state and local government, and mayor Mitch Landrieu i think went out of his way to say not just that new orleans had recovered, but that new orleans was a model for what the rest of the country should be. Thats a difference. I dont think thats been set a whole lot but other mayors, by other people. The term new new orleans has been pronounced by the idea that we actually are a beacon, there are a lot of things the mayor says that makes a lot of sense and theres a lot of work hes done thats been very effective. Sometimes i think what happens is people hear things like that and that hyperbole, and then to step back a little bit and wonder who is the audience . It doesnt feel like you and me so much. In a way thats his job. The streetcar rolls down the avenue, the marching band traces its path, and we are told that this project has been on time, on budget, and that any naysayers be damned. The truth of the matter was that it was 40 million over budget, it was almost a year late, and that for the most part no one really needs to write it except for the fact that the route of bus lines we have to ride it now. Is that me being prickly, or is that me as a citizen wanting told people to certain standards when it comes to what they say about the reforms . I leave it open in the book. I think the most important thing is that the facts and to use juxtaposition sometime when analyzing new orleans. You can put two things next to each other easily and see how theyre both related and have it would seem to be impossibly able to coincide in the same place. This is also the season the new Orleans Saints are going to the bounty gate struggle. We had been told the city had come back because it reached sort of its turning point when the saints won the super bowl in 2010, just a day after which led to buy that he was elected. Then all of a sudden of all these complications come into focus, even in those 100 days i wrote about there were things going on with bounty gate. Is it overly symbolic to say those kind of problems are related to the city . No more overly symbolic fencing a Football Game meant something, and thats coming from someone who thought that kmle for 48 hours was important and maybe for a few months until the bp oil spill. So all these things are in a mix, and for me trying to keep pace with difficult that i think as the book was coming, as that time period was coming i really realized i wanted to capture more than of the city and some of these things. So the book really is, moves without parallel your i am moving through chronologically these hundred days leading up to the game and also looking back at different points in the citys history. Some of the people i found to be particularly fast and. Tom benson, the owner of the new Orleans Saints i think is hard to argue is probably the most powerful man in new orleans. He is one of our only billionaires. He has full rights over the superdome and everybody also is building a statebuilding right next door to the he owns the plaza there. A tv station. And in an interesting way he has sort of become the city father but is also the man who try to get ahead out of town immediately after the storm. Been quite a vile ways. I thought this issue is important and i think that sports history is important, and i tried to look at how the franchise is involved and how to attract with the city. Altogether i think that it gives a good portrait, a good snapshot of what new orleans was at that time and i think you see some things going on new orleans today that resound with the book. Certainly the problems were having in the French Quarter are things i talked about. Certainly this idea that what we had originally thought it was going to be more and more marketing dollars put into tourism, we are now seeing more and more criminal justice form, more Police Presence because crime has reached the point that they can no longer get out from under it. If anything i hope that new orleans boom blackout serves as a time capsule as we continue to move through this interesting period your the new new orleans remains problematic term, i think. Thank you, mr. Boyles. Does anyone have any questions for mr. Boyle . Any questions . Ive like to offer you a question. What was one of those fascinating stories that youre able to capture interest of this economical lens we are looking through . You know, i think that the fascinating thing to me, that i think its appropriate because we baton rouge, the city generates quite a lot of money into tourism in terms of revenue, that passes the restaurants and hotels, not a lot of it comes back to the city coffers. A good portion comes to baton rouge and the State Government because of the difficult weve had with the state budget over the las last several years. It is a filter back into the city. Today with state police being paid extra to come to new orleans when, in fact, the finger protecting, that golden goose the French Quarter generates all the tax o of it tt comes up river and never backed down. If youre going to understate anything that longterm as an issue to be faced about new orleans future, and thats of course secondary to the erosion, its the relationship between baton rouge and new orleans countless pitfalls see baton rouge and new orleans cant put a false ceiling on what new orleans can go. Until that relationship is reform im not sure how much bigger new orleans can grow spent a fasting presentation. We thank you for being here, and thank you all for coming to mr. Boyles presentation. He will be signing copies of his book at the barnes noble down from 2 45 to 3 30. If youd like to speak to mr. Boyles, go to the barnes noble 10. Thank you for attending and i hope you enjoyed the rest of the festival. Booktv us on facebook. Like us to get publishing news, schedule updates, behind the scenes pictures and videos, author information and to talk directly with authors during our live programs. Facebook. Com booktv. Longtime White House Reporter april ryan has also written a book called the presidency the presidency in black and white. How long have you been covering the white house and what you write about it . Guest ive been covering the white house are 18 years. I write about it because its very important people need to know whats happening and to see the power. Leader of the free will, what is he doing, whats happening. Its the oddest osha now the first black president , its beyond the fact he uses his candidate you want to get a picture of him writing some bill or signing a bill, its about actual issues that affect america. Look at the times are in right now. You want to know everything president ial. What makes of this thought process maybe not sending boots on the ground to syria to fight isis. What is in his mind when he thinks about womens issues when he feels said when its to know what the president thinks, happen to be privileged to be one of many people in this country to get a chance to a closer view of the presidency. People need to hear about it. Host whats the black and the white . Guest the black and white encyclical. It is something that continues to happen since the enslavement of africans in this country. There is a problem with race in this country and it has yet to be fixed. We saw the Civil Rights Movement of the 50s and 60s. We saw major legislation, saw major laws but theyre still an intrinsic problem in this country that needs to be fixed. Today we are now seeing tension between the black community and the police, not saying we dont support Law Enforcement. We do support Law Enforcement wholeheartedly but there has to be a weaning out of bad policing figure still a problem in the station. A lot of the problem is subtle and some of it is over. And i talke talk to president oa recently on a flight going to so much and he said he is here just to close the gap, the capital remains in the station. So the are still gaps that need to be closed. Hopefully the next president will deal with those issues. This is an issue that is not going away. We have been able to get it right get. And other countries are watching us. Host someone picks up the presidency the presidency in black and white, are they going to hear some personal stories about you working in the white house . And if so what is when you want to share . Guest yes. When the person picks up the presidency in black and white, they will get various views. They will get there he is a stories. Stories first and stories of the president himself on the record from barack obama, bill clinton, a host of people. But what they will find out are some of the things that really happen in the white house when it comes to race, or the thoughts on certain issues about race. I remember a story, one of the most compassionate source of my life going to an artillery just a few feet away from the white house within First Lady Laura Bush to the exhibit. These dissenters of slaves from a plantation in alabama. Ultimately, come on give you a synopsis, ultimately the first lady at the end of the scope of this black women, about five black women, black women who i do not believe the republican from just one a bit of recognition. They were so happy. They embraced the first lady and started screaming, thank you, jesus. Started crying. And as a dozen of us live come on my mother said, fifth generation removed from a slave, it brought tears to my eyes. So theres a lot of human stories that so many people can relate to in this book. Its about you and me. Its not just about black. Its about white. Its about all of us coming together. The people go to booktv and type in april ryan they will see this big panel that was held, and author panel. What was that . Guest the author bill was a Panel Discussion on race. We talk about criminal justice. We enjoy read an author as well who wrote the book fraction. We have Michael Dyson and author himself with the various books that i was a moderator and we had a serious discussion, serious civil discussion on issues of race. From authors who have written about it and research can who are experts in their field. We had a panel. We have people from all walks of life, very Diverse Group of people actually in the audience and asked about, ask questions. It was a great discussion, like the beginning of a discussion that needs to happen in this nation