Publication Date: Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Concert to help Katrina survivors living in East Palo Alto
Concert to help Katrina survivors living in East Palo Alto
(November 09, 2005) Joan Baez, Tuck and Patti to perform
by Bill D'Agostino
After Hurricane Katrina ravaged her New Orleans neighborhood, Jamikka Anderson slept for three days on prison mats on a porch outside a sheriff's office. Surrounded by about 100 other black residents, she lived on meager food and one cup of water a day. She watched rescue boats bypass the group, taking no one.
"The only person I saw them rescue was a white woman with a white kid," she recalled on Monday.
Anderson, 22, has felt let down by the very agencies -- ranging from the American Red Cross to FEMA -- that should have been watching out for her. But on Saturday afternoon, she'll hear Joan Baez sing inside the Costaño Elementary School auditorium, and maybe feel like there's finally a community caring for her and her family.
The East Palo Alto Arts and Cultural Society, along with the Ecumenical Hunger Program and the California Bank and Trust, are sponsoring the benefit concert for Katrina survivors living in East Palo Alto. The show will also feature Tuck and Patti and local performers.
Concert organizers hope to raise at least $40,000 to help the 15 families who have relocated to East Palo Alto following hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
"The community has opened up its arms," event Chairperson Arnold Hart said.
Many of the survivors came to East Palo Alto to live with relatives. Anderson -- along with her brother, Jamal Anderson, his fiancée and his two young sons -- chose to come to California, using a free flight from Continental Airlines, because Jamal had lived in the Bay Area earlier and remembered it fondly. Plus, the family heard help was being offered in San Francisco but not many people were going because of the long distance.
"We came here and took a chance," said Jamal's fiancée, Raven Varnado.
They moved to East Palo Alto after meeting Pastor Andre Harris Sr., of the Born Again Christian Center.
"I told them, 'You need to come down here,'" Harris recalled. "'You're just going to feel so much love when you come to East Palo Alto. I'm one of many; you need to come down here.'"
They're now putting their lives back together, living in a home the church is providing for them. Jamikka Anderson is starting to take classes online from the University of New Orleans, where she was enrolled when Hurricane Katrina hit.
"It still feels like a dream," she said.
Jamal Anderson, 25, hopes to get a license to be a plumber or truck driver. Varnado, 22, wants to get a nurse's license.
The family has been getting the basics from East Palo Alto's Ecumenical Hunger Program. During a recent visit to the nonprofit, Executive Director Nevida Butler asked them what else they wanted.
"I need a crib for him," Varnado said, referring to their 9-month-old son, Hakeem.
"Yeah, we've got cribs," Butler replied.
The nonprofit has provided food, furniture, clothing and school supplies to the 15 relocated families. The concert's proceeds will especially help pay for the high cost of housing in East Palo Alto.
"The rent is going to be the killer," Butler said.
The Musical Benefit for the Katrina Families Recovery Fund, featuring Joan Baez and Tuck and Patti, will be held Saturday, Nov. 12 from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Costaño Elementary School auditorium (2695 Fordham St.).
Tickets are $10 for East Palo Alto residents and $25 for nonresidents. They can be purchased at local branches of California Bank and Trust or online at www.ehpcares.org. In East Palo Alto, the California Bank and Trust is located at 1735 East Bayshore Road in the Ravenswood 101 Shopping Center.
Staff Writer Bill D'Agostino can be e-mailed at bdagostino@paweekly.com.
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