I have been based in New Orleans for five years now, as a writer, editor, and now professor of journalism. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard someone praise New Orleans’ resiliency, I could pay off my mortgage today. Of course, I get it on some levels. This is the place people look to because we are on the frontlines of some of the most devastating effects of climate change in the Global South. I personally attribute my career in journalism and current role as the managing editor of The Margin to the news coverage that emerged following Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago; the racist, biased, inciting coverage provided a much younger me with something akin to a media awakening that lives on in my work today. 

Still, there’s something quite painful about constantly labelling a majority-Black city as resilient. “Resilience” as a label suggests that things will continue to be bad here, and that no matter what, the people on the margins will snap back into shape, better than ever, joyful even. But it’s important to acknowledge the  various failures that led to them being pulled apart in the first place—and why we need better systems to find another way forward. 

My selections—a combination of work I admire and work I’ve commissioned or written—are an offering to sit with that nuance. It’s also an invitation to consider the work this city’s residents have done to be resistant, a term I believe captures the ongoing practices of community care, such as preparation, mutual aid, coastal restoration, and tree-planting, that demonstrate this city’s unwillingness to accept the fate that government entities and Big Oil have imposed upon this region.