[p4k] Don't believe the hype
At Playing 4 Keeps, we’re still researching Hurricane Katrina and that research entails both finding the information we never knew, and unlearning the disinformation we thought was true. Katrina’s floodwaters brought a torrent of rumors as people grasped for information in the void left by the government. While there was some excellent journalism during the tragedy, the media also berated the public with deceptive, lurid tales of violence and depravity.
We were told New Orleans was a tearing itself apart and people were more interested in raping and murdering than working together. Those reports could not have been further from the truth. Our game will be focused on teaching people the reality of what happened in New Orleans, both the mistakes that happened at the top and the triumphs that came from the bottom.
Monday we further developed our game documents. The process of making a game allows the development of a variety of skills, and I’m always eager to get our students writing. We spent the first part of the workshop discussing the game designs that were developed last week and thinking about what facts needed to be added to make the game realistic. After discussing what more we needed to know, the class went to the computers.
There are some incredible sites on Hurricane Katrina including Teaching the Levees, and educational site developed around Spike Lee’s documentary “When the Levees Broke.” Just looking at Teaching the Levees’ timelines is a huge help to understanding what exactly happened during the disaster. The Times-Picayune’s website has an interactive flash program that shows when and where the different levees flooded and how the water spread. I think it’s typical in complicated situations that people begin throwing around terms (“levee breeches”) without really knowing what they’re talking about. Digital media is great for helping people explore and understand such complicated events.
On Thursday we spent most of the afternoon watching excerpts from “When the Levees Broke.” The documentary is an impressively comprehensive examination of the disaster and I wish I could show it to our students in its entirety but it’s over four hours long. What I most wanted them to understand, though, was how heroically regular citizens acted. The Coast Guard did an exceptional job during the storm and some police and National Guard were outstanding as well. But what I find most inspirational and what I think our game needs to stress, is the rescue operations orchestrated by everyday people.
The Cajun Navy, as it called, was neighbors helping neighbors and strangers pulling together against horrifying conditions. We were told the city was full of looters and rapists, but really it was full of heroes. Their stories must be told in a loud clear voice. I hope our game can do that. You can read the students’ blog posts to see what they took from the afternoon.
