Self-Narration as Activism: Environmental Disaster, Feminism, and Organizing in the Post-Katrina Zines of New Orleans

Narratives of self have long served as the cornerstone of feminist activism, particularly in the Gulf South. Angela Davis’s autobiography (1974), Ann Moody’s memoir Coming of Age in Mississippi (1968), and Zora Neale Hurston’s Dust Tracks on a Road (1942) demonstrate women’s stories are powerful levers of mobilization. This writing tradition, so powerful in the 20th century, expanded to include new modes of self-narration, reflected in the rise of the self-published zine of the late 90s that laid the groundwork for the digitized landscape of blogs, podcasts and short-form videos. This project considers the zines that emerged in the wake of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina as an avenue of expression and resistance in the aftermath of the devastation of the city and region. Housed by the Newcomb Archives at Tulane University, itself a site inundated by the floodwaters created by climate change and governmental neglect, these materials connect to the historical moment just before the rise of a social media and smartphones that forever changed the landscape of community building and grassroots organizing. Created by self-proclaimed punks, queers, and other outsiders, the zines demonstrate identities and subcultures often neglected in the popular renderings of the storm’s disaster and the city’s rebuilding. Offering a snapshot of self-reflection and representation in an analog format that told not just an individual story but the story of a community, the materials offer an insight into a communicative landscape on the cusp of change and in a moment of crisis.