marketumbrella.org

Richard McCarthy, co-founder and executive director of marketumbrella.org, joins what is being billed a gathering of "the world's most visionary intellects" for a day of public exploration into the nexus between crisis and creativity.

Or how disasters continue to provide us with teachable moments

Fifteen years ago this week, we were in the final stages of launching the Crescent City Farmers Market in New Orleans. It opened in September 1995.

Five years ago this week, we were struggling through August (as one does in the sticky American South) unaware of the disaster that would strike the Gulf Coast on 29 August 2005: Hurricane Katrina.

We believe that public markets are valuable in part as a window into the soul of a community. Are folks comfortable congregating in public spaces? Who is there and who is not? Why? Are there enough farmers to meet demand at an agriculturally-focused market? Are they young or old, brown or white? And so on.

Then we add crisis into this mix. Disasters like Katrina, Rita, and the recent BP Deepwater Horizon have the uncanny ability to peel away the veneer of everyday life that shields us from observing the raw and unpleasant realities of institutionalized violence, poverty, and other troubling issues.

Perhaps catastrophes carry within their trauma the gift of teachable moments.

Though by now utterly sick and tired of teachable moments in the Greater New Orleans region, we live in the nation’s most vibrant classroom. The lessons we have learned may surprise you.

In the wake of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, we seek the expertise of a professional writer to research and write our next Green Paper exploring the prospects of moving more and more fishing families out of the industrial grid and into entrepreneurial and value-added strategies that enable them to capture more wealth and control over their livelihoods.