let my people go (home)
Just when I was feeling guilty about heading into Passover
without a thought of my desert-crossing ancestors or my going-without-bread
family members, I ran into Ronald Lewis, a sweet-hearted, tough-minded guy who
is still among the lonely pioneers who've returned to his Lower Ninth Ward
neighborhood. (He was a key character in a piece I did for Salon last year.)
"You comin' to the Seder?" he asked.
"What Seder?"
"The one at my house."
"Huh?"
Turns out LJ Goldstein, photographer, Jew-about-town, founding member of Krewe du Jieux, was holding his krewe's ritual dinner at
Lewis's recently restored home. If my culture was on display for a night at
Lewis's place, so was his, permanently: When I introduced my wife, Erica, Lewis
commanded: "Go see my museum!" -- the House of Dance and Feathers located
just behind his home (this is the second edition, and impressive at that, reconstructed after
Lewis lost his previous artifacts in the floods).
Some guests had prepared traditional Jewish fare -- kugel and
matzoh ball soup and so on. There was brisket, too -- from The Joint, a favorite Bywater barbecue spot. We sat on the floor and worked through two
hours of a Passover service far more faithful than my family's version. And different -- the Haggadah, for instance, began with "Shalom, y'all." Helen Regis, scholar of all
things second-line, was there, as was Joel Dinnerstein, who is on Tulane
Univeristy's faculty. So was Willie Birch, whose paintings, drawings, and mixed-media
sculptures tell stories of struggle and transcendence as powerfully as the Haggadah.
"Yeah. I'm doin' a multicultural thing," Lewis joked
when Birch showed up. When it came time to give thanks and to reflect, he
turned serious. "I'm thankful for being back. But I miss the Ninth Ward
like it was. I used to be able to just walk and see everyone and everything where
there is still mostly nothing."
From there, as any good Seder does, we traced the tale of
enslaved Jews on the run from Egypt, and I thought about how little difference
there is between "Let My People Go" and "Let My People Go
Home."
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