Chapter 10: When the Airborne Toxic Event Broke New Orleans’ Levees

In the aftermath of 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, those in power chose to implement policy that would destroy cultural milieu, community schools, and terminate teachers and administrators. This chapter presents a critical arts-based inquiry approach that uses artistic vignettes as a means of practicing empathy with victims of disastrous environmental and political agenda—Airborne Toxic Events. Informed by a critical pedagogy of place and Crocco’s (2007) Teaching the Levees as a place-based curricular model for democratic dialogue and civic engagement, I offer a tangible guide to experiencing different interpretations of similar events in order to foster cultural synthesis and political consciousness.