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Brad Pitt launched a campaign on Monday to bring to lifeblocks of New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward that are still languishing more than two years after the devastation from Hurricane Katrina.
Unveiling a series of designs meant to evoke the neighborhood's rich traditions and at the same time push forward environmental building techniques, Pitt said that the first of planned 150 homes will break ground in March.
"When we get as far as we can here, this will be one of the greenest progressive communities in the U.S., on an affordable level," Pitt said by phone from New Orleans.
Like other stars who have capitalized on media attention to shine a spotlight on various crises around the world, Pitt spent big chunks of the day on Monday giving interviews and holding a press conference, as well as introducing a vast temporary art installation of 150 bright pink structures meant to stand in for the community that will some day be rebuilt.
"The hurdles seem endless," he said. "But right now, it is just financing. We can do this. This is happening at a grassroots level, and hundreds of people have been working on the ground to get to this point for a year now. I'm telling you, we can get people into their homes by the end of the summer."
Pitt and producer Steve Bing have each pledged to match $5 million in contributions to the project, and are embarking on a campaign to raise money to finance the complete project. Many property owners will be able to put up insurance payouts, government funds or their own savings, but still fall short.
"We have to help people meet the gap between what they have and what it realistically costs to build a safe home," Pitt said. "These houses will average about $150,000 each. We would like to raise that to cover the 150, and with the money that the residents will bring to the house we will then invest in building more homes."
Via Pitt's MakeItRightnola.org, donors are urged to finance entire blocks, individual homes, or dedicate parts of the home or even items, right down to doors and toilets.
Some eight families are participating in the initial phase of the project. Make It Right does not own any of the land or the homes, so property owners can build on their own. But if they do, they will be able to choose from designs submitted from 13 different firms, which donated their services.
Rather than try to restore the neighborhood to its pre-Katrina state, the firms came up with a variety of different three-bedroom homes, each with a front porch and, because of potential floodwaters, built off the ground.
For example, architect Thom Mayne of Los Angeles firm Morphosis came up with a home that would actually float. Another design, from Kieran Timberlake Associates, features a rooftop of solar panels and a side wall made up of vines, to keep the home cool.
Pitt said that they worked with neighborhood leaders in drawing up the plans to deal with specific needs.
"We called on the design minds and architects to deal with the challenges down here, in the Lower Ninth," Pitt said. "It was affordability, safety, sustainability and aesthetics, but staying true to the rich culture of New Orleans."
Pitt and his partner, actress Angelina Jolie, purchased a home in the French Quarter last year and are now part-time residents.
Since then, Pitt has taken an interest in helping the city rebuild, or to call attention to the big hurdles that residents have faced in returning to the Ninth Ward.
"We were the most massive force in rebuilding most of Europe (after World War II) and we rebuilt over half of it in this amount of time," he said. "When you see what it looks like coming here, it tells you our attention has not been applied to this problem."
Pitt says that he has "great hope" that New Orleans will be "a defining issue" in the 2008 presidential race, after the campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama contacted them about the project.
Bing is one of Clinton's early backers, and Clinton herself issued a statement on Monday morning praising the effort, and criticizing the Bush adminstration's response to Katrina rebuilding. Reached later in the day, an Obama spokeswoman said that they "absolutely support the project."
"I really hope this becomes one of the defining issues of the campaign, not so much as a tool for blame, but more as a tool for the problems of the country and how to redirect them," Pitt said. "We can talk education reform and health reform, but if it is not made right here it is not going to work anywhere. So this is really a proving ground for many a policy."
Campaigns have been touting their endorsement power, and courting various famous names, but Pitt said that he has not endorsed a candidate.
"I don't know. I will if I feel someone really needs my help," he said.
On Monday night, as Jerry Lee Lewis and Fats Domino entertained residents, the lights went on the pink art structures, giving the area a lighted glow it hasn't had since the hurricane tore through the city in August 2005.
Why pink?
"I want people to draw from it what they can," Pitt said. "Much like the lyrics in a song. To me, it screams the loudest."
Audio
File
"Boogie Woogie Piano"
off the album Last Man Standing
Audio
File
"Certainly few other artists came to the party with more ego and talent
than Jerry Lee Lewis and lived to tell the tale."
— music critic Cub Koda
Louisiana-born and bred, singer/pianist Jerry Lewis helped invent rock 'n' roll five decades ago with a remarkably confident, somewhat reckless approach. Fans can argue whether he's the true king, but no one can dispute the fact that he's of the highest rock 'n' roll royalty. Like the so-called "king of rock," Elvis Presley, Lewis grew up in the rural South, listening to gospel, country, blues, and fiery Pentecostal sermons. A wild man at the piano, his savage performances personified the early spirit of rock 'n' roll and its mixture of styles.
Since his earliest days at Sun Recording Studio in Memphis, Lewis' life and career have been no less than tumultuous. Musically, he helped invent toe boogie-woogie piano style, driving songs with a heavy left hand. Commercially, he enjoyed a string of smash hits in 1957 and '58 before sliding out of favor in the late '50s and '60s. Personally, he danced with a host of demons — booze, pills, illness, family tragedies, and a variety of self-destructive behavior. Spiritually, he's survived the wild ride with his mind and soul intact, still ready to rip it up on stage.
Lewis was born in 1935 and raised in the rural town of Ferriday. Considered a "natural born piano player" by his mother, he took piano lessons alongside his two cousins, country artist Mickey Gilley and evangelist preacher Jimmy Lee Swaggart.
He and his latest ensemble arrive in Charleston this week behind a handful of new releases, including the new studio album Last Man Standing — an ambitious collaboration between Lewis and 21 guest rockers of material that his guests either wrote or made famous. Much of it pulls from the same boogie and vigor as those very first Sun sessions.
In 1957, Lewis made his first splash on the US scene from a succession of brilliantly naughty, high-energy singles — "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On," "Great Balls of Fire," and "Breathless." With their bluesy swing beats, untamed piano solos, and Lewis's shouty singing style, all three became international smashes.
"You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain ... too much love drives a man insane!" he hollered on "Great Balls of Fire." Forty years later, the tune would lend its title to a Hollywood biopic starring Dennis Quaid and Winona Ryder.
Lewis may have been at the point of becoming one of rock's hottest attractions in May 1958, but by October, he was a virtual outcast. In late May, he and his band had a 37-date tour of the UK and Europe that kicked off in north London at the Regal Cinema. Lewis, a 22-year-old hellraisier, was already a controversial tornado of a performer.
This tour was Britian's first taste of the Killer. On the eve of the tour, reporters met Lewis and his petite, youthful wife, Myra Gale Brown (the daughter of his bass-playing uncle, J.W. Brown), at the London airport. "How old is your wife, Jerry?" asked one reporter. "Fifteen, sir," Lewis replied. Actually, she was barely 13 years old (and only 12 when they exchanged vows). A media frenzy broke the news to shocked fans on both sides of the Atlantic. The tour barely made it through the first few days. Lewis was met by a barrage of boos and insults from the audience. He stomped away and returned home.
Unfortunately for Lewis, the scandal followed him. Sun released a new single titled "High School Confidential," but it tumbled rapidly off the charts. Lewis would never reach the U.S. Top 20 again.
Knocked down but not defeated, he carried on. In the late-'60s and most of the '70s, he recorded a number of rock, country, and gospel sides for the Mercury label. There were a few successful singles, but the Killer seemed increasingly burnt-out and unreliable. During the late-'70s and early '80s, he saw several marriages fall apart, the deaths of his parents, and the loss of his oldest son in a road accident. He constantly battled the tax man and the bottle.
Luckily, things started turning around in 1986 with his induction to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the production of the movie Great Balls of Fire, for which Lewis was called in to sing the songs for the soundtrack. A series of box sets and compilations celebrating his legacy followed — as did a surge of new interest in his vast catalog of studio and live albums. Fans and critics dug deeper into Lewis's work as an artist, rather than as a notorious scoundrel or some sort.
A new box set titled Jerry Lee Lewis: A Half Century of Hits recently hit stores as well. The three-disc collection features the official release of "New Orleans Boogie" — a self-recorded demo Lewis made as a teen — along with every major country hit, previously unreleased live recordings, additional rare performances, and a cover of Lefty Frizzell's "Don't Stay Away."
The newly-released Last Man Standing pairs Lewis with the likes of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, John Fogerty, Bruce Springsteen, Jimmy Page, and Kid Rock, among other stars on a solid collection of stripped-down rock 'n' roll, melancholy country ballads, vintage blues, and folk songs. It's a worthwhile effort that demonstrates the wild and softer sides of a genuine rock legend.