Another Kind of City: Kalamu ya Salaam in conversation with Joshua B. Guild

Abstract: In this interview, New Orleans writer, editor, educator, and political activist Kalamu ya Salaam reflects on his formative intellectual and political influences and the impact of Hurricane Katrina on his hometown after two decades. Raised in the Lower Ninth Ward after World War II, Salaam credits his parents and several influential teachers for cultivating his curiosities, introducing him to Black history, and inspiring his ambitions to write. Salaam was active in the local civil rights movement as a teenager. Later, he was mentored by writer Tom Dent, who introduced Salaam to leading figures in Black letters and nurtured his appreciation for Black New Orleans culture. Salaam frames Katrina as a major dividing line in the city’s history, characterized by the forced displacement of African American New Orleanians. He concludes that while the city endures, Katrina produced profound and devasting change.