Once the Levees Break

Abstract: This essay recounts the author’s relationship to her lifelong home Bvlbancha/New Orleans, the history of humans in the Lower Mississippi River delta, and creative responses to contemporary climate precarity. Through childhood memories of a 1978 flood and environmental education, evacuation for Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and documentary filmmaking in its aftermath, and immersive experiences as director of Tulane’s New Orleans Center for the Gulf South and member of the international Anthropocene Commons, Snedeker addresses Indigenous erasure, white supremacy, and ongoing patterns of “spatial violence,” and the growing movement to counter these patterns and practice mutual aid and “vital relations.” The piece encourages consideration of both the long durée and the present, and, ultimately, relates the wellbeing of waters and place with the wellbeing of humanity. Accompanying the essay are artworks by Snedeker, the creation of which she has found to be a creative balm and source of agility.