MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
History plays out onstage in New Orleans tomorrow as the city remembers the events of 20 years ago, the hurricane, massive flooding, the immense destruction. One of the ways memories are being preserved and history is being honored is through art, through storytelling and through hip-hop. It's all the idea of Anthony Bean.
ANTHONY BEAN: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) Oh, my children, didn't it rain.
BEAN: Through.
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL GROUP: (Singing) And it rained through...
MARTIN: Bean runs a community theater. Earlier this week, we caught some of the rehearsal for his original work, "504 NOLA," a youth-centered hip-hop play.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Start with your right hand and your right leg.
BEAN: So in the beginning, we talk about when the hurricane hit. And you saw the umbrella, so didn't it rain. So you got the umbrella. It opens up very dramatic. It opens up with all the lights off in the auditorium. And you see flashlights.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, screaming).
BEAN: They say, is there anybody here? We got you. Look, there's a kid over here.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Mama.
MARTIN: Most of the performers were born in the years after Katrina. The dancers spin and sway, twirling amid long scarves that evoke the Mississippi River churning.
BEAN: We did the whole first act, where we add the flashlight scene and the hurricane. We call it the riverfront, where the dancers out there become the river and the water and how that breached the...
MARTIN: The levees?
BEAN: The levees breached.
MARTIN: Levees, right.
BEAN: So they become the water.
MARTIN: The dancers make the most of the space in Bean's tight home studio.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Your music is on. Make the audience feel something.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, singing) Oh, somebody's fallen before me (ph).
MARTIN: It's a story that belongs to the generations that came before them. But it lives on through them, perhaps even shaping them in ways they might not fully understand.
BEAN: One of the ideas came from a young man. He's 20. He commandeered a bus.
MARTIN: I know about it.
BEAN: And he...
MARTIN: Yeah, I know about it. And drove his family.
BEAN: And he drove his family.
MARTIN: Yes.
BEAN: And just picking up people, like - what is it? - Harriet Tubman, picking up people. And there was a lot of young people, rolling people in the wheelchair going to the helicopters. There was young people involved. They are silent.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, singing) Oh, somebody's fallen before me (ph).
MARTIN: You don't hear many stories of Katrina's young heroes, teenagers who took matters into their own hands and helped rescue family members and neighbors.
BEAN: They've been erased. You have nothing. There's no proof that teenagers, young people, have helped in saving lives.
MARTIN: Bean is trying to change that with "504 NOLA, " 504 being the area code for New Orleans.
BEAN: "504," it talks about, well, being very real here, about after the hurricane. They was trying to turn the Lower Ninth Ward in the east, which is a predominantly Black community, which is the poorest hit community, they wanted to turn that into a green space. And we got wind of it, that they didn't want the Black people back.
MARTIN: Bean's play captures the resilience of the Ninth Ward, of the young and indeed of New Orleans itself, forever changed by Katrina but still creating, making itself anew.
(SOUNDBITE OF JUVENILE AND BABY SONG, "BOUNCE BACK") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
