When I first went to Duncan Plaza in mid-November of 2011, it was as a citizen journalist and supporter. I'd spent October and early November staying in a hotel in Baton Rouge where my boyfriend at the time was working on location as an electrician for the movies. I'd been watching dogs there, walking them in the parking lot of the hotel, working online, and watching friends of mine upload photographs from October 6 - the first day of Occupy NOLA - on Facebook.
As October bled into November, I started watching livestream from Occupy LA and Occupy San Fransisco but couldn't find much about Occupy NOLA online. So my introduction to the national Occupy movement was through livestream, but I had to go to Duncan Plaza in real life to find Occupy NOLA, which I did when I returned to New Orleans in November (I first went to Duncan Plaza on November 18).
Sometimes I'm sad that I missed the beginning (almost all) of the encampment. Today I've been finding videos of Occupy NOLA on YouTube and sharing them here.
On October 6, 2012 it will have been one year since the beginning of Occupy NOLA. Here is what it was like the first day:
Yesterday, two writers interviewed me and Robert about Occupy NOLA, and as I tried to show them the encampment on Google maps, Robert noticed that the satellite of Duncan shows the encampment.
In my quest to learn more about Occupy NOLA and to create some type of archive of its history, I've even found YouTube footage of the square dancing that occurred in Duncan.
I'll try to post a more cohesive history after I interview some people who were there before I was.
With love and solidarity,
~ small affair
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