Never forgetting Katrina: “When people ask me ‘how’s business,’ [it’s] you know, different”

Editor’s Note: We don’t need to try and “remember” Katrina because the aftermath is still with us–from the trauma that impacts the growing youth to the displaced populations who never got to make it back home. In honor of the people who banned together in help, who clung to their lives and their home, and who post mark their lives as ‘pre-Katrina’ and ‘post-Katrina,’ we are publishing oral histories from the people who lived through the storm and who want to tell their “Katrina story” in their own words. 

What is tradition’s place in a changing city? What is the future of French bread in the new New Orleans? Fourth-generation New Orleans baker and po’ boy advocate Jason Gendusa discusses the impacts of Hurricane Katrina on his business, his clientele, his family, and his neighborhood, as he takes a break from the ovens at his bakery in Gentilly.

[Editor’s Note: This reflection was captured as part of an English class taught by Gaurav Desai to document memories of Hurricane Katrina. It was originally posted on March 24, 2014.]