Much of the story of Hurricane Katrina lived on the internet as the city reconnected during its diaspora. When Cynthia Joyce went looking for one vital account for a course she was teaching, she found the site down and the piece forgotten. This inspired her search for the works that became Please Forward: How Blogging Reconnected New Orleans After Katrina. Some of the writing included is famous and easily obtainable; a good percentage of the work is currently unavailable due to aging servers and broken links. Taken together, these pieces are powerful testament to the New Orleans blogging community who proved the internet could function as a crucial platform in a time of crisis.

Official Launch Party

WHAT: “Please Forward” launch party, featuring contributor readings and book signing

WHEN: Tuesday, August 18 at 7PM

WHERE: Press Street HQ (3718 St. Claude Ave.)

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Please-Forward/572978082845369

Other events in New Orleans:

• Thursday, Aug. 20, 6PM:  Octavia books reading/signing featuring readings by Deborah “Big Red” Cotton, Michael Homan, and Bart “Editor B” Everson (New Orleans, LA)

• Saturday, Aug. 29, 10:30AM: Rising Tide Conference – “What if we’d had Twitter? — An exercise in anachronistic tweets” (New Orleans, LA)