NOLAbound Applicant Details

In what city do you currently reside?

Los Angeles, CA

What do you love the most about where you live?

Scratch the shallow surface of L.A. and you’ll discover an amazing mix of cities, towns and neighborhoods more diverse than any other place I’ve lived in.  Mix it in with incredibly rich amount of ethnic restaurants, farmers markets, great weather and gorgeous beaches, and interesting characters trying to break into “the industry”, and you’ve got a sometimes crazy, never boring place to draw inspiration from.

If I could avoid driving (and the smog that comes with it), I’d stay.

In what other cities have you lived?

San Francisco. Malden, Ma (just north of Boston)

What is/was your favorite city and why?

Upon moving there, San Francisco, California felt like graduate school to me.  There I discovered the legacy of underground comix.  After moving to the city from the east coast, I began to find my voice,  incorporating issues of social justice, race, politics…My work got deeper.

The City by the Bay is an amazing place for artists.  It’s expensive, but when you’re young, you don’t mind sharing an apartment with 4 other people. It’s a small, walkable city where I never owned a car the 16 years that I lived there.  In L.A., a car is a necessity.

Like New Orleans, a walk through S.F. is a joy….where stumbling upon some crazy, wacky, artsy event is a regular occurrence. 

So many folks mentored me and showed me how to incorporate activism into my work.  And how to work within, and outside,  the establishment.

I also met my wife and some of my closest friends in the Bay Area, and continue to do a lot of work there to this day. 

I also found a great dentist.

What do you hope to gain from NOLAbound?

New Orleans has been a very spiritual and inspirational place to me, and the focus of more than a few of my comic strips.  A return trip through NOLAbound would allow me to see the progress the city has made since my last post-Katrina visit four years ago.  And I’m doubly excited to connect with a lot of these amazing applicants!  The fact that so many interesting, talented and driven folk have applied is a testament to the attraction of New Orleans—and I look forward to doing my part in service to such a wonderful city.

What is your overall opinion of New Orleans?

New Orleans has been a very spiritual and inspirational place to me, and the focus of more than a few of my comic strips.  A return trip through NOLAbound would allow me to see the progress the city has made since my last post-Katrina visit four years ago.  And I’m doubly excited to connect with a lot of these amazing applicants!  The fact that so many interesting, talented and driven folk have applied is a testament to the attraction of New Orleans—and I look forward to doing my part in service to such a wonderful city.

Along with San Francisco and New York, New Orleans is one of my favorite cities in the U.S.  I think it is a gorgeous city.. full of art, life, culture and certain intangibles that can’t be described.  I just tell people that you gotta visit.  There is so much potential and so many opportunities in the city that can go unnoticed, or even wasted.

New Orleans is the tragically beautiful result of everything that is right about the United States, and everything that is wrong.  (and I mean that as a compliment)

Single most important issue facing New Orleans?

The people.  The people of New Orleans are its most important asset.  If the people of New Orleans do not have the opportunity to better themselves through decent, free education, affordable housing and healthcare, healthy food and ample sustainable business opportunities, you will lose the heart and soul of New Orleans, its people.  You need the locals to show all the new folks moving to town how the Big Easy does it.

I’ve seen New Orleans without its people.  It’s a casino in Las Vegas.  It isn’t very nice.

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