Five months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, the future of New Orleans remains mired in doubt and bureaucracy. When the mainstream media shelves substantive debate over the city’s rebuilding to decipher Mayor Nagin’s “Chocolate City” speech, the art world picks up the slack. Two local exhibits and a new play examine The Big Easy, the city and the idea. more ›

There are so, so many immediate things of which to mourn and be saddened by over the course of these past few days. Please excuse the phrase, but once Chicagoist starts thinking of all of the ways in which Katrina is fucking up the lives of our friends down south, we can barely wrap our brains around it all. more ›