Child and art therapist Karla Leopold at Renaissance Village, post-Hurricane Katrina
Art Therapy with Children
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When Katrina Happened, Children Drew: Three Years Later
By Cathy Malchiodi on August 28, 2008 in The Healing Arts, Psychology Today
It’s the eve of the third anniversary of a disaster that literally drowned a city, displaced thousands, and remains a reminder of failed recovery efforts. Three years later, some children are coping while others still struggle.
I visited the Ninth Ward area of New Orleans earlier this year. Traveling through neighborhoods on pot-holed streets I saw houses being rebuilt along side residences that were abandoned in 2005. Some homes still had the ominous X symbol used by rescuers in the first days after the flood to indicate that a structure had been searched for the living and the dead. While driving past a row of homes near the levee, a young and strikingly beautiful girl walked down the sidewalk toward the car. I rolled down the window to say hello, but was greeted to my surprise by a 7-year-old’s rage—unsmiling, she extended her middle finger at me. Her anger was tangible and unforgettable.
