XUTULAC students discuss gentrification with filmmaker Kurt Orderson

Student participants in the Xavier-Tulane Partnership for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (XUTULAC) were among the audience of over 70 people who attended the Altman Program screening of the film Not in My Neighborhood. The audience also included over twenty students from English as a Second Language (ESL) programs based at Tulane, many of whom have family origins in Central America and the Caribbean. The ESL instructors were excited to have a multilingual film with English subtitles for the their classes.

Orderson with Tulane Professor Z’Etoile Imma, who coordinated Film Discussion

Filmed by South African filmmaker Kurt Orderson of Azania Productions, Not in My Neighborhood showcases the global economic and cultural dynamics of urban residential developments and struggles over gentrification in Cape Town, South Africa; Sao Paulo, Brazil; and New York City, New York. Oderson is currently a resident of New Orleans, although he regularly travels all over the globe to screen Not in My Neighborhood and also to work on new projects. Orderson himself has roots in the Caribbean, being the grandson of an emigrant who left Barbados and ended up settling in South Africa. One of his earlier films, The Prodigal Son (2009), focuses on that family story.

“With all the conversations in New Orleans about housing needs and gentrification here, we were very excited to have a film with shares with students how those struggles are also happening in New York, in Cape Town, South Africa and in Sao Paulo, Brazil” explained Laura Rosanne Adderley, Associate Professor of History at Tulane. Dr. Adderley coordinates the XUTULAC project with Professor Shearon Roberts of Xavier University, who received her Ph.D. in Latin American Studies at Tulane.

Orderson with Tulane Students in Africana Studies

Over the four years of the XUTULAC partnership, Xavier students enrolled in Spanish, African Diaspora Studies, and Communications courses have participated in special events on both campuses. The partnership is based on the shared focus of peoples of African descent all over Latin America and the Caribbean. At the end of the semester, students and faculty from both classes get together for an event focused on ways that the Yoruba deity Changó continues to be celebrated in Cuba. This event was launched three years ago with Xavier University Spanish Professor Karen Becnel Moore

Sponsored by the Africana Studies Program and the Altman Program in Business and International Studies program at Tulane University.