Unnatural Disaster: Falling Through The Cracks After Katrina

Directed/Produced by Diana BoylstonDirected/Edited by Stephen Tyler

Biography

Long before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Diana Boylston became an advocate for the group of young people that would turn out to be "Katrina's Children". Before there was a storm called Katrina, these children were involved in another storm brewing in the city of New Orleans and the Inner City School System. Neither Diana's Education degree nor her Master of Fine Arts in Acting degree, could prepare her for teaching in that school system.

Armed with both her professional acting skills and over 12 years of teaching under her belt, she designed and presents a series of experiential communication workshops that develop self-esteem through creative dramatics. She repeatedly found that the students' increased confidence, uncovered during the workshops, continued into their regular class work.

Diana's workshops entitled "Empowerment through the Arts," were created to focus on today's youth in the transitional ages of 11 through 19 years old. Extensive research for her completed manuscript entitled "They're all at risk - How to keep your child from thinking like a loser," confirmed that many of the problems today's young people experience are common to all families, crossing race, financial and gender lines.

The seed for this project was planted many years ago when Diana's troubled 16-year-old sister died. Though just a young person herself, Diana saw signs of her sister's downward spiraling behavior, but had no experience or authority to demand that her sister get help. When she did discuss Donna's behavior with her parents and other adults, they assured her that it was just a "phase". They were wrong.

After the death of her sister, Diana spent several years pursuing a career as a singer, actress and voiceover artist. Although she still performs, whether in film and commercials, or touring theatrical productions, nothing has stopped her from being drawn to helping troubled teens.

After several years in the school system, Diana joined efforts with another teacher, Susan Holman, whose art students had already received recognition from the National Holocaust Museum. By the time the performance art piece was expanded by Diana's play and renamed "Louder than Words," the school's dance and art students had won national awards. The newly completed multi-media children's play on tolerance, toured to Washington D.C. and she co-wrote the play's closing number, "Give Me A Chance" with husband, composer Wesley Clark. A music video was created and featured in a news story on NBC.

The effects of Hurricane Katrina have resulted in the closing of schools in much of Metropolitan New Orleans for at least a year. Schoolteachers from Orleans Parish aren't being paid and have been told to collect unemployment in whatever state they have relocated. Displaced Louisiana students continue to have trouble in adjusting to their new schools and Diana has already been to three states in four weeks, consulting with the students and/or the administrators of their new schools.

In Diana's words, "We haven't even begun to see the results of the trauma our kids have experienced. Since Hurricane Katrina, I have a clear vision of what I'm supposed to do - speak to the children; speak for the children. I have a responsibility to get their stories out there and get their voices heard. This time, I can do something. This became clear to me after evacuating from the storm, sleeping on the side of the road, and staying in Houston until we were allowed to return home. While in Houston, I wrote and posted on the Internet, a brief story: "New Orleans Inner city schoolteacher moans possible loss of students - Putting a face on Hurricane Katrina's youngest victims " (See original story below.)

I received over 100 e-mails in three days and have flown to three states connecting with scattered young people who survived the storm. Much of my book, "They're all at risk - How to keep your child from thinking like a loser," contains conversations with young people as well as curriculums I've designed to help adults cope with - then connect to, our young.

Diana is a storyteller (both before and since Katrina) and these are true situations encountered in her experience as an educator, seminar director, and consultant. They are not theories or paradigms - they're tools she used in actual situations that parents and teachers face each day and that conventional educational approaches prove ineffective. After hundreds of conversations with thousands of students, she finds it's imperative to continue finding ways to reach and motivate young people, and then get their messages out to adults.