Speaker One Sheet

February 22nd, 2024

“As the years have passed, many accounts of the disaster (Hurricane Katrina) have assumed certain facts. However, your work demonstrates that many core assumptions of the disaster were not understood and remain unknown to many.”

M. DARRYL WOODS

RESEARCHER, WRITER, HISTORIAN, ARCHIVIST, PRODUCER, PUBLISHER, SPEAKER, PHILANTHROPIST

Shedding new light on what REALLY happened in and around New Orleans during the 2005 Hurricane Katrina Response…

M. Darryl Woods founded the Afromation Educational Movement to Integrate American History in Seattle on March 26, 1994. This non-profit research, cultural and social entrepreneurial organization’s mission included the promotion of Black historical contributions.

Sixteen years ago this summer, the world watched in dismay the humanitarian crisis down on the bayou called “Katrina.”

On September 7, 2005, M. Woods joined the Katrina Relief Efforts. What started off as house gutting volunteering in the New Oreleans Seventh Ward, quickly lead to Woods interviewing returning evacuees, residents and survivors. On July 7, 2006, a chance eye-opening interview with two Delta Airlines VPs led to Woods expanding his oral history project to cover metropolitan, out-state, state, out of state and federal responders. All four military branches eager to have their Katrina experiences brought to light granting him access to their personnel, documents and media content as well.

Woods went on to become an expert on the Hurricane Katrina Response, co-founding The Contraflow Project (TCP) in ’08; a non-profit research organization whose purpose is to tell the Responders’ Big Easy experiences, provide a better understanding of the series of events during the Katrina Response, help prevent other communities from becoming the next “New Orleans,” and to help bring closure to the responders, survivors and all those affected by the (still) largest natural disaster in American History.

~PAST PUBLIC APPEARANCES: Eleven years on the “Afromation Highway” (1994 to 2005) grass movement, speaking from coast to coast. Then eleven years documenting in and around Post-Katrina New Orleans; finally speaking publicly about Katrina for the first time in my hometown of Omaha at Metro College in May ’16;

~PRESENTATION TOPICS: “A Katrina Biography: Anatomy of a Mega Disaster”; “Three Shades of Black History” (February);

~SPEAKER EXPERTISE: Hurricane Katrina Response; Post-Katrina New Orleans; Black History; American History

~TARGET AUDIENCE (for New Orleans Presentations): College Students & Faculty; Law Enforcement; Public Safety & Medical Professionals; Military Personnel; Aviation Enthusiasts; Religious Organizations; Governmental Workers; Emergency Managers; Journalists; Corporate Employee Groups

~PUBLICATIONS: AFROMATION: 366 Days of American History (1994, 2000); CONTRAFLOW: A Katrina Heptalogy (2025);

~BIOGRAPHY: posting soon…

‘Down in New Orleans’
Lecture Series

A Katrina Biography from M. Darryl Woods

THE KATRINA BIOGRAPHER

“I believe that once the sequence of events is understood the true story of Katrina can be understood,” says Woods.

You can follow The Contraflow Project 7-part book series updates on our social media sites. #WritingKatrina, #KatrinaBiographer, #RestOfTheStory, #AfromationHighway

“As a writer and researcher, I have some experience with the enormity of your task. The book I edited on Katrina, After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina, was released on the anniversary of the deluge. At the time, much was not known about many of the important details. As the years have passed, many accounts of the disaster have assumed certain facts. However, your work demonstrates that many core assumptions of the disaster were not understood and remain unknown to many.”

-Professor David Troutt, Rutgers School of Law