WORD A Creative Writing Commentary

Author: ABIGAIL MITCHELL

Last Tuesday, rainy and abysmal as it was, a crowd gathered in the seats of BiHall 216 to hear writer Tom Piazza read from his new book "Why New Orleans Matters." Born in Long Island, NY, Piazza is a graduate of both Williams College and the Iowa's Writers' Workshop. Currently he is a fiction and music writer with six published books including the novel "My Cold War," the short story collection "Blues And Trouble" and the reference work "The Guide To Classic Recorded Jazz." Drawn to its musical history and culture, Piazza moved to New Orleans in 1987, a place he has called home until recently.

Piazza began his talk by describing the distinctive cultural web of New Orleans. He used a simile to compare the city's culture to an elaborate textile into which the music, food, dance and land are all interwoven. "I love New Orleans the way you love a person. It has a soul. It is a profoundly moving thing that is going on there - spiritually," Piazza said. Despite the somewhat clichéd similes, Piazza's tone throughout the talk was so sincere that I had to believe in the absolute authenticity of his sentiments.

After a suggestion from his editor, Piazza wrote his book "Why New Orleans Matters" in the span of five weeks. The book set out to answer the question "Why does New Orleans matter - not just to locals but to American culture?" Piazza described the work as "a memory book," and the writing process as "cathartic but corrosive."

After his prelude, Piazza read a section of his work in which he describes a jazz funeral. With descriptions that my ear found as smooth as a muted trumpet solo, Piazza related the funeral, "At first, a crowd gathers in the streets outside the church - vagrants, curious onlookers and friends of the deceased, each representing a different point on the spectrum of sobriety. The band breaks into a slow dirge as the pall bearers bring the body out and load it onto the awaiting carriage. The procession begins. In the old days," Piazza continued, "the whole crowd would break into vigorous dance; occasionally, the mother of the deceased would dance on top of her son's casket."

Why such merriment? It is the celebration of life in the face of acute awareness of inevitable death. It is the understanding that universal life is bigger than any individual life. Dancing is a manifestation of grief and celebration occurring simultaneously - the two opposing forces combining to create something harmonious and fluid. According to Piazza, it is part of the spirit of New Orleans that it can embody such opposites, and can see "an affirmation of life in the teeth of dissolution and hardship."