City of Refuge

This week Otterbein is hosting Tom Piazza, the author of our common book, City of Refuge. Yesterday I was able to attend his convocation in Cowan Hall and i just recently watched a production of a portrayal of the book put on by Otterbein theater students. Each event was remarkable. Tuesday, the day of convocation, Tom Piazza gave a great presentation. All of Cowan Hall was filled, and I was extremely excited just to say that I have met and heard a real author. Mr. Piazza talked about how he first came to write his book, although he was not in New Orleans at the time Katrina hit, he stated that his dislocation from the city was almost worse. He even related the feeling to that of a loved one being in harm and you being incapable of helping her in anyway. His presentation also put things into a different perspective for me. He said that Katrina was not only a physical disaster but a spiritual disaster. People were forced to begin a new life or recreate their old one. They had to take a risk, they had to believe. In today's theatre performance there were  three scenes, each with a different acting group. The production was heartwarming, I even got chills halfway through. Each scene reflected a different scenario that the students felt would have occurred during or after the disaster. It was the last scene that touched me the most. This one included a song entitled, "Dear Daddy". In the scene there were different relationships but each person had lost a loved one and was mourning the loss in a different way. Each person of the different relationship sang their own part of the song, but in the end everyone came together in harmony. Although each person was dealing with the tragedy in their own way, each was able to find comfort in that they were not alone.