New Orleans, LA, 2/5/09 — Nik Richard, an urban planning senior at the University of New Orleans and life long resident of Gentilly, has decided to actively participate in the political process by announcing his candidacy for State Representative, District 97.

Ever since evacuating for Hurricane Katrina, Richard has been highly motivated to return to his city and partake in the rebuilding process. He has worked tirelessly towards bringing national attention to the issues in New Orleans. In June of 2008, he was awarded an NAACP award for a short film that he created to bring the recovery of New Orleans to a global stage.

Richard has been a Traffic court clerk for 3 years, and has worked closely with the New Orleans City Planning Commission during his internship at City Hall. Richard says, “The experience I’ve gained in the public administration process has inspired me to step up to the challenge of public service.” Richard knows he can bring the full time commitment and desire to The House of Representatives that the residents of District 97 need in order to spark a new era of recovery in the city of New Orleans, as well as the State of Louisiana. “Community based development and the recovery process begins with the people. District 97 has some of the strongest most effective neighborhood organizations in this city; the recovery has started with them and will continue to be successful with their involvement and leadership”, says Richard.

“I believe that I represent a new generation of effectiveness in this state, a generation that is willing to become involved in the issues that we see and read about in the news, a generation that has decided to devote the majority of their lives in making our communities a better place for the generations that will follow.”

Richard is in the process of contacting citizens to familiarize them with his qualifications and his plans for action. The house seat became available with the recent election of J.P. Morrell to the Louisiana Senate. The special election will be held on April 4th, 2009.

They say nothing good ever happens after midnight. Well, its 2:oo in the morning and I’m reading over current qualifying sheets and legal documents as I plan to donate my good name to the tainted game of politics, and make my first run for office… something I have been considering for quite some time. I have heard this question many times before, but even now I have to ask myself…. why politics? Why risk the integrity of your artwork to become a politician? Why not put your degree to good use and get a nice well paying job? Why sacrifice whatever reputation you have built for yourself to open up your views and ideals to public scrutiny?

Continue Reading »

So I haven’t been watching TV much lately, but from what I hear there is some clamoring going on about a recession, or a stock market crash, something fishy gong down on wall street and some black guy running for president… I think. Its like Gizmo said, every time they have a black man or a woman president in a movie it’s always the end of the world… maybe. I sleep most of my mornings away and work late into the nights, so sometimes I’m too self absorbed to be socially aware, but its like I woke up one day and everybody was running to take their money out of the banks, and my grandfather was talking something about nobody is going to have a job anymore, blah blah.. something about pensions, ramble ramble… were moving to London. Now I’m still confuse as to what exactly all the panic is about and I don’t know exactly what kind of ganking this government is planning on, but one thing I do know is that there is always one group of people whose economic value could never decrease no matter how much the dollar plummets, and the threat of a job loss never applied to them…. or us… artist.

Continue Reading »