![The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken by [Pierce, Wendell, Dreher, Rod]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Ey7YnXUEL._SY346_.jpg)
Audible book:
Wendell Pierce is a Julliard-trained artist who has acted in films, television and stage. This Renaissance man has also produced plays, hosts Jazz at Lincoln Center, and is a civil rights activist and community leader. With the publishing of his first book, The Wind in the Reeds: A storm, a play, and the city that would not be broken, Pierce can now add the title of author to his impressive resume. Co-written with Rod Dreher, The Wind in the Reeds is a moving and eloquently written book about family, art and New Orleans. It is also a book about hope and triumph.
The Wind in the Reeds opens with Wendell Pierce flying into New Orleans to visit with his aging parents. Pierce, the great-grandson of slaves, grew up in the city’s first development for middle-class African Americans, Pontchartrain Park. Little did he know that during his visit, Hurricane Katrina would come barreling up the Gulf and change his life, along with the lives of all New Orleanians, forever. Much of this book deals with Pierce’s family—their history, their emphasis on education, their discipline, their deep faith, and especially, their never-ending love. His family (along with all those other families in Pontchartrain Park) “gave a young boy who grew up there, in a loving community of faith, family, and high expectations, the confidence and nurturing he needed to become an artist.” The book also highlights Pierce’s journey to become a professional actor. I think it is in this transformation that we see Pierce’s true passion, which actually borders on a religious experience. At first, he believes that acting is about reciting lines and performing. He comes to realize that acting “is much closer to psychology than I had considered, or even to religion. It is about cultivating the ability to open yourself to a powerful spirit, and at the right moment, make that spirit incarnate in your character, and in turn make that spirit, and that character, come to life in the hearts and minds of your audience, in that moment of communion.”
The Wind in the Reeds is also about Hurricane Katrina and how those left in her wake had to deal with her wrath. After she had passed, “There was nothing but a sea of night where once a thriving neighborhood had been. It was the abyss, a black hole or death and desolation, and a darkness so intense that many in New Orleans feared no light could ever overcome it.” Katrina made Pierce recognize the gifts that New Orleans had given to him, and he details what he did to not only help his parents rebuild their house and their lives, but to bring back Pontchartrain Park. This becomes his gift to his community.
Fans of Wendell Pierce will enjoy his descriptions about working on The Wire and Treme’. On a personal level, I was also very moved by the stories about his mother, and especially, her death. It is something I am facing right now with my own mom. I have tickets to see Wendell Pierce at the Free Library of Philadelphia next month and look forward to hearing him in person.
Review
“Wendell Pierce’s uplifting memoir The Wind in the Reeds explores the transformative role theater played in healing New Orleans post-Katrina.”—O Magazine
“The Wind in the Reeds tells of his deep roots in the city, the catastrophe of Katrina, and his experience acting in David Simon’s celebrated series. The center of the book is his intertwined effort to put on Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” in post-Katrina New Orleans and to help bring back his old neighborhood.”—Salon
“A must-read for fans of the two HBO television series that helped make the New Orleans-born actor a star… The Wind in the Reeds is Pierce's passionate, politically critical musing on the life-altering decade since Hurricane Katrina and the 2005 floods.”—New Orleans Times-Picayune
“Part memoir, part history lesson, the book takes readers through Pierce’s own connection to the city and his "role of a lifetime" in the HBO series Treme. He spoke by phone about his book, the power of art and the process of rebuilding his hometown.”—LA Times
“Pierce writes warmly and admiringly of his forebears, a strong and close-knit family whose roots run deep in Assumption Parish. He tells, too, of his own childhood there, pushed to excel by a passionate and strong-willed mother, and of his eventual success as an actor in New York and Los Angeles. The thread that ties it all together, along with family, is a love for creativity, a belief that '[a]rt tells us who we are, and it tells us who we must become.' In the wake of tragedy, loss, and dislocation, Pierce suggests, it’s our art that will help us survive.”—Boston Globe
“Pierce may well be as synonymous with New Orleans as the Crescent City’s music… Pierce proves he is as adept a storyteller as he is an actor with The Wind in the Reeds. Pierce’s electrifying narrative takes us back to the morning of August 29, 2005, and his family’s Pontchartrain Park home. In a poignant voice, he pens a love letter to kin and community.”—Essence
“Pierce narrates his story of the actor’s life as a kind of hunt for empathy and for greater understanding of the spiritual usefulness of the creative life… In such difficult times, a hopeful vision like Pierce’s is welcome.”—Chapter 16
“Wendell Pierce and Rod Dreher hurtle through The Wind in the Reeds.”—Vanity Fair
“The soaring and eloquent voice of Wendell Pierce, one of New Orleans's most famous sons, will inspire you to cheer. This is more than a memoir. It's an adventure in history, encompassing the timeless elements that propelled this fourth-generation grandson of a slave into one of the most important dramatic actors of our age: family, art, truth, religion, and of course a mother's love. This is a story of sacrifice and blood struggle, of victory and selflessness, told with deep humility and grace by one of the most important American artists in our generation.”—James McBride author of The Color of Water and The Good Lord Bird
“But we also see Pierce animated by Katrina's devastations. He has become deeply involved in community restoration—he was able to get his parents back in their storm-ravaged home—and has some sharp words for the politicians and their cronies, many of whom complicate things. It's appropriate that Pierce's work is something of a gumbo—a mix of memoir, social psychology, literary analysis, and political and religious philosophy… An affecting account of a driven man, a sturdy family, and a resilient community.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Pierce’s post-Katrina benefit and rebuilding work shows that, especially in devastating times, humans need be reminded of the beauty of the world, the power of art in all forms to raise one’s spirits, and the knowledge that one can make a difference.”—Booklist
“A moving memoir by the well-known actor, familiar to many from his stellar performances in The Wire and Treme. Written with Rod Dreher, this is a loving tribute to growing up in New Orleans as part of a strong family, and Pierce’s ongoing efforts to bring back Pontchartrain Park.”—New Orleans Advocate
“[A] poignant memoir by the actor (The Wire, Treme) and New Orleans native about his efforts to help rebuild his hometown, including a now-legendary production of 'Waiting for Godot' staged in two of the city's most damaged neighborhoods.”—Tampa Bay Times
“The Wind in the Reeds tells of his deep roots in the city, the catastrophe of Katrina, and his experience acting in David Simon’s celebrated series. The center of the book is his intertwined effort to put on Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” in post-Katrina New Orleans and to help bring back his old neighborhood.”—Salon
“A must-read for fans of the two HBO television series that helped make the New Orleans-born actor a star… The Wind in the Reeds is Pierce's passionate, politically critical musing on the life-altering decade since Hurricane Katrina and the 2005 floods.”—New Orleans Times-Picayune
“Part memoir, part history lesson, the book takes readers through Pierce’s own connection to the city and his "role of a lifetime" in the HBO series Treme. He spoke by phone about his book, the power of art and the process of rebuilding his hometown.”—LA Times
“Pierce writes warmly and admiringly of his forebears, a strong and close-knit family whose roots run deep in Assumption Parish. He tells, too, of his own childhood there, pushed to excel by a passionate and strong-willed mother, and of his eventual success as an actor in New York and Los Angeles. The thread that ties it all together, along with family, is a love for creativity, a belief that '[a]rt tells us who we are, and it tells us who we must become.' In the wake of tragedy, loss, and dislocation, Pierce suggests, it’s our art that will help us survive.”—Boston Globe
“Pierce may well be as synonymous with New Orleans as the Crescent City’s music… Pierce proves he is as adept a storyteller as he is an actor with The Wind in the Reeds. Pierce’s electrifying narrative takes us back to the morning of August 29, 2005, and his family’s Pontchartrain Park home. In a poignant voice, he pens a love letter to kin and community.”—Essence
“Pierce narrates his story of the actor’s life as a kind of hunt for empathy and for greater understanding of the spiritual usefulness of the creative life… In such difficult times, a hopeful vision like Pierce’s is welcome.”—Chapter 16
“Wendell Pierce and Rod Dreher hurtle through The Wind in the Reeds.”—Vanity Fair
“The soaring and eloquent voice of Wendell Pierce, one of New Orleans's most famous sons, will inspire you to cheer. This is more than a memoir. It's an adventure in history, encompassing the timeless elements that propelled this fourth-generation grandson of a slave into one of the most important dramatic actors of our age: family, art, truth, religion, and of course a mother's love. This is a story of sacrifice and blood struggle, of victory and selflessness, told with deep humility and grace by one of the most important American artists in our generation.”—James McBride author of The Color of Water and The Good Lord Bird
“But we also see Pierce animated by Katrina's devastations. He has become deeply involved in community restoration—he was able to get his parents back in their storm-ravaged home—and has some sharp words for the politicians and their cronies, many of whom complicate things. It's appropriate that Pierce's work is something of a gumbo—a mix of memoir, social psychology, literary analysis, and political and religious philosophy… An affecting account of a driven man, a sturdy family, and a resilient community.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Pierce’s post-Katrina benefit and rebuilding work shows that, especially in devastating times, humans need be reminded of the beauty of the world, the power of art in all forms to raise one’s spirits, and the knowledge that one can make a difference.”—Booklist
“A moving memoir by the well-known actor, familiar to many from his stellar performances in The Wire and Treme. Written with Rod Dreher, this is a loving tribute to growing up in New Orleans as part of a strong family, and Pierce’s ongoing efforts to bring back Pontchartrain Park.”—New Orleans Advocate
“[A] poignant memoir by the actor (The Wire, Treme) and New Orleans native about his efforts to help rebuild his hometown, including a now-legendary production of 'Waiting for Godot' staged in two of the city's most damaged neighborhoods.”—Tampa Bay Times
About the Author
Wendell Pierce was born in New Orleans and is an actor and Tony Award-winning producer. He starred in all five seasons of the acclaimed HBO drama The Wire and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for the role. He also starred in the HBO series Treme and has appeared in many feature films including Selma, Ray, Waiting to Exhale and Hackers. Since Hurricane Katrina, Pierce has been helping to rebuild the flood-ravaged Pontchartrain Park neighborhood in New Orleans.
Rod Dreher has been a writer, columnist and critic for a variety of publications, including National Review, The Wall Street Journal, and the Dallas Morning News. He is the author of Crunchy Cons and The Little Way of Ruthie Leming.
Rod Dreher has been a writer, columnist and critic for a variety of publications, including National Review, The Wall Street Journal, and the Dallas Morning News. He is the author of Crunchy Cons and The Little Way of Ruthie Leming.
