After the 2012 aggravated arson attack on our offices, we lost more than our home and sense of safety in the city we love; we also lost all the tangible memorabilia of our more than twenty years of work.

In the wake of this attack, WWAV sustained our rebuilding process by making new memories – uniting our members to craft policy campaigns for combatting the policies impacting their lives; microfinance projects for expanding their employment possibilities; and trauma healing circles for sustaining their community with one another. On the one-year anniversary of the arson attack, WWAV was able to take our healing work retrospective, with the help of board member, Laura McTighe.
Laura first joined forces with WWAV in 2008 through the NO Justice Project, and since has served as our resident storyteller.  We were thrilled when she approached us in 2013 about launching an oral history project to document the lives and stories of the people who have guided WWAV over the last two decades.
Entitled “Born in Flames,” the WWAV oral history project is a living embodiment of Executive Director, Deon Haywood’s words after the arson attack, “Fire has long been used as a tool of terror in the South, but we also know that it can be a force for rebirth.”  We also love the nod to Lizzie Borden’s 1983 film with the same name.
Laura’s work to collect the life histories of WWAV’s many foremothers is made possible, in part, through the support of her doctoral program in the Department of Religion at Columbia University. The “Born in Flames” interviews will be foundational for her dissertation.
Additionally, Laura will be working with WWAV to build a readily accessible online archive of the “Born in Flames” project.  Over the next five years, she will be recording, transcribing and editing hundreds of interviews.  Our anticipated release date is May 24, 2019, the seven-year anniversary of the arson attack.  Please get in touch with Laura or Deon if you are interested in participating!