HBO’s Treme and Post-Katrina Catharsis

Edited by Dominique Gendrin; Catherine Dessinges and Shearon Roberts - Foreword by Dave Walker - Contributions by Gregory Adamo; Aurelie Godet; Wendy Hajjar; Ariane Hudelet; Johnny Jones; Helen Morgan Parmett; Kristin Shamas and Lynnell Thomas

Ten years after Hurricane Katrina, outsiders will have two versions of the Katrina experience. One version will be the images they recall from news coverage of the aftermath. The other will be the intimate portrayal of the determination of New Orleans residents to rebuild and recover their lives. HBO's Treme offers outsiders an inside look into why New Orleanians refused to abandon a place that many questioned should not be rebuilt after the levees failed. This critically acclaimed series expanded the boundaries of television making in its format, plot, casting, use of music, and realism-in-fictionalized-TV. However, Treme is not just a story for the outside gaze on New Orleans. It was a very local, collaborative experience where the show's creators sought to enlist the city in a commemorative project. Treme allowed many in the city who worked as principals, extras, and who tuned in as avid viewers to heal from the devastation of the disaster as they experimented with art, imitating life, imitating art. This book examines the impact of HBOs Treme not just as television making, but in the sense in which television provides a window to our worlds. The book pulls together scholarship in media, communications, gender, area studies, political economy, critical studies, African American studies and music to explain why Treme was not just about television.

Forward - Dave Walker, TV writer, The Times-PicayunePreface - Dominique M. Gendrin, Catherine Dessinges, and Shearon RobertsChapter 1: Introduction - Dominique M. Gendrin, Catherine Dessinges, and Shearon RobertsTreme: Power and RepresentationChapter 2: Selling Tremé through the Home Box Office - Shearon RobertsChapter 3: Treme Tourism and Governing the Post-Katrina City - Helen Morgan ParmettChapter 4: New Tourist Sights, Slights, and Sleights-of-Hand in Treme - Lynnell ThomasChapter 5: Racialization of Urban Spaces in Treme - Dominique M. GendrinChapter 6: Treme and Its Engaged Audience - Catherine DessingesChapter 7: Social Change and Networks in Treme - Kristin ShamasTreme: Culture and RepresentationChapter 8: Treme: Reclaiming the Foundations of Music in Treme - Gregory AdamoChapter 9: Treme as an Experimental TV Series - Ariane HudeletChapter 10: Multiple Representations of Mardi Gras in Treme - Aurelie GodetChapter 11: Treme: Narrative Blackness in the Great American Cable Television Drama - Johnny JonesChapter 12: A Feminist Perspective on Treme - Wendy Hajjar