Not long after returning from a week in immediate-post-Katrina New Orleans, I submitted this brief essay to the excellent Chicago Public Radio program 848. It’s a wonderful, low-key show that puts listeners in touch with a broad spectrum of professional and non-professional writers reading in their own voices.  My segment aired on December 22, 2005. Here it is, along with the capsule description from the 848 website:

http://66.251.226.131/audio_library/ram_2005/848/848_20051222e.ram

Ira Brooker—Graduate Student in the Department of Fiction Writing at Columbia College Chicago

New Orleanian-turned-Chicagoan Ira Brooker reflects on how the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina has made him a better Chicagoan.

Music Button: Jeff Chan, “Twilight,” from the CD In Chicago, Asian Improv Records