For Immediate Release: 15 August 2008                          
Contact Person: Pat Jasper
Phone: (512) 459-3495; Cell: (512) 484-1180
email: PatJasper@earthlink.net

Thank You, Houston:
A Celebration of Gulf Coast Voices Music and Food

Houston's Katrina community comes together on Saturday, September 13, to commemorate the third anniversary of the hurricane and to express its thanks by sharing some the rich traditions they brought with them to Houston. There will be music by the Blue Bonnet Brass Band, a group of native New Orleanians whose members relocated to Houston both before and as a result of the hurricane. Al "Carnival Time" Johnson - who spent almost two years in Houston after the storm -- will kick off the performances with his signature repetoire of Mardi Gras tunes. In the park's Houston Public Library Express, a video version of the photo/audio exhibition, WHO WE ARE, will be playing. In addition, patrons may checkout headsets loaded with podcasts focusing on stories of thanks and gratitutde recorded from survivors by the Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston project. A workshop on Mardi Gras Indian suit making will start at 6:30. And last but not least, hearty servings of red beans and rice and jambalaya will be available to all comers - while they last.

Thank You, Houston will take place from 6:30 - 9 pm at Discovery Green, just outside the George R. Brown Convention Center, where thousands of Katrina survivors were welcomed and housed in September 2005.

Thank You, Houston is sponsored by the Surviving Katrina and Rita in Houston project, the Houston Institute for Culture and Discovery Green. Thank You, Houston is funded in part with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast, Discovery Green, Houston Arts Alliance and the Houston Endowment.