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Summer 2026—February 2027
2026 SFA Film Residency, with multi-city in-person experiences and monthly virtual workshops ⟶
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Renew
Summer 2026—February 2027
2026 SFA Film Residency, with multi-city in-person experiences and monthly virtual workshops ⟶

Oral Histories

The SFA oral history program documents life stories from the American South. Collecting these stories, we honor the people whose labor defines the region. If you would like to contribute to SFA’s oral history collections, please send your ideas for oral history along with your CV or Resume and a portfolio of prior oral history work to info@southernfoodways.org.

< Back to Oral History project: Mutual Aid Through Food: Community Care Networks in New Orleans

ORAL HISTORY

Spirit Paris McIntyre

Spirit Paris McIntyre (they/them) was born in Hyattsville, Maryland in 1977. Their parents met at a church in Washington, D.C. that had a robust meal program for people who were unhoused. This program gave a young McIntyre a strong sense of the importance of community support. A musician and multi-disciplinary artist in New Orleans, McIntyre was a founding member of Southern Solidarity, a mutual aid group that aims to secure basic needs for unhoused people in New Orleans.

Southern Solidarity formed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A few organizers started the group to deliver meals to people living outside when residents were told to stay at home to avoid infection. It has since grown into an operation that provides basic hygiene kits, clothing, as well as food through sustained distributions. McIntyre helped prepare meals, initiated a closet car for clothing deliveries, and trained new volunteers on distribution routes. By late 2021, as they returned to pre-pandemic work, McIntyre shifted away from the group.

Date of interview:
2022-04-11

Interviewer:
Carly Berlin

Photographer:
Katie Sikora

Download Transcript

“

“Once you connect with people and learn their needs, it’s often never that ‘I just need food’ when people are living at multiple intersections of need. Rarely is it one thing that’s needed, especially for unhoused folks.” - Spirit Paris McIntyre

Other Project Interviews

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Dan Bingler

Dan Bingler joined together with a couple of friends in March 2020 to start the Greater New Orleans Caring Collective, a mutual aid effort to help people stay safely self-quarantined.

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Cristiane R. Fajardo

Cristiane Rosales-Fajardo leads El Pueblo NOLA-NOLA Village, a grassroots community organization in the Village de l’Est neighborhood of New Orleans East.

Interview

Ida Aronson

Ida Aronson, a member of the United Houma Nation, helped establish the Yákani’ Ékelanna’ community garden and is a co-founder of the Bvlbancha Collective.

Interview

Klie Kliebert

Chenier “Klie” Kliebert is the executive director of Imagine Water Works, a group focused on climate justice, water management, and disaster readiness and response.

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The Southern Foodways Alliance drives a more progressive future by leading conversations that challenge existing constructs, shape perspectives, and foster meaningful discussions. We reconsider the past with research, scrutiny, and documentation.

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