Interview:

“Why me?” is not so much a question as an accusation. The very core of life, the World, meaning all and everything that surrounds us is accused of acting unfairly. We in New Orleans have had our tragedies, from Hurricane Katrina to the BP oil spill. I lost my house to Katrina and watched oil rain from the sky, coating my car, after the BP oil spill. “Why me?” How can I love and forgive a World and its events and people that creates such suffering for myself and others?

The World that created such suffering does not deserve forgiveness! This World does not deserve love! The bodies lying on the streets weeks after Hurricane Katrina rise up in protest against offering such love and forgiveness without justice. Their hands reach out; will not be still without such justice. This is the very point where art and music show their importance. The ability of art and music to change our anger with and accusations against the World from a boiling internal poison to its antidote… to justice.

Justice does not mean revenge. In the act of revenge we join with and become the very thing we hate. Justice does not mean judgment. In the act of judgment we stand apart from and condemn or condone from some ridiculous, imaginary high seat. Justice, to exist, must include love and forgiveness. Justice is to justify… to bring into balance.

Art, and in my case music, can bring this balance into being. When I drum to the spirits and loa of New Orleans Voodoo I enter a larger, a more complete World. The hands of the dead that reach through the Waters for justice know peace. The rhythms bring me and, by natural extension, the World itself into balance. The spirits of the dead are soothed by the rhythms. I am given the ability to act in the World not out of the spirit of revenge or judgment, but from a commitment to justice. My actions can bring about real change in the World.

Music, playing for the rites of New Orleans Voodoo, brings a balance into my life. Music creates a World complete enough for balance to manifest, and for justice to exist. I can experience and understand the balance of the World and therefore the justice of the World.

I can love and forgive a World which includes hurricanes and uncaring oil companies not because they deserve love and forgiveness but because they deserve justice and I deserve balance. Music allows me to enter a World large enough to contain and offer the possibility of such justice and balance. The voice of music, the voice of the drums is louder than the voices of hate, anger, and revenge. “Why me?” personally that I may need to search and know and share the depth of the voice of the drums.

“How can I love and forgive a World and its events and people that creates such suffering for myself and others?”
– Louis Martinié, Author & Musician