77 – New Orleans Visions – King’s Candy & Living with Water

The Kitchen Sisters Present

The Kitchen Sisters & Radiotopia

Society & Culture

4.6 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 August 2017

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Robert King Wilkerson (aka Robert Hillary King) was imprisoned at Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, Louisiana for 31 years. Twenty-nine of those years he was in solitary confinement. During that time he created a clandestine kitchen in his 6×9 cell where he made pralines, heating the the butter and sugar he saved from his food tray over a tiny burner concocted from a Coke can and a toilet paper roll. King’s case was overturned in 2001 and he was released. He was living in New Orleans during Katrina, refused to leave his dog, and weathered the storm in his apartment. Today he lectures around the world and makes candy — which he calls Freelines — to bring attention to issues of prison reform and the story of his comrades and The Angola Three.

In “Living with Water,” journalist Julia Kumari Drapkin, director of ISeeChange, a community weather and climate journal project, takes us on a tour of her flooded neighborhood in New Orleans after a recent storm. She talks about the vision of creating water gardens, floating streets and other water projects that look towards living with water in New Orleans rather than continuing to completely drain and sink the land.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Radio Topia. Welcome to the Kitchen Sisters Presently.
0:04.2	PRX. We're the Kitran Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nicki Silva.
0:09.1	Hi there, thank you so much to everyone who has already donated to support
0:16.1	Radiotopia and this show during our fall fundraiser. I love reading the
0:20.5	comments listeners leave when you donate like this one from a listener who says all my favorite Love Thank you, Kristen. Our fundraiser is coming to a close later this month. If we reach our goal of 1,000 donors, after the holidays we'll share a digital zine with everyone who donated to help us get there. But we're still a little short. As of this recording, we still
0:44.3	need 160 more listeners to donate. If you've been on the fence or meaning to donate, please consider
0:50.4	making your tax deductible gift today to support independent
0:54.3	podcasts like ours. As you've probably heard us say your donation not only helps
0:58.3	fund our show, it's also a vote of confidence, a statement that shows like this should exist. Thank you so much for
1:05.4	listening and supporting our work. You can head to radiotopia. FM slash
1:10.7	donate to make your gift today.
1:13.0	Thank you very much.
1:15.0	When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast and New Orleans was flooding, emails began to appear.
1:26.0	The latest storm updates, evacuation instructions. People searching for the missing.
1:32.0	We saw this message go by from Arrissa Arrens.
1:35.0	She was pleading for any news of Robert King Wilkerson.
1:39.0	We recognized those names.
1:41.0	A few months before, Arissa had called the Hidden Kitchens Hotline
1:44.8	we'd opened up on NPR asking people for stories of secret, underground, below the radar
1:50.3	kitchens. Today on the Kitchen Sisters present Kings Candy, a New Orleans
1:55.6	kitchen vision and I see change living with water in New Orleans.
2:00.3	Message 24 was received. means.
	...

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