Time Period

Fall semester, 2003—two years before Hurricane Katrina will devastate New Orleans.

The city is alive but tired: post-9/11 anxieties, budget cuts in public schools, a sense that something big is coming.

No smartphones—students use Nokia brick phones, disposable cameras, and burned CDs.

The internet exists (AIM, early MySpace, forums), but no one’s constantly online.

Teachers and administrators are more likely to look the other way or bury problems to avoid scandal.

Mood:

A place stuck between centuries: old folklore still clings to life, but modernity is creeping in.

Everyone knows the levees are in bad shape—just not how bad.

The city feels haunted in more ways than one.