Thursday, Sept. 26

509 Knox Hall, 606 W. 122nd St.

6:30-8:30 PM

Five months after Katrina’s flood waters devastated New Orleans, director Jonathan Demme and writer Daniel Wolff arrived in the city with a camera, a notebook, and lots of advice that the big story was over. Eight years later, they continue documenting the lives of the city’s residents and volunteers. In that time, the project has resulted in two nationally screened full-length films (“New Home Movies from the Lower 9th Ward,” “I’m Carolyn Parker”), a series of TV shows that Tavis Smiley aired on PBS, and a book, “The Fight for Home: How (Parts of) New Orleans Came Back.” Mr. Wolff will discuss why they were stubborn enough to do such a thing, what the issues were and are, and how they learned to listen.

Daniel Wolff is the award-winning author of a number of non-fiction books, including “You Send Me: the Life and Times of Sam Cooke,” “How Lincoln Learned to Read,” and “The Fight for Home.” His journalism has appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post, his poetry in the Paris Review and American Poetry Review, and he’s helped produce documentary movies including “The Agronomist” and “I’m Carolyn Parker.”