Ninth Ward

This Sunday, the first of two in Lanesha’s nine-day narrative, is her 12th birthday. She spends the day with her guardian, former midwife Mama Ya-Ya. Early in the day, Lanesha and Mama Ya-Ya cut garden flowers and make lemonade and jambalaya. Mama Ya-Ya gives Lanesha a set of sparkly pens as her birthday gift, and they have chocolate cake. Mama Ya-Ya tells Lanesha the story of her birth as she always does on her birthday. After dinner, Lanesha gives a dramatic recitation of a line from Romeo and Juliet while Mama Ya-Ya listens. Then Lanesha helps Mama Ya-Ya to bed in the upstairs of their small house; Mama Ya-Ya’s room includes a small altar of images of both Catholic saints and voodoo gods. Lanesha then goes to her bedroom, which she painted in shades of blue earlier in the summer.

Lanesha tells her story in the first-person point of view in a conversational, assured tone. While reflecting on her birthday, Lanesha reveals many important details about her life. She lives in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, a much poorer neighborhood than the Uptown neighborhood where she knows her relatives live.