As the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles prepare to square off in New Orleans for Super Bowl LIX, security has been unprecedented both in the wake of the deadly Bourbon Street attack on Jan. 1 and in preparation for Donald Trump’s planned attendance. As a result, police, secret service, and even the Department of Homeland Security are turning New Orleans into a garrison city. Residents and local activists are pointing out the inherent dangers of so many police swarming their streets, not to mention the political priorities on display as tremendous resources are mobilized to protect out-of-state fans in a city where most residents still feel the effects of Hurricane Katrina 20 years later. Edge of Sports speaks with frontline New Orleans activist Deon Haywood, executive director of Women with a Vision, about the impact of this and past Super Bowls on The Big Easy.
Studio Production: David Hebden
Post-Production: Taylor Hebden
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Dave Zirin:
Welcome to a special Super Bowl edition of Edge of Sports tv, only here on the Real News Network. Look, given everything horrifying going on in the world, you might only be vaguely aware that the Super Bowl is coming up this Sunday pitting the Kansas City Chiefs again against the Philadelphia Eagles. Even if you are focused on the big game, you might not know that for the 11th time, the Super Bowl will be played in New Orleans, Louisiana. And this collision between the great city of New Orleans and the Super Bowl is what we are focusing on today. The immediate backdrop for this Super Bowl is of course, tragedy. In the early hours of New Year’s Day, a deliberate car attack on crowded Bourbon Street killed 14 people by someone who claimed an adherence to isis, but clearly was in the throes of some serious mental health crisis.
Because of that, the police and military presence in New Orleans is going to be according to the NFL, like none in history. The head of NFL Security is Kathy Lanier, the former chief of police in dc. So someone very familiar, let me tell you, with over-policing large events, now the goals of over-policing aren’t just about calming down wealthy tourists who can afford $10,000 Super Bowl tickets. It is also about isolating the most vulnerable residents of a city, building a moat of heavily armed bodies between halves and have nots. But that’s not all. 2025 is also the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the memories of the Louisiana Superdome, the sight of the game, of course, becoming a deadly hurricane shelter from hell, and when the ball is kicked off on Sunday, this should also not be far from people’s minds. And then there’s the state of Louisiana in the present day, a right wing political horror show where members of the state legislature are saying that they will crack down on human trafficking this week, which at mega events like the Super Bowl, is always code for attacking sex workers.
It’s all part of a broader racist and reactionary agenda that surrounds the big game. Look, if we care about the Super Bowl, then we should care about the people upon whose community this game will land. That is why I am honored this week to be speaking with Dionne Haywood for more than 30 years. Ms. Haywood has been a frontline fighter in New Orleans for the rights of those who need it the most. She was named executive director of the organization, women with a Vision after Hurricane Katrina, and utterly transformed it into an organization that has built and practiced solidarity as a way of life. I’m so honored to speak with her today. Let’s bring her on. Dion Haywood. Dionne Haywood, thank you so much for joining us here on Edge of Sports.
Deon Haywood:
Thank you so much for having me.
Dave Zirin:
We mentioned in the introduction that this will be the 11th time New Orleans has hosted the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3:
Yes,
Dave Zirin:
In regular times. Regular times, and these are of course not regular times. What kind of strain is it on the most marginalized communities when the big game comes to town?
Deon Haywood:
So New Orleans is one of those cities, like many cities where the people, in some way we talk about the economic boom that the state or the city will have from people coming to town from whatever the event is. And we host large events, massive events all the time. But I think the strain is how do people get to work, how do they make it to take care of their everyday activities? Because it’s hard. It’s even difficult for me. It also puts a strain, this Super Bowl. I think the strain is basically because we just had such a tragic tragedy in the French Quarter, and so local people are still struggling with that moment, with that moment of violence, senseless violence as always, but it makes it more difficult for the people who live and work in the areas where people will be for the Super Bowl. It just makes it hard to navigate and hard for people to get around and hard to get hard for people to get what they need here.
Dave Zirin:
Yeah, I’d love it if you could talk a little bit more about the aftermath of the January 1st Bourbon Street attack in the context of the Super Bowl, in the context of the mood in New Orleans and the whiplash feeling that must exist
Deon Haywood:
Of
Dave Zirin:
Having to play host in the context of mourning.
Deon Haywood:
Yeah, so I think New Orleans is a party city. I often tell people the only reason that I can cope or what makes it easy to cope with so many really hard moments in the world in New Orleans in the US right now is because it’s like every day our head is on a swivel.
We do host a lot of events. We’re known for hosting large events, everything from Essence Fest to Mardi Gras every year. And so it’s not unusual. And normally when we fall right into it and we know what we need to do, we know how to set up, we even know how to direct people what to do and how to be safe and have fun. But what makes it difficult this time is coming off an event that in my opinion, really we didn’t do enough to take care of the people here. We didn’t do enough to make sure that people who worked in the quarter and witnessed what happened, that their mental health and care we’re taken care of. It’s kind of like business as usual. And because of the economy today, it just makes it harder because people have to go to work. They have to work if they want to survive, they have to be able to get their kids where they have to go, and they have to come home and function away from their jobs. New Orleans is a place where we feel deeply when something like this happens. And I have talked to many people, both my staff at Women with a Vision, but also just around the city about this moment. And most people feel like it happened so quickly and seemed like we just kind of glossed over it.
And I don’t think that was the intention all the time that we glossed over it, but it’s kind of like the next big thing is happening. So we got to move. So we had New Year’s Eve, we had the New Year’s Eve tragedy, and now we’re moving between Mardi Gras and Super Bowl, super Bowl and Mardi Gras, right?
Large events where so many people in surveillance and policing are going to be large. I do believe that New Orleans has always done a great job with large events, with crowd control. We do it because we do it all the time. Mardi Gras is huge. You’re talking about millions of people, not just tourists, but locals. Our police department normally does a really good job. But I think after witnessing what took place for New Years, it’s added more policing. It’s added surveillance without really addressing the issues. But this is what we always do, not just here in Louisiana, but I think in the US period, we do not address root causes. We are not good at addressing root causes of a situation and why we got here and who those people were. It’s just like more police. And as much as I understand the idea of security, police don’t keep us safe.
Dave Zirin:
I’m glad you said that, and I’d like to dig into that a little bit more because of course, new Orleans, the people of New Orleans are legendary for being able to figure out how to host these events. But this year there will be an unprecedented, according to the National Football League, military and police presence as well as police from out of town. I mean that level of policing. And you mentioned surveillance, which they also say will be unprecedented. How does that affect the lives of the people with whom you work?
Deon Haywood:
It’s difficult. So let me give you an example. At Women with Division, we have worked for all of our existence 35 years with street-based sex workers, dancers, anybody involved in sex work we’re normally a go-to for those people. But then we also have operated a robust harm reduction program where people are either functioning and working through their addiction or they may be homeless and just need support. It puts a strain on all of us who provides those types of services because how do those people get to us if they’re feeling the pressure of just moving around the city that they live in, regardless of how hard their lives may be, it just makes it even more difficult for them to navigate. Right? So I’ll give you an example. My office is located in Central City, new Orleans, historic neighborhood on a historic street. When I drive to work in the morning, I drive from my house all the way to my job without making a turn, without doing anything because it’s a straight shot. I haven’t been able to do that with all the preparation for Super Bowl because everything is blocked off, the streets are blocked off, and New Orleans is a very pedestrian city, which is why I find it interesting when people are saying, oh, let’s make the French Quarter pedestrian only. Majority of the French Quarter is pedestrian only.
Dave Zirin:
Exactly.
Deon Haywood:
So I feel like we are regurgitating these ideas of safety, these ideas of policing, but they really won’t keep us safe. And it just makes it difficult for not only the people here who live here, but tourists who come here. And most people have been to New Orleans quite a few times, so they kind of know where to go, know how to navigate. I’ve got questions for people and they say, well, I’ll be able to get to all the things I normally do in the city when I’m there. And my answer was, I don’t think you will. I think this year is going to be really different. So if you think about the location of the Superdome and you think about the neighborhoods around the Superdome outside of the central business district, which many people get to see from the TV side. But the other side of that is everyday people who are living their lives trying to get back and forth and live
Speaker 3:
And
Deon Haywood:
Navigate, and those people, they just, and all the preparation, were opening up a food truck park. It’s beautiful. That’s great, but where was that months ago or a year ago? And in doing so now we’ve gathered up all the unhoused people and taken them to a secured location so people don’t see them. That is how people are affected. And I’ll just quickly say this, I know you have other questions, but I can’t
Dave Zirin:
Wait to go. No, please. Without saying it, the attacks on the unhoused is so important to this conversation.
Deon Haywood:
It
Dave Zirin:
Is it, please, please continue, please.
Deon Haywood:
And we saw this, and again, it’s not just isolated here to New Orleans. We see this across the country globally, Paris, the Olympics, we saw them taking busloads of unhoused people out of the city. So people visiting don’t see them as if we don’t know that this is an issue globally. And so knowing that housing advocates here, many who I’m in partnership with, I know personally I know their work. Many of them were so upset in this moment that the governor of Louisiana had all of these people gathered up when many of these people are already working with housing groups
Speaker 3:
To
Deon Haywood:
Find housing, to get housing. There was a recent initiative where they were doing really well, and I don’t remember the dollar amount and I apologize, but to take millions of dollars and pay the Port of New Orleans to house unhoused people for a week when that amount of money would’ve housed them for three years. It just at a time where everybody’s talking about good government and making sense. We don’t have a good government right now. I’m sorry. I’m not sorry. It’s facts.
Dave Zirin:
Yeah. Sorry, not sorry. As they say.
Deon Haywood:
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dave Zirin:
You mentioned sex work earlier and the work you do in that area and the work your organization has done
Speaker 3:
In
Dave Zirin:
Providing support for so many years, every time there’s a Super Bowl,
Speaker 3:
The
Dave Zirin:
Government likes to talk about, as they put it, the crackdown on human trafficking. They usually do some kind of photo in the process of the Super Bowl, but what really goes on in these quote crackdowns on human trafficking?
Deon Haywood:
So not my favorite time at all. Again, a waste of resources. We as a society don’t do well with our people.
Some of us do better, most of us do not. The fact that people think it’s okay to remove unhoused people so that people don’t see them, put your poor cousins in the back so nobody sees the poor side of the family. And then when you talk about sex work, we know that trafficking does happen. It does happen, but also we’ve allowed it to happen. And when I say we’ve allowed it to happen, it is because we are so good at figuring out how we are going to incarcerate people and throw them in jail. But yet, you won’t legalize sex work. And when I say legalize, I’m not just talking about, oh, make it legal across the country, but really making it what it is. It’s work, sex work is work People work people make the decision to be involved in sex work, to survive. It might be the best thing for them if we don’t need everybody to agree, we just should agree that criminalization is not the answer. And then you have, for women who dance, again, in economies where people are really struggling, arresting people over surveillance of people is not going to stop trafficking. But maybe if we have programs where we’re really in community and working with women who know what’s going on, that they would be a support and a help to the movement. But trafficking is going to continue to happen because now it’s black market, right? Anything that people can’t access, what happens? It becomes a part of the black market, something to hide still and sell,
But those conditions are created.
Dave Zirin:
Yeah, that’s right. And you keep going back to that issue of root causes. I think that’s the discussion this country is so weak at having.
Deon Haywood:
Yes,
Dave Zirin:
Absolutely.
Deon Haywood:
Because we can’t heal, oh, I’m sorry. Go ahead. I’m sorry.
Dave Zirin:
No, I was just going to say also there are certain people from certain class backgrounds who don’t want to have discussions about maybe the roots of their own empires and their own funds.
Deon Haywood:
Yes, absolutely.
Dave Zirin:
So you do such terrific work on these issues. How does your state legislature either help you or undermine you in the process of trying to do this work?
Deon Haywood:
Right. So as I mentioned, women with the Vision has been around for 35 years, and in those 35 years, we have had great support from Congress people to people who are a part of who are Congress people for Louisiana, state representatives, local government. From the mayor to the city council. We have had support. It’s according to who’s in office at the time. And up until the election this year, we did feel supported by quite a few people. We actually sponsored a sex worker. Decrim Bill was sponsored by State Representative Mandy Landry, and she was with us a hundred percent and really spoke out about how people are targeted and how an arrest record wouldn’t help someone in this situation. And so we tried. It didn’t pass, but we tried, and it’s not the first time we’ve done it. We’ve done it before where we actually challenged Louisiana’s crime against Nature Law.
And at that time, state representative Charmaine Marshan sponsored that bill, and we actually won. We worked with the Center of Constitutional Rights attorney, bill Quigley and attorney Andrea Richie, and we won, ended up removing over 800 people from the sex offender registry who was charged with this. And not only did we win and remove people, we’re still removing people. So we know that the work can progress, but when we have conservative extremists, both state and federal levels, it makes it hard for us to get things done, to make our communities better, to help people find their feet, to find second chance. We just make it really difficult for them. And so hosting events like the Super Bowl, yes, I get the economic impact, but how does that filter to the people when we talk about public safety, sex workers aren’t making you unsafe, unhoused people aren’t making you unsafe. Maybe if public officials thought that, oh, lighting something as easy as lighting will change a situation, crime is less. Most of us has read stats around public safety. We did a thrive study here a few years back, and it really was about how people interact with police. And it turned out to be no, how people are keeping themselves safe. Because again, police come in for the reactionary part, their presence. They react after a crime, but they do not prevent crime because when someone sets their mind on doing a thing, which we saw for New Year’s, they’re going to do that thing, right?
Dave Zirin:
Right.
Deon Haywood:
It doesn’t matter if a barrier was up. He had been here multiple times, scouting the city and looking at things and recording it. That is addressed through mental health, making sure people are getting what they need and addressing again, the root causes of why people commit crimes like this and why they’re willing to go through with it.
Dave Zirin:
Now, 2025, that’s the year we are in. And it means, and I can’t believe this, we are going to be, I do believe the right word is commemorating the 20 years since Hurricane Katrina and the levies breaking now since the sight of the Super Bowl is the Louisiana Superdome.
Deon Haywood:
Right.
Dave Zirin:
I was wondering if you could perhaps share what it was like to see that space at the time being used as a shelter for thousands of residents. If you could take us back there, please.
Deon Haywood:
Yeah. It was probably the most, one of the most difficult times in my life as a person who is a native New Orleans, I was born and raised here, and a person who fights for Louisiana and the people of New Orleans in particular, it was one of the most painful images I think I’ve ever witnessed, especially because it was home and many people I knew was in the dome at the time, between the dome and the convention center, right. Major institutions of parties in Super Bowl and football games and basketball games and concerts. It was extremely painful. But yet again, I feel like we do better now. But in that moment, I don’t think people knew what to do because I think what people don’t remember is that Hurricane Katrina did not hit the city of New Orleans.
The levies broke in the city of New Orleans. When we’re talking about natural disasters versus manmade, this was both. This was both. And being manmade is the part that caused the destruction that we saw, the suffering that we saw. And so I’ve been in a dome multiple times since that time. It doesn’t change the reality of that painful day. I know people who still won’t enter the dome because it’s too traumatic for them. But it’s just the example of how we’re not prepared to care for our people, the US in most states, in the us. We just don’t do a good job at caring for our people. And that was that moment. And as a person who’s rolled out a many of hurricanes here in the city, nobody ever thinks they’re not going to come back. We would’ve been fine had the hurricane hit. We weren’t fine because the levees broke.
Dave Zirin:
You can’t say that enough.
Deon Haywood:
Yeah, it makes it a game changer, right? It’s one thing to have food and shelter for people because rain, when a possible tornado is coming, it’s another thing to have people’s homes in entire communities wiped out because our levies were substandard and weren’t built correctly.
Dave Zirin:
New Orleans is one of my favorite cities, and when I’m there, it’s always a topic of conversation, how the city has changed over the last 20 years and how those changes have really landed on the backs of some of the most marginalized people in the city. I’m hoping you could speak to that particularly about black culture in the city and what the last 20 years has done to the soul of the city as
Deon Haywood:
Well. Growing up in New Orleans, the beauty of it is we had neighborhoods that I could walk around the corner and I’m going to my aunt, I could walk around the corner and I’m going to see my grandmother, right? New Orleans is a very, it’s a walkable city. Most people, if I say, oh, I’m from the third ward, or I live in the Ninth Ward, you probably got 50 family members that live there with you. That is no longer the case in New Orleans. Gentrification, the selling of New Orleans, the buying up from New Orleans, people from Chicago, California, New York, buying up property that they didn’t even see. And now we have a culture of Airbnbs.
They’re everywhere. A culture everywhere. And it’s also raised housing. I’ll give you an example. There was a bar called Mimi’s in the Bywater. Everybody. Mimi’s was truly a place where it didn’t matter who you are, who you were, who you love, who you like, your ethnicity. Everybody went to Mimi’s and everybody danced after Hurricane Katrina, they did reopen, but then all the people who moved here was upset because their playing music in the neighborhood. Are you kidding me? Trying to get local government to create ordinances, noise ordinance. So just the disruption of culture. It is not unusual for us to walk down the street and have young people playing their instruments on a porch, on a corner. It is the voice of New Orleans. It’s the sounds of New Orleans, and much of that has been taken away since Hurricane Katrina.
Speaker 3:
Mimi
Deon Haywood:
Is no longer in existence because the people who bought up that area who are living in that area are renting it out, felt like it was too much noise. But you chose here.
Dave Zirin:
Exactly. I mean, complaining about music in New Orleans is complaining about pizza in New York City.
Deon Haywood:
It’s insane. It’s
Dave Zirin:
Insane. It’s ridiculous.
Deon Haywood:
It really is.
Dave Zirin:
I just have one last question for you, and you’ve been so generous with your time. I just would love for you to speak about your organization, women with a Vision, and particularly the book written with Laura McTigue, I believe I’m pronouncing her name correctly.
Deon Haywood:
Yes.
Dave Zirin:
Ti Yes. And it’s called Fire Dreams, making Black Feminist Liberation in the South. Please, if you could speak about organization and book.
Deon Haywood:
So thank you for asking that question. I appreciate it. Women with A Vision, last year was our 35th year, our 35th anniversary, and Women with A Vision was started by eight black women who bought harm reduction to Louisiana. And it’s been steeped in harm reduction ever since. And for those people may not know what harm reduction is, it is simply a modality used to get you from today to the next day. Somebody may be struggling with addiction today, but tomorrow might be the day they want to change that. And that’s what harm reduction does. We meet the needs of community and meet them where they are. We are a reproductive justice organization, and we do a lot of anti criminalization work, a lot of reentry work, as well as all the other things, but all under the umbrella of reproductive justice.
Dave Zirin:
Got you.
Deon Haywood:
The book written by Laura MCT and the organization, Laura is a friend and board member of Women with a Vision. And in 2012, we had an arson attack in our offices in Mid-City, and it destroyed everything that we had, which was all our history. And so we were really trying to rebuild the history, and it turned into this beautiful offering to the world because the book really talks about how we got started, the fact that we ran underground syringe exchange program for 27 years Here in the state. In the state, but based here in New Orleans. And so we decided to write this book about how we organized and how we were able to do that. And we believe that it is critical in this moment. We just got picked up by eight K Press. The book exceeded expectations for last year. It was just launched, so March would be our one year of the book being out.
And it’s been a beautiful experience, and I love that so many universities in schools are using the book as a guide for how do we move in this moment where we might not be able to say all the things we would normally say, but I feel like myself and women with a vision, we’re up for the challenge because everything that we take for granted today, how we fight, how we use social media is sometimes the only way to communicate with people. We’re still boots on the ground. Yes, we do social media, but we are constantly, every day on a weekly basis, spending time in our community. And this book, our hope with this book is that you realize that you could do this too.
Dave Zirin:
Wow.
Deon Haywood:
That your voice is powerful, and we actually all have guides and our stories will take us where we need to go.
Dave Zirin:
I can’t imagine a more timely message for 2025. The book is called Fire Dreams, making Black Feminist Liberation in the South. It was such a thrill to speak with you. It’s such an important issue. It’s the story the football networks are not going to tell, and it’s so, so vital to be part of the tapestry of the big day that people know who this game is landing upon. Thank you so much.
Deon Haywood:
Thank you so much, David.
Dave Zirin:
Well, that’s all the time we have this week for this special Super Bowl edition of Edge of Sports. Thank you so much to Dionne Haywood for joining us that was beyond memorable. Thank you so much to the whole team here at the Real News Network, Dave Hebden, Maximilian Alvarez, Kayla Rivera, and the whole team that makes this show happen. And please, please stay tuned to The Real News Network, like the YouTube page, get on the website not only to see back editions of Edge of Sports, and we are so proud of the work we have done at the collision of sports and politics, but also because this year we’ve got so much planned and we want you to be on the cusp of everything that we are going to do. We want you to be watching us in the months ahead because we’re going to have a new studio. We’re going to have a series of absolutely amazing Titanic, incendiary and important topics, and we’re going to show you how sports can be part of the resistance in the year ahead. For everybody watching, please stay frosty and be safe. We are out of here. Peace.
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