Grammy-winning singer Usher visits Gulf Coast

<p>Five-time Grammy winning R&B artist Usher pulled on some work gloves, grabbed a pair of trimmers and chopped away at a patch of vines that had overtaken a fence at a New Orleans school shuttered by Hurricane Katrina.</p><p>Usher, whose full name is Usher Raymond IV, joined dozens of volunteers Tuesday to clear the overgrown lawn of the International School of Louisiana, the state's first foreign language-based charter school, which has been closed since Katrina hit Aug. 29.</p><p>Usher, who grew up in Atlanta, got his first glimpse of Katrina's destruction Monday, when he visited storm-damaged neighborhoods in New Orleans and nearby St. Bernard Parish.</p><p>"To see it, in this state, it's devastating," Usher said, cutting away at the vines that had twisted through the chain-link fence surrounding the school, slated to reopen later this year.</p><p>"I'm here to physically do something and hopefully motivate other people to do the same," said Usher, the latest in a growing list of celebrities to visit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast since Katrina.</p><p>Last month, actresses Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner and Cicely Tyson joined a group of women brought here by the Children's Defense Fund to bring attention to the needs of storm victims, particularly traumatized children.</p><p>Talk-show host Ellen Degeneres, a New Orleans native, also visited last month and taped portions of her show here.</p><p>Shortly after Katrina, Usher began Project Restart to help families in the Gulf Coast region find housing. Though most well-known for his dance moves and hit songs like "Yeah," he has been a strong advocate for volunteerism.</p><p>On Monday, Usher met with Xavier and Dillard University students, whose campuses flooded. Some students joined him Tuesday for the cleanup effort, among them 21-year-old Trivia Frazier.</p><p>"It was very inspirational, just knowing somebody cares," said Frazier, a junior at Dillard whose New Orleans home was flooded. "It's also an incentive to keep going."</p><p>Usher, a Chattanooga, Tenn., native, was scheduled to meet with business leaders in Baton Rouge on Tuesday, along with Gov. Kathleen Blanco.</p><p>He visited the state capitol and took the microphone in the House and Senate chambers, wearing sunglasses and short-sleeves. He ignored House members' requests for a song and instead talked briefly about his efforts at helping storm victims.</p><p>"It truly takes a village to ... get some of these families back into their homes," he said.</p><p>Usher planned to visit the Mississippi Gulf Coast on Wednesday.</p><p>___</p><p>On the Net:</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc518)</p><p>HASH(0x1cdc5c0)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/6/122362