Tonight on GRITtv we begin a week of special programming to mark the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. A recent article in the New York Times Magazine describes New Orleans today as “the most ambitious education laboratory of our time.” An interesting choice of words. From Tuskegeee to New Orleans experimentation on African-Americans has a long history in the United States.

As one of our panelists Jordan Flaherty points out, New Orleans - after the hurricane - was viewed as a blank slate on which the visions of government officials and urban professionals would be carried out. In fact many have moved to the city while massive numbers of local residents have been displaced. Gentrification by natural disaster. For those who remain, the market driven recovery effort has meant that while a few have benefited many are still living in poverty without even basic services like health care and public housing.

Our roundtable, which includes Ursula Price, Outreach and Investigations Coordinator of Safe Streets Strong Communities, Jordan Flaherty, Editor of leftturn magazine and a contributor to Red State Rebels, and Damon Hewitt, Associate Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, addresses the most important issues facing the people of New Orleans and what the post-Katrina recovery says about the United States.

We also have an interview with filmmaker Laura Belsey who traveled to New Orleans in 2005 to document the lives of children. Eschewing the standard documentary formula of experts and authorities—always adults—Katrina’s Children offers a startling portrait of the impact and meaning of the Gulf Coast experience.

Finally we have video from the Los Angeles Filmmakers Cooperative, Resist Network, and 2-cent. Be sure to stay tuned this week as we bring you more stories from the Gulf. We'll also be streaming live on Wednesday, at noon Eastern, so send us your comments and questions.