ACHIEVEMENT
From left: The 72nd Grand Lt. Strategus Harris (top right) appeared on the cover of the February 2002 Journal , with his fellow Undergraduate Grand Chapter Officers. Harris’ special coverage of the effects of Hurricane Katrina was included in the February 2011 issue. Harris photographed the cover of the Spring/Summer 2015 82nd Grand Chapter Meeting issue.
“ WHEN WE REACHED THE GULF COAST, I SAW THE DEVASTATION. THE CAMERA BECAME A BARRIER BETWEEN ME AND MY EMOTIONS.”
business card said The New York Times . I felt accomplished.” However, the feeling of success was short-lived. “It did not go well. I was hired as a writer, but on Barack Obama’s election night in November 2008, when the editors sent me home early I knew it wouldn’t be long before I would be fired.” During his brief stint with the Courier , the artist’s visual expression never stopped. Faced with reality he found work wherever and whenever he could. During this trying time, the jobs he held included teaching, demolition, and construction. “Doing what you do not want to do helps you decide what you really want to do.” On the other hand, opportunities to exhibit his photography grew steadily, and by 2015, he staged a solo show, The Ten-Year Journey: Reflections of Family, Identity @ New Orleans , at the McKenna Museum of African American Art in New Orleans. This exhibit coincided with the 82nd Grand Chapter Meeting held in the Crescent
Brother Harris began graduate stud- ies in Journalism at the University of Mississippi in 2005, where he worked as a teaching assistant for D. Michael Cheers, a veteran photographer for Ebony and Jet magazines. Ten days into his first semester at Ole’ Miss, Hurricane Katrina struck his beloved New Orleans. “My hometown was destroyed. I did not want to go back,” he recalls. For historical reasons, Professor Cheers insisted that his students document the storm’s aftermath and the government’s response. Brother Harris refused until finally given an ultimatum to return home with a camera or fail
the class. “When we reached the Gulf Coast, I saw the devastation. The camera became a barrier between me and my emotions. It gave me something to hold onto. From that moment, the camera never left my hand.” Hurricane Katrina forever changed him. All the years he had spent listening to jazz, studying album covers, and absorbing visual art suddenly aligned. He realized he had been training his eye without knowing it. After graduate school, he earned a journalism fellowship at the global non-profit Poynter Institute and later worked for The Houma Courier in Houma, LA, which is affiliated with The New York Times . “My paycheck and
FALL 2025 ♦ THE JOURNAL 53
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