Who We Are

OUR STORY

The murders of Hot 8 Brass Band drummer Dinerral Shavers and filmmaker Helen Hill were only a week apart. Reflecting a surge in violence in the years after Hurricane Katrina, they brought thousands of New Orleanians into the streets, marching on City Hall to demand action. They also provoked noticeably different responses, with many white New Orleanians, members of the media and elected leaders who had been unfazed by Dinneral’s murder like those of so many Black men expressing shock and outrage at Helen’s. 

Silence Is Violence was founded in 2007 by some of the organizers of the City Hall march as a community-based call for the City to name and value all victims of homicide, to recognize their loss and to demonstrate the City valued their lives by working to interrupt the New Orleans’ crisis of interpersonal violence. With Helen and Dinneral’s friend Baty Landis as Executive Director joined by Dinneral’s sister Nakita Shavers, Silence is Violence complemented its public advocacy with arts and music programming aimed at interrupting violence and creating safe spaces for children.

Early on, families of homicide victims began reaching out looking for help navigating the criminal justice system and the trauma of violence. With the hiring of social worker and homicide survivor Tamara Jackson, the organization began building out its direct survivors. After taking over as Executive Director, Jackson has leveraged her deep roots in New Orleans’ community of social aid and pleasure clubs (cultural organizations dedicated to mutual aid and the tradition of second lines) to refocus the mission of Silence Is Violence on meeting the many needs of families and survivors that are left unmet by government agencies in the New Orleans area.