On a summertime Wednesday in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward, girls and boys zip around on light-up roller skates past their mothers and grandmothers, who are plating hot dogs and nachos. At the door, Dan Bingler lugs donation bags into the storage closet. They expect 200 people tonight.
A navy curtain splits the big room into two. On one side is a stage with a silver dance pole; the other side is lined with clothing racks, shelves of household goods, bookshelves and stacks of CDs. From puzzles to furniture, Bingler said it’s not like Goodwill. It’s free.
The New Orleans Free Store (which has also been called the Fred Hampton Free Store) is anything but conventional, or bound by hard definitions: it’s a place for whatever its community needs…