Found this while clearing out folders and folders of photographs from trips over the past few years. We tend not to post up new Banksy work given the massive amount of coverage they get. Not that we’ve adopted a staunch anti-Banksy mindset, but generally it feels like a re-blog of about 10,000 other re-blogs.

It could, however (although possibly not…), be considered an unusual photograph of a Banksy stencil in that it doesn’t have a sheet of plastic protecting it from tagging etc. and the fact it was still up at the time this was taken (early November 2011) having been first spotted too long after Katrina.

A friend and I were wandering through the streets of the Tremé district, feeling the effects of being chewed up by New Orleans night life in and around the French Quarter the night before. I think we weresearching for ‘Willie Mae’s Scotch House’. Fried chicken, it seems, was going to cure all our ills. Unfortunately the place was shut, which led to multiple detours through the streets where we stumbled upon this. A relatively unremarkable Banksy piece, although nice use of the bare stonework to accommodate the rat. As well as a reminder of the horrifying weeks and months following Katrina, as well as the shambolic political handling of the disaster. UKB