OffBeat consulting editor John Swenson recently came out with his first book about New Orleans music, New Atlantis: Musicians Battle for the Survival of New Orleans. Friday, Swenson made an appearance on New York news television channel NY1’s “Inside City Hall” to discuss the book and the role musicians played in the post-Katrina recovery, including second lines, Mardi Gras Indians, Craig Klein and his Arabi Wrecking Crew, and more.

The clip is online, but not embeddable. You can watch it at the NY1 website.

In our June issue you can read an excerpt from New Atlantis about the Stop the Violence march on City Hall following the Dinerral Shavers and Helen Hill murders. The march was recently depicted in HBO’s Treme as well. Below, you can read the first chapter via Amazon’s Kindle for the Web service.