Exclusive: The Wire Star Wendell Pierce Reveals New Book Cover

Audiences may know Wendell Pierce from the HBO shows The Wire, on which he played Detective Bunk Moreland, and Treme, on which he played New Orleans trombonist Antoine Batiste. The actor is no stranger to NOLA — he grew up in the Pontchartrain Park neighborhood, which was decimated when Hurricane Katrina struck 10 years ago. Though he has homes in New York and L.A., he spent time at his parents’ house both before and after the flood and helped them rebuild after it was ruined. Now Pierce has written a memoir about his experience in the wake of the storm, The Wind in the Reeds: A Storm, A Play, and the City That Would Not Be Broken. Pierce revealed the first look at the cover for TIME:

The book will detail how Pierce dedicated himself to the task of helping his family and the neighborhood put their homes back together. He tells of putting on and starring in a production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot in two of the hardest-hit regions of the city, reflecting on his belief in art’s “power to transform us and the world.”

The Wind in the Reeds comes out Sept. 8.