Join the Newcomb Art Museum on Saturday, June 26 for Part Two of Louisiana Reimagines: High Culture Below Sea Level.

As part of the Louisiana Reimagines series at the Newcomb Art Museum, on Saturday, June 26 at 12:30 pm a new work for camera by Big Chief Shaka Zulu of the Golden Feathers, shot in Tremé, and directed by Abdul Aziz featuring local performers on stilts and percussion who represent four generations of Zulu’s family will premiere in Freeman Auditorium located in Woldenberg Art Center (next to the museum). The film will be followed by a live performance in the galleries by Chief Shaka Zulu and Free Spirit representing drumming traditions from Africa and the African diaspora. A second screening of the short film will take place at 2 pm in Freeman Auditorium.

“Louisiana Reimagines: High Culture Below Sea Level” is an exchange between Laura Anderson Barbata and local tradition bearers from the Black Masking Indian tradition that responds to the garments and stilt dancing projects presented in the Newcomb Art Museum’s 2021 exhibition “Transcommunality”. Offering a look into the cultural world of Big Chief Shaka Zulu of the Golden Feather Hunters, this program is centered on Shaka Zulu’s distinct yet ever-evolving New Orleans practice which combines procession, drumming, elaborate 3d suits, and West African stilt dancing.

Part One, a series of short digital behind-the-scenes conversations between Shaka Zulu and Laura Anderson Barbata was released on June 11 and can be accessed via the link here: https://vimeo.com/user95586704. Part Three of the series, a virtual roundtable conversation led by Dr. Joyce Marie Jackson considering the processional art form’s power to foster diverse, intergenerational community relationships and historical connections to protests for social justice, will take place in July. Using the “Transcommunality” exhibit and Shaka Zulu’s work for camera as touchstones, the July roundtable will gather voices from the stilt dancing community – Najja Codrington of the Brooklyn Jumbies and Sarauniya Zulu of Zulu Connection – as well as three legendary figures of masking culture in New Orleans: Big Queen Rita Dollis of the Wild Magnolias; Big Chief Derrick Hulin of the Golden Blades; and Big Chief Darryl Montana of the Yellow Pocahontas Hunters.