Culture / Memoir / Music / New Orleans / Youth

NOLA Street Bucket Drummer: Beats OF A NOLA Girl

She looked confident as each stick hit its intended bucket as if she knew for sure that it would produce a beat that will get the crowd dancing. Joy and bashfulness took over her as the crowd grew thick. She was loving and living in the moment. I would say she enjoyed the sounds she created more than the group she captured. It was as if the beating of her heart was in sync with her very being. Her mind formed the music, hand and sticks flowed like blood to her heart and drum beating the tunes reminiscent of our ancestors playing in Congo Square. This little girl and the sticks and buckets are the lifelines to our New Orleans history. Her soulful beats echoed sounds of hope, possibility, and greatness for New Orleans’s future cultural bearers.