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. Continue reading NOLA Street Bucket Drummer: Beats OF A NOLA Girl

Children, Memoir, New Orleans, Non-fiction, Youth

New Orleans Bucket Drummer: Street Performer or Son Who Needs To Be Saved

I’ll try to trick my mind into thinking he is a child musician performing in front of a filming crew for Coke Cola, which produces Sprite, and he has both bottles. He’s drinking Sprite because it’s caffeine-free, and it quenches thirst. Yes, that’s it, because it certainly can not be a little 9-10yr old boy, on the streets of New Orleans, drumming on buckets for a few dollars, unsupervised, and if he is the adult, will take his earnings and do who knows what to this innocent child… Either way, I soon forget about him, and my life will go on without worrying about him, while he and other children like him are lost to the streets… Continue reading New Orleans Bucket Drummer: Street Performer or Son Who Needs To Be Saved