The New Orleans Original Buckshop

Service Description

Join us on Saturday, June 8th from 12-2pm for The New Orleans Original Buckshop workshop taught by visiting artist, Michelle N. Gibson. This workshop is open to movers of all levels and will be accompanied by a live brass band. Parking is available behind the building in a lot reserved for patrons of the Madam Walker Legacy Center. Rooted in New Orleans' unique spiritual and cultural traditions, The New Orleans Original BuckShop workshop provides not just a window, but a doorway into practices that have sustained communities through joy, rhythm, and resilience. An exploration of the unifying power of the Black Church and Black syncretic practices, the workshop aims to share the essence of Black New Orleans culture in a format that benefits every participant. These spiritual and communal elements have historically knitted together a potentially fragmented Black community, nourishing a collective identity and fostering resilience through shared rituals and beliefs. Through her Second Line Aesthetic, Michelle N. Gibson's workshop focuses on improvised movement, interpretation, defined footwork, full body articulation, authentic self, and the embrace of communal ritual. With hips leading the torso and feet, legs bent at the knees, and steps that strut, Gibson invites participants to share lived experiences, embodied spiritual unification, harmony, rolling on the same rhythms together, and moving forward as a way to heal the world.