News Release

Afro-Descendant Communities’ Southern Roots Music Road Trip: Connecting the Louisiana Easter Rock and Sea Island Ring Shout Sacred Traditions

News Release Date: June 12, 2024

Contact: Matt Hampsey

Contact: Ted Johnson

New Orleans, LA — Join us this June when African American elders and young culture-keepers representing Louisiana’s Easter Rock and Georgia’s Gullah Geechee Ring Shout traditions come together for the first time on one stage. They will share with the public Black spiritual practices that date back to our nation’s antebellum era.
The Winnsboro (La.) Easter Rock Ensemble was recognized as a 2021 NEA National Heritage Fellow for their commitment to sustaining Northern Louisiana’s Easter Rock tradition of gathering the community in their church on Easter Eve to engage in a vigil ritual filled with West African and Christian elements. This includes having participants form a circle then move (or “rock”) in a counterclockwise direction while singing sacred music.
This “ring” aspect is echoed in the ring shout traditions of the Gullah Geechee people of coastal South Carolina and Georgia in which people also move in a counter-clockwise circle using "shuffling" movements combined with call-and-response singing. The Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters hail from Darien, Georgia, and have performed and interpreted the ring shout tradition internationally. It is one of the many African cultural retentions the Gullah Geechee people have proudly long preserved.
Both groups will engage in several public demonstrations of these traditions and the public is invited to attend. Details below. These cultural exchanges were made possible with the support and cooperation of the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, the National Council for the Traditional Arts, the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (a federal National Heritage Area) and The Historic New Orleans Collection. All performances are free and open to the public.

Monday, June 24, 2024, 12:30 p.m.

Whitney Plantation
5099 LA-18, Edgard, Louisiana
Capacity is limited to 80 people.

Tuesday, June 25, 2024, 2 p.m.

Taping of American Routes Live with host Nick Spitzer
New Orleans Jazz Museum
400 Esplanade Avenue, New Orleans, LA

Wednesday, June 26, 2024, 2 p.m.

New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
916 N. Peters Street, New Orleans, LA
Free and open to the public.

Thursday, June 27, 2024, 7 p.m.

Central St. Matthew United Church of Christ
1333 Carrollton Avenue, Uptown New Orleans, LA
Located in the Fellowship Hall on the 2nd floor. Stairs and elevator are available.

For Additional Information Contact:

Matt Hampsey

• New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park
• 419 Decatur Street, New Orleans, LA 7013

Ted Johnson

• Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve

Details and updates on park operations and programs will continue to be posted on our websites and social media.