Student Writing

Blog Manager's Note: We hope to publish as often as possible writings done by our students here at SVDP-ALC. At present we are stressing essay writing. But in the near future we hope to have other types of writing too from poems and drama to short stories. The essay below is based on a book called Coming out the Door for the Ninth Ward which was affiliated with the program for the Literacy Alliance of New Orleans called "One Book One New Orleans." Wanda's essay below was originally published in "AmeriWord," the newsletter for Literacy*AmeriCorps in New Orleans, and is re-printed here with AmeriWord's permission.

Wanda is the first student from SVDP-ALC to have an article published in AmeriWord and on our SVDP-ALC blog. Congratulations, Wanda!


New Orleans Parading
By Wanda Miskell

(Wanda is a student at the St. Vincent de Paul Adult Learning Center in New Orleans, and her essay is based on the book Coming out the Door for the Ninth Ward.)

In New Orleans we have a culture of parading with Mardi Gras Indians, Second Lining, and "buck jumping." Buck jumping is a form of dancing with umbrellas and music. The people in Coming Out the Door for the Ninth Ward speak of different clubs and areas of town in which they grew up and became members of clubs such as the Seventh Ward High Steppers.
The club practices routines, and it was like spirituality to all the clubs because the slaves who came to New Orleans were allowed to dance in Congo Square. Today Congo Square is known as Armstrong Park, near the French Quarter.
A long time ago a Second Line was to celebrate the "home going" of a musician. Home going was the death of a person or the passing of a person. Nowadays, it's to celebrate life as well as death. Buck jumping was for people of a less fancy part of society. Buck jumping was a different term used from different wards. Second Lining was done only at certain times, mostly after the death of a musician.
Because of the different cultures and Mardi Gras, buck jumping and Second Lining were thought to be different. Yet although there is a difference in spirit, it is the same spirit of Louisiana. Dancing means free movement which symbolizes freedom from slavery. People of the Ninth, Seventh, Third, and other wards feel freedom and liberty when they second line, buck jump, and dance with the Indians.

Posted by Adrian