Bvlbancha Public Access Commencement

Wheres and Whys of our Pre-Dawn Commencement Event July 1st

We want to invite you to a mid-exciting event happening at a really inconvenient time.

After years of growth and support, Bvlbancha Public Access is ready to organize as a non-profit entity. We hope that this move will further our growth in creating Indigenous organization and relations in the Gulf South. We have all our forms in order, and are looking to hit the button to file over morning coffee July 1st.

We chose July 1st as our fiscal year date as it is the option that cyclically best aligns with Green Corn, an Indigenous ceremony of new beginnings. We wanted to treat our organization formation with a weighted sense of celebration and new beginnings, though it is not a ceremony. We wanted to commence this life phase by dedicating the dawn of our first new year to engaging in the present and future work of Bvlbancha Public Access.

This is the origins of our commencement event to which you and yours are earnestly invited.

From 4am till dawn of Monday, July 1 we will be out at the Nanih Bvlbancha, the earthwork mound on the Laffitte Greenway, conducting a dramatic three-person reading of "La Fête Du Petit Blé Ou L'héroïsme De Poucha-Houmma,” a tragic play by M. Le Blanc de Villeneufve centered around an Indigenous community in the Gulf South ​​published in French in 1814. We have done test readings of this play, but this will be the first full reading together we have done with all BPA non-profit board members. 

One of the reasons this play has been buried with time is that it is written in translated neo-classical french prose. It is flouncy, wordy, and the translation lacks the french rhyming scheme. It is not fun to read, and we are not the only ones to think that. Editor Mathé Allain of University of Southewestern Louisiana writes about its inaccessibility in the introduction 1964 play republication:

"As a whole, Pouncha-Houmma has consistently received the same sort of perfunctory attention. Most historians mention the play as one of the earliest literary productions in Louisiana...but which no one read."

This first reading of the "as is" prose by our board sets a foundation for our future aspirational work of our new non-profit. We want this reading to be the baseline as we aspire to re-draft revive the production through the perspective of an Indigenous and minority cultural and linguistic revitalization praxis. The reading at the mound will be recorded, thanks to a grant from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. This recording will be replayed on Bvlbancha Liberation Radio in the coming weeks.

We plan to start the first words around 4:15 am. The reading shall take 1 hour and 45 minutes to read, which will bridge us into wrap Act 5 around dawn. We would be delighted for you to come out and join us in this, but we also hold no shade/completely understand if is not within your best plan of existence. There is no plan for snacks, bathrooms, or other "event infrastructure," other than welcoming greetings and love. You are welcome to bring these (and share!), but do not expect them.

The current rain plan is to move to Catapult if the drizzle gets to be too much.

We wanted to let you know, and give you the chance to tell your friends and tell others about this high-concept beginning because we are so excited to start this new phase with all of you.