LIFE EXPERIENCE
When the Muses Dance With You
The power of feeling at Congo Square, New Orleans.
They have been doing this for over 200 years — celebrating life through the art of music and dance, even during the darkest era of slavery.
The drumming event that happens every Sunday at Congo Square in New Orleans carries both celebratory and poignant energy for me, even as an outsider to the culture and the city.
Yet, I feel one with the struggles endured by the slaves, the Africans, and the Native Americans. This is why I let the Muses take me away, move me. I dance, and I drum to the sounds at Congo Square.
My memories of Sunday afternoons at Congo Square are strong.
I am not mystical. But feelings don’t lie.
When I am in Congo Square listening to my brothers and sisters drumming and dancing without a spoken word, it’s like the Muses have taken over them. They are on a higher plane.
The same plane where their ancestors danced and sang. And when their tongues were cut off, they made instruments and played them. The Muses took over them, they couldn’t be stopped.
They were enslaved, made to work for their captors, day and night. They were sold, tortured, raped, traded. Little was…
