Return to the Yakni Chitto : Houma Migrations
December 1-31, 2019
Opening: Saturday, Dec 14, 5-9pm
2202 Lapeyrouse Street
New Orleans, LA 70119
(504) 343-8040
open by appointment
Return to the Yakni Chitto is an installation of images and words collected from across the coastal territories of the Houma Nation. This exhibition of documentation by Monique Verdin and poetry by Raymond “Moose” Jackson, designed by artist Michel Varisco with intentions for migrations and the ability to be installed in gallery spaces as well as in the landscape. The debut of this exhibition reflects the contents of a collaborative ethnography of Houma lifeways at the ends of the Louisiana bayous titled Return to the Yakni Chitto : Houma Migrations (Neighborhood Story Project, University of New Orleans Press, 2019), edited by Rachel Bruenlin.
Monique Verdin is an interdisciplinary storyteller and daughter of southeast Louisiana who has intimately documented the complex interconnectedness of environment, culture, climate and change in the Mississippi River Delta. Monique is director of the Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange, a citizen of the United Houma Nation and former Tribal Council member and is part of the Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative core leadership circle of brown (indigenous, latinx and desi) women, from Texas to Florida, working to envision just economies, vibrant communities and sustainable ecologies.
