gaudanse will perform as part of Libations & Citations: A Juneteenth Celebration on June 19 and 20, 2026, at the Rosenwald School, the Episcopal Church of the Ascension, and City Park. Tickets are free. RSVP at https://www.gaudanse.org/events/libations-citations.

Libations & Citations is a two-day interdisciplinary Juneteenth celebration uplifting Black artistic expression, ancestral memory, and historical preservation through community dialogue across Louisiana.

This project centers on the legacy of the GU272 and their descendants and uplifting Black artists today. Through performance, conversation, and immersive installation, gaudanse in collaboration with the RRAAM, activates space for reflection, historical preservation, and collective imagination.

This two-day performance compilation is presented by gaudanse in collaboration with the River Road African American Museum, with support from the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation. Live art performances are curated by Imani Gaudin.

Libations & Citations engages intergenerational participants across rural and urban Black communities in the South through free, accessible cultural programming centered on oral history, artistic expression, and collective memory. Participants include elders, youth, local artists, and broader community audiences, with all activities open and non-exclusionary.

The project is activated through a two-day series that bridges history, art, and present-day realities. The event will be kicked off with a book signing and Q&A with Chief Justice (Ret.) Bernette Joshua Johnson, who is from the Donaldsonville community, highlighting her impact as the first African-American woman to serve on the Louisiana Supreme Court as both associate justice and chief justice. This offering invites community members to engage directly with lived history while reflecting on its relevance today.

Day one highlights artists from the rural city of Donaldsonville, Louisiana, activating and uplifting artistic voices from a historically underrepresented community.

CELEBRATION SCHEDULE

10:00am-12:00pm

Book signing and moderated conversation with Chief Justice (Ret.) Bernette Joshua Johnson and KaTrina Griffin (co-author)

Book: Behind the Gavel
Interviewer: The Honorable Karen Wells Roby
Lunch (Lunch Vendor Available on Site)
12:00-2:00pm – Tours of the RRAAM Campus of Living History

2:00-2:30pm – Libations Ceremony

2:30-3:00pm – Artist Showcase

Dance (Imani Gaudin)
Film Trailer Presentation (Darryl Hambrick)
Live Music Set (Lazzaro Nettles)
3:00-4:30pm Roundtable Discussion

Moderated conversation and live oral history recording with community elders and local voices from Ascension Parish

Day two centers on New Orleans-based artists, presenting a new work featuring local dancers, reflecting the city’s current artistic landscape. All participating artists are compensated, providing paid opportunities that support sustainable creative practice.

nanibu: the throne room is a free installation-based performance that is an adaptation of Imani Gaudin’s interdisciplinary dance production, nanibu. It is a sacred, celebratory, and ritualistic performance with the installation inspired by global 13th-century royal environments reimagined through a contemporary Black diasporic lens.

All programming will be free and held in ADA-accessible spaces whenever possible, with accommodations available for people with disabilities.

By creating space for storytelling, performance, and public gathering, this project activates communities, preserves lived experiences and expands access to performing arts participation.

Imani Gaudin is an interdisciplinary dance and performing artist. She is the founder and artistic director of gaudanse, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding accessibility, sustainability, and wellness-based arts practices for underserved communities of performing artists. As a performer, she is currently a movement artist with Shamel Pitts’s TRIBE. Her work has been commissioned by Baryshnikov Arts, Hudson Yards Hell’s Kitchen Alliance, and Churchtown Dairy. Additionally, her work has received support from the New York State Council on the Arts, National Performance Network, and New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation. Imani has been a resident artist at Kaatsbaan Cultural Park, New Dance Alliance, Baryshnikov Arts, and Pepatián in partnership with BAAD!. In 2025, she was named a Gambit 40 under 40 Honoree, premiered her first self-produced evening-length work nanibu (an interdisciplinary dance-based play), and made her international debut with her work mamihlapinatapai, in Paris, France.

gaudanse (Gaudanse Inc.), is an interdisciplinary dance production organization. This collective of multidisciplinary movement artists, founded by Imani Gaudin is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that is rooted between New York, NY, and New Orleans, LA. Weaving together elements of dance, performance art, music, film, culinary arts, and visual arts, gaudanse builds immersive, whimsical worlds of fantasies that provoke thought and transport audiences into new dimensions of imagination. Through accessible programs, mentorship, workshops, and performances, the collective is committed to propelling the artistic growth of early-career creators.

For more info: www.gaudanse.org. @gau.danse @imani.gaudin.

Work supported by: New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation

gaudanse acknowledges and honors that we live and function on the land of the Munsee Lenape, Canarsie, Wappinger, Houma, and Choctaw peoples.

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