Lesley Art + Design’s Community Design Studio invites you to a conversation with Jean-Luc Pierite and co-hosts Madeline Meyer and Jess Stevens about the Massachusetts state flag, seal, and motto. This introductory discussion also explores themes of education, mascots, and what it really means to have a seat at the table.
To familiarize yourself with the Massachusetts state flag, this graphic from Change the Mass Flag is a great place to start: https://tinyurl.com/mass-flag
Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Jean-Luc now resides in Jamaica Plain. Prior to his election to the North American Indian Center of Boston Board of Directors, Jean-Luc was also elected to the Community Linguist seat of the Advisory Circle for CoLang for the period 2016-20. The Institute on Collaborative Language Research or "CoLang" is designed to provide an opportunity for community language activists and linguists to receive training in community-based language documentation and revitalization. Currently, Jean-Luc volunteers with his Tribe's Language and Culture Revitalization Program which is a collaboration with Tulane University in New Orleans. This program is based on tradition passed from Jean-Luc's great-grandfather Joseph Alcide Pierite, Sr., last traditional chief and medicine man of the Tunica-Biloxi. The Tribe is an amalgamation of members from the Central Louisiana communities of: Tunica, Biloxi-Choctaw, Ofo, and Avoyel.
Jean-Luc is currently a student in the Master in Design for Emergent Futures at the Institut d'Arquitectura Avançada de Catalunya. Jean-Luc has a B.A. in Humanities with a co-major in Mass Communication and Japanese from Dillard University in New Orleans. He also earned an A.S. in Video Game Design from Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida.
Recorded on February 2, 2021.
Learn more about NAICOB at:
https://www.instagram.com/naicob91/
https://www.facebook.com/NAICOB
Jean-Luc Pierite’s project site:
