PLACE:
New Orleans
BIO:
My name is Bailey Hutchison, also known as Mecca X. I am a multifaceted horticulturist, herbalist, and artist from the vibrant 7th Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. With a Bachelor’s degree in Natural Resource and Ecology Management from LSU, my passion for Conservation Biology has been a guiding force throughout my artistic journey.
As a third-generation grower and herbalist, I specialize in Afro-Indigenous ethnobotany—the study of traditions and customs surrounding plants and their roles in medical, religious, and spiritual contexts. To deepen my ancestral understanding, I embarked on a three-year immersive journey, conducting independent studies in Trinidad and Tobago. Immersed in the rich cultures of the Caribbean islands and the Deep South, I formed profound connections and insights that inspired this project.
As the founder of TruCulture Community Market, I am dedicated to imparting invaluable Black agrarian skills, ethnobotanical knowledge, and the ancient art of herbal healing within my community.
PROJECT:
TruCulture is a Black Afro-Indigenous Community M(ART)ketplace and farm spanning between New Orleans, Louisiana, and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, with a commitment to eradicating capitalist racism and its effects on the health and wealth of Black, Indigenous, and Afro-Indigenous communities through interactive culture sharing. TruCulture Mobile Market is a mobile art exhibition and marketplace fusion used to share the rich tapestry of storytelling, agrarianism, food, and spiritual practices that share common roots between communities in the Deep South and Caribbean islands. It explores the interconnectedness and ancestral nostalgia of descendants of the trans-Caribbean slave trade, illustrating how we continue to honor our ancestors, whether knowingly or unknowingly, through our inherent cultural practices and instincts.
This narrative unfolds through a multimedia, multi-dimensional, and multi-sensory visually immersive mobile market, employing black diasporic goods, art, plants, and food. This project explores the interconnectedness and ancestral nostalgia of the marketplace presented as a work of art. In addition to the completion of the mobile market, TruCulture will conduct workshops that focus on bringing light to lifestyle, herbal, art-making, and Black agrarian practices either forgotten or lost to the Black community due to cultural colonization, oppression, and attempted erasure. In conjunction with other more established community organizations, TruCulture’s celebration and re-education of these art-making skills, foodways, and healing practices will create a better ecosystem for our communities to thrive.