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A child was lynched in my state of Louisiana. A child. Was lynched. We cannot continue to let the murder, the absolute mutilation, of Black folks, of Black children, to continue. Please continue to share his story and put pressure on the investigators of his case. Please. #QuawanCharles

[ID: So You Want to Talk About Quawan Charles

Fifteen-year-old Quawan “Bobby” Charles went missing in rural Louisiana on October 30th.

The Iberia Parish Parish Sheriff’s Office Patrol Division and Bureau of Investigation claim to have located Quawan’s body on November 2nd. 

He was found in a sugar cane field 25 miles from his home. The sheriff’s department told his family that Quawan had drowned.

Per The Root:

“After three days of searching, one of Quawan’s friends mentioned that he last saw him in the car with a white lady and her teenage son, which they passed along to the police department, who were beginning to take Quawan’s disappearance seriously.” 

“The mother of the teenage son admitted that she picked Quawan up to ‘go hang out with her son,’ but after that, she doesn’t know what happened, according to investigators hired by the family. Neither Quawan’s mom or dad had ever met this 17-year-old son or his mother according to The Root’s interviews with Quawan’s family members and attorneys.”

Per The Cut:

“Police found Quawan’s body in a nearby sugar cane field later that day after talking to the Irvins. The sheriff’s office told the family that water was found in Quawan’s lungs, and he had drowned, but the family says photos of Quawan’s body show that his face was incredibly mangled.”

“Celina Charles, a cousin serving as a family spokeswoman, said that Quawan’s mother, Roxanne Nelson, ran from the viewing room wbhen she saw his body. The Post reports that, in a photo of Quawan, ‘the teen appears so disfigured that his teeth are visible outside of his mouth.’ Charles told ABC that Quawan ‘looks like he’d been tortured.’ Nelson has since shared photos of his body online to call attention to Quawan’s death and to pressure law enforcement to act.”

Quawan’s family has received no answers.

Quawan’s family has accused the Baldwin Police Department of ignoring their concerns and refusing to investigate when they reported him missing on October 30th. Police would not issue an Amber Alert. 

“He was found dead under mysterious circumstances, and we just want an honest and thorough investigation with Iberia Parish Sheriff Department,” Quawan’s stepfather Jason Nelson told KATC.

It has been nearly two weeks since Quawan went missing and the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office has just released a statement saying that they are investigating “suspicious circumstances.”

What you can do:

Amplify + share Quawan’s story. 

Put pressure on investigators. Demand answers & justice.

Iberia Parish Sheriff Thomas S. Romero: [email protected] / 337.369.3714

Baldwin Police Department: Chief Harry Smith / 337.923.4835

Follow @JusticeForQuawanCharles to stay updated on the case.

Sean nós is a totally different type of dance separate to this mainstream “Irish dance”. It is a much more loose and free type of dance where the dancers always wear hard shoes since the sound of the feet is very important. There are a few basic moves (the “shuffle, shuffle stamp”, the “heel and toe” and the “slide and shuffle” being the basic foundation steps) but once you have the basics you can combine steps, free style and even make your own steps. You can move your hands and arms to the music unlike in mainstream Irish dance too. Sean nós is often seen as the sexier Irish dance as the dancers are allowed much greater hip and general body movement and can laugh and interact with the audience as they move. There are no particular costume rules for sean nós competitons. Unlike Irish dance, people can really wear whatever but the norm is comfortable and simple dresses or skirts or trouser/top combinations made up from whatever the dancer chooses from their own wardrobes, a huge contrast to the heavy Irish dance costumes and the expense and pageantry associated with them. Part of the appeal of sean nós is that it has not been commercialised and commodified to the degree that Irish dance has and has a much more casual and fun feel to it in contrast to the strict routines and costume norms of Irish dance.

The most skilled sean nós dancers are able to dance a “barrel dance” where they dance at high speed on top of a barrel without knocking it over. It usually takes years to get to this level of skill so people normally start on the ground and then work their way up from a quarter barrel to a half barrel until they can dance on the top of a full one. This is Emma again doing a barrel dance on a half barrel:

Another sean nós dance is Damhsa na Scuibanna “The Brush Dance” where dancers pass a brush between their legs at speed. The still images don’t really do it justice so here’s a clip of three members of the Cunningham family dancers performing it: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX3Z8qG7AKo

Slavic Cossack dancing known as Hopak 

Slavic dancing: “Hold my beer.”