Shaka Zulu

Shaka Zulu, born in New Orleans in 1969, is a stilt dancer, drummer, masking suit artist, and Big Chief of the Golden Feather Hunters who unites West African percussion and movement practices with the downtown New Orleans Black Masking tradition. He grew up in the African and Caribbean performance environment created by his father, Zohar Israel, through the Free Spirit company, learning drums and dance as interconnected practices. By his mid-teens, Zulu had become an accomplished second-generation stilt dancer under his father's guidance.

In 1995, Zulu and his wife, Naimah, founded Zulu Connection, a performing-arts company of dancers, stilt dancers, and drummers that toured nationally and internationally while maintaining a New Orleans community base. He also performed internationally with NEA Jazz Master Donald Harrison Jr.'s Congo Nation, where masking, percussion, and jazz converged within an Afro-New Orleans cultural frame.

In 1999, Zulu entered a sustained apprenticeship in Black Masking suit construction with Chief Darryl Montana, whose father Allison "Tootie" Montana was recognized as an NEA National Heritage Fellow in 1987. The tradition Montana taught distinguishes itself through three-dimensional soft-sculpture forms built from beadwork, sequins, feathers, and abstract design—a year-long cycle of drawing, sewing, beading, and construction for each public emergence.

Zulu's work has moved between neighborhood ceremony, museums, and international exchange. Following Hurricane Katrina, he lectured and exhibited at San Francisco's de Young Museum. He traveled to Tanzania in 2009 and 2019 to exchange knowledge with Maasai and Meru communities; during the 2019 visit, village youth assisted in beading his "Toucan" suit. In 2018, Zulu became Big Chief of the Golden Feather Hunters and produced *New Orleans Voices of Congo Square*, a thirty-person stage production about Black carnival traditions. He has taught stilt and masking knowledge to his daughter Sarauniya and conducted workshops internationally. In 2022, the NEA awarded him a National Heritage Fellowship in recognition of the combined artistry, leadership, and transmission embodied in his suits, movement, percussion, and teaching.