John DePriest

John DePriest Residency Artistic Bulbancha Residencies Type of work Performing Artist and Scholar Location Louisiana Year 2025 John DePriest is a linguist, musician, educator, and songwriter based out of Bʋlbancha (New Orleans, Louisiana) and is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He earned a PhD from Tulane University studying language and music in the brain and has taught there in the Center for Global Education since 2016. He also teaches a course on Indigenous Cultures and Communities of the Gulf South through the Gulf Scholars Program. He is the lead singer, banjo player, and songwriter for the band Bogue Chitto, and is actively working to preserve and expand the use of Choctaw language and music, including work on an album of traditional and original Choctaw music, Taloa Haklo, released in June, 2025. He worked on projects related to Choctaw language change over time, as well as a chapter on Choctaw hymn translation and authorship as a site of resistance, identity preservation, and syncretism, and translated and recorded hymns as a component of this project. Headshot by Sara Luton Photos below by Cedric Dent Upcoming Events John DePriest Related News Announcing 2024 - 2025 Residents Past Events John DePriest × × ‹ ›