Edward “E” Buckles is a New Orleans filmmaker and director who founded House of the Young, a collective, platform and production company which highlights the works of Black and brown content creators.

Buckles, along with House of the Young, is currently hosting “We the Culture,” a digital exhibit at Axiom Fine Art Gallery. In part, the exhibit aims to place the works by creators of color in a fine-art space in an effort to highlight both the historically exclusionary world of fine art and Black and brown creators’ right to be in that space. Buckles says We the Culture allows people to “come and be intimate with us and our content.”

Folks who visit the exhibit may notice a Blockbuster theme, inspired by the bygone video-rental chain. “We actually chose Blockbuster as our theme because everyone remembers the excitement of taking a trip there to pick up a movie. We wanted to play on that idea and get people excited to come and pick up some culture. We also wanted to make a nod to when Blockbuster announced the closing of their stores. They had ‘Blockbuster closing soon’ signs around the store, and we have ‘New Orleans Closing Soon’ and ‘Our Culture Ain’t for Sale’ signs all around to highlight the fact that we are here to protect and produce content that is a true representation of the narratives of our communities.”

A visitor at the We the Culture digital exhibit in New Orleans

Buckles launched House of the Young to create a “pipeline for local creatives to expose their works to a large audience,” adding the organization’s mission is to “provide a digital content platform that authentically uplifts the narrative and shows the organic existence of those documenting our stories.” Together with Vice President and Producer E’jaaz Mason and Director of Communications and Producer Monique Constance, Buckles and House of the Young are doing necessary work.

Katrina Babies, Buckles forthcoming documentary film, is currently in post-production. Until its release, folks can visit the We the Culture digital exhibit at Axiom (4613 Freret St.) between 5 and 9:30 p.m. through June 30. For more information, find E. Buckles on Instagram.