Dancers, Bourbon St. workers protest strip club closures

Dancers, Bourbon Street workers and their supporters took to the streets of the French Quarter on Thursday evening (Feb. 1) to demonstrate against what they say is the unfair shutdown of eight Bourbon Street strip clubs.

Carrying signs like "Touching my boobs is not prostitution" and "No new Bourbon Street," hundreds of people joined the protest that followed a meandering route that included stops in Jackson's Square, outside the shuttered Rick's Cabaret and ending at the pocket park at Conti Street and South Peters. Along the way, the crowd chanted, "my body my choice" and shouted into bullhorns.

It was the second time this week that demonstrations have erupted in the wake of closures. Dancers interrupted a news conference on Wednesday held to celebrate the reopening of Bourbon Street after months of construction.

Lyn Archer, a founder of a newly organized group of dancers called Bourbon Alliance of Responsible Entertainers, pushed a cart full of bottled water she was selling for $1 each. On two huge water jugs she had labeled the water for sale as "stripper tears" and shouted her answers into a bullhorn when a reporter asked her about turnout.

Read more: http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/02/dancers_march_french_quarter.html