Blood as Currency: Gender, Violence, and Power in When the Mapou...
When the Mapou Sings: Haiti’s History in Verse and Silence
The minute I opened When the Mapou Sings, I was grateful that I did not...
Stones by Stones. Words to Deeds
The Citadelle Henry and the palace of Sans-Souci still stand, two centuries later. Stone upon stone, carved from sweat and will, they endure. What...
Breaking the Cycle: Why Haiti’s “Fixes” Fix Nothing
If a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If...
The Quiet Architecture of Black Excellence and the Death of the...
A friend from the neighborhood stopped by last night with his wife and their 18-year-old daughter, bright-eyed, standing at the edge of her future,...
You Can’t Win Tomorrow’s Game with Yesterday’s Points
During one of our monthly Afro-Caribbean men’s domino gatherings—the kind where the slap of the tiles carries the weight of history and pride—a debate...
The First and Last King of Haiti
Whenever I hear 1804 Haitian fanatics—those who shout with fevered breath about the glories of the Haitian Revolution, about the unshakable will of Christophe,...
Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Péralte
(I interviewed the author of Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Péralte, which can be found here.)
This second reading is nothing...
Haitian Sovereignty & Exported Identity
Under the presidency of Élie Lescot, on May 5, 1941, Haiti embarked on a bold endeavor, not of conquest, but of cultural export, proclaiming...
The Crust that Binds
How manifold are the tongues that proclaim the delights of the humble, golden crust? In Haiti, it is revered as Graten; in Cuba, Cocolón;...
From Ginen to Betasyon
The Haitian soul does not bend easily to the thin, brittle gospel of individualism. Its pulse beats elsewhere—deep in the communal embrace, where the...