The celebration officially started with a combination press conference and job fair at FIU's Biscayne Campus. Co-sponsored by Miami-Dade County and the South Florida Workforce, the FIU event featured a luncheon hosted by Emiline Alexis of the County Mayor's office. The job fair was held in honor of Haitian Labor Day and was held in the lobby and patio of FIU's Wolfe Center. Sunday was an especially busy day with a book reading at the Mapou Bookstore in Little Haiti, a complimentary buffet featuring foods (and music) from all nine of Haiti's Departments (provinces), and an infectious and intoxicating display of Haitian drumming and vocal performances called "Zaka" in the Design Destrict.
Plans to celebrate Haiti's 2004 bicentennial were discussed recently by Minister Leslie Voltaire at the Center for Constitutional Rights in Manhattan NY. He said plans were underway to have a large exhibition commemorating the international slave trade and a symposium of African writers in the diaspora.
