"The launch event in March was really successful. Everything came together for a totally perfect night," Laura Quinla, Rhythm Foundation Director said. "What was especially cool was that it was a lot of different kinds of people of all backgrounds and ages having a great time together." "It is important to focus on the wealth of culture that Haiti has great music, art, dance. The culture is so rich. Little Haiti also has a lot of nice experiences to offer the general public," Quinla said. "We are hoping our night grows and encompasses all the artist studios, cultural venues, shops and restaurants in the area. I think it will be something people throughout South Florida will look forward to every month."
At the recent Summit of the Americas, President [Barack Obama] suggested that the U.S. could learn a lesson of goodwill from Cuba. In 1998, Cuba's government began programs to send large-scale medical assistance to poor populations affected by natural disasters. Each year some 2,000 young people enroll at the school, which operates from a former naval base in a suburb of Havana. Cuba's 21 medical faculties all train young people of poor families from throughout the Americas, as well as hundreds of African, Arab, Asian and European students. The country sends teams of doctors all over the world to respond to natural disasters. Cuban doctors have provided medical services to the underserved in Africa for over a decade. Blacks' views of relations with Cuba differ vastly from those of most Cuban immigrants and Cuban-Americans. The former lily-white upper crust of Cuban society wield political clout in Florida and are dead set against normalizing relations with Cuba's government. Consequently most politicians have chosen to adopt Cuban-American views. From 1960 to 1979, hundreds of thousands of Cubans began new lives in the US. Most of these Cuban Americans came were from educated upper and middle classes and form the backbone of the anti-[Fidel Castro] movement. Cuban Americans are America's fifth-largest Hispanic group and the largest Spanish-speaking group of white descent.
"I say that I'm Haitian first, and then we go from there," said Patrick Marcelin, the U.S.-born son of Haitian immigrants who raps in Creole and English as "Mecca a.k.a. Grimo." "I just happened to be born in America, but really I'm a Haitian brother. And Haiti is the direct daughter of Africa." The Black History Months he remembers studying never mentioned Haiti's history, even though Haiti was a destination for Black Americans searching for their cultural roots. Marcelin now also teaches in the Haitian Heritage Museum's school outreach program, exposing students to the American history he never learned. For example, when talking about writers from the Harlem Renaissance, Marcelin points out that [Zora Neale Hurston] wrote her novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God" in Haiti in the 1930s, and the poet [Langston Hughes] wrote admiringly of the Haitian peasants who walked down mountain roads barefoot, balancing baskets on their heads, to sell their wares. "They should have been teaching this in school, that soldiers from Haiti came to fight in the American Revolution," Marcelin said. "I read about [Frederick Douglass] in the history books but I don't remember anything about him being the ambassador to Haiti. Or that the founder of Chicago was a Haitian brother."
In this context, the achievements of yesterday and of today are intimately linked. Sojourner Truth thundered against slavery so that Frederick Douglass could agitate. Douglass agitated so that Thurgood Marshall could argue the law. Marshall argued so that Rosa Parks could sit. Parks sat so that Martin Luther King Jr. could stand. King stood so that young people could march. Young people marched so that Shirley Chisholm could dare to aim for Congress. Rep. Chisholm dared so that Jesse Jackson could run. Jackson ran so Barack Obama could win. And Obama won because a majority of voting Americans - red, yellow, brown, black and white - were ready to finally say: Yes, we can!
The daytime workshops will be complemented by evening community programs held at the Historic Lyric Theatre, 819 NW Second Avenue in Overtown. On Monday, June 18 at 5:30 p.m. a special "Maroon Double Feature" film showing will celebrate the Pan African spirit of resistance with a presentation of "Maluala" by Cuban filmmaker Sergio Giral and "Quilombo" by Brazilian filmmaker Carlos Diegues. Both have become modern classics. Based on historical fact, these powerful dramas depict the struggle of those who dared to escape from slavery and establish independent, fiercely defended Maroon communities. Time will be allowed for discussion after the films. June 19 is officially celebrated in several states as "Juneteenth," commemorating that date in 1865 when the last of the enslaved African American population in East texas received word of the Emancipation Proclamation at the end of the Civil War. Because "No one was really free until everyone was free," this date, shortened by custom over the years to "Juneteenth." was considered the true end of the institution of slavery in the United States.
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A number of high-profile posts were to follow and Guyana's independence in 1966 brought fresh demands on his time. First he became Attorney-General and then, after a series of ministerial positions during the late '60s and early '70s, he was appointed Secretary-General of the Commonwealth. It has been speculated that his relentless pursuit for just international relations, and for trade based on justice, ultimately hindered his chances of being appointed Secretary-General of the United Nations. But to this day, Sir Shridath presses on. Sir Arthur Lewis IN 1979, Sir Arthur Lewis became a standard-bearer for Black intellectuals. He became the first person from the Caribbean ever to gain a Nobel Prize, winning the award for economics in 1979.
Works like Wheatley's and [Harriet Jacobs]' remind us how important it is to document our history with authenticity. History tells us of the need to write our own stories in our own words, for accuracy, for validation. And this is exactly why writers like Maya Angelou, Gwendolyn Brooks, Poet Laureate Rita Dove, Alice Walker and Louise Bennett Coverly (Jamaica) have revolutionized the written word and established themselves as role models for all of us. Positive images. Pulitzer Prize winner Alice Walker uses the word "womanist" in her works to refer to the liberation of black women. Through her famous novel "The Color Purple" and other works, she has revolutionized literature in the New World and given great insights into the traditions, beliefs, history, and values of people of African ancestry. The central theme in all of her work becomes the flower of hope that grows out of all despair. Black women writers have created for us a window to the world through which we can make real-life connections. From them we have received portraits in courage and a validation of ourselves. Their words constantly remind us that hope is eternal and that beauty can rise from adversity, as is so aptly expressed in the poignant declaration by Maya Angelou, the first female to read at a U.S. presidential inauguration, "And still I rise."
Despite the righteous platitudes of the American and French Revolutions, the idea of an independent Black Republic created through force of arms did not sit well with the powers that be in the Capitols of Europe and America. There was virtually universal agreement among the European/White leaders of the time, including President Thomas Jefferson, that the example of Haiti was a threat to their national interests - profiting from the slave trade and/or colonialism in Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America. Therefore, it was imperative that Haiti be isolated, marginalized and rendered weak as a "Black nation." Under threat of a new invasion, Haiti succumbed to demands from France to pay millions of dollars in reparations for title loss of property (enslaved Africans and the plantations) incurred during the Revolution. The burden of this debt would cripple Haiti's struggle for development well into the 20th century. In 1915 the U.S. invaded and occupied Haiti until 1934, and has treated Haiti as a neo-colony ever sense.
[By the way [Anthony Morgan], in another University publication you're quoted as saying: "I think the bigger issue is how little we know about the history and historical contributions of Jamaicans." Well, the issue is way bigger than Jamaica; it's a "race" issue, targeting and ridiculing Black people, all of whom are people of African descent, sons and daughters of slaves.] So those students, froshers, "...were just having fun," eh? There was "nò mal-intent?" according to director [Michel Patry]. Surely they could've found another and more interesting and humanly innocuous way to have (even more) fun. The blackface skit is a sad cliché, it's passé, plus it's not funny. Except for [White] people as they seek ways to fulfill their final stage of life: their pursuit of happiness, by any means. It serves us right; it's the 'house divided' maxim. We are fractured from pulling in so many directions. We lack cohesion and the essential elements that hold people together to secure a strong !foundation. We've long cut the ties that bind, so it's very easy for people to have their way with us.
