The Rights to Live Creatively: Haitian Feminist and Queer Worldmaking (May 20, 2025)

We convene for Haitian Flag Day (May 18) to honor Haitian creativities and celebrate the publication of a special issue of the Journal of Haitian Studies that centers intersections of race, gender, sexuality, spirituality, political movements and artistic  expression in Haiti and by Haitians. At a time when Haiti faces dire impediments to its sovereignty and stability as an independent Black nation, as renewed attacks against Haitians in the United States reanimate racist lies and xenophobia, and the substantial Haitian population in southern California faces an uncertain future, it is important to uplift and demystify Haitian culture, highlight  intellectual and artistic labor, and amplify homegrown visions for autonomy and justice.

The Rights to Live Creatively JOHS Special Issue Publication Launch (May 19, 2025)

We gather to celebrate Haitian Flag Day and the recent publication of “The Rights to Live Creatively,” a special double issue of the Journal of Haitian Studies. With 30 contributors who are academics, artists, and activists, and coming in at over 400 pages, “The Rights to Live Creatively” is the first time JOHS is centering the topics of gender and sexuality in Haiti and its diasporas – a major opening in intersectional and engaged scholarship.

“The Rights To Live Creatively,” On Gender & Sexuality In Haitian Studies (Oct. 12, 2024)

The Sexualities Working Group is a group of Haitian and U.S. American scholars and practitioners who have, since 2015 in different configurations, mobilized in coalition with Haitian LGBTQ/M-community, Vodouyizan, and all those who do not conform to sexual/gendered norms. Working in collaboration and coalition, we are dedicated to documenting, sharing, and bolstering the work of queer crusaders and all those who dare to live creatively in Haiti and its diasporas. We assemble around forms of creativity across arts and activisms, political and cultural expressions, history-making and future-birthing. We are interested in different domains of knowledge production and activism that might register, resist, and/or repair the dire impacts on gendered/sexual formations caused by systemic violence, cis-hetero-patriarchy, homophobia/transphobia, religious vitriol, and neoliberal policies. We ask, how does close attention to the lived body and embodied expression illuminate gender/sexuality as foundational to a capacious sense of the rights to live creatively? What pedagogies and praxes have served to either forward or derail the possibilities for life in Haiti? In what ways do Haitian people seize joy, create pleasures, and rest amidst confinement?

The Rights to Live Creatively (October 20, 2021)

As the first official convening of the HSA Sexualities Working Group, this event builds on “The Rights to Live Creatively,” a series of conversations and roundtables we facilitated in Fall 2020. We gather to share knowledge and galvanize our commitments, interests, and labor. The first hour of this meeting will feature presentations by Haiti-based community organizers Merlin Jean and Vadson Nicholas, Directors of Cap Haitien-based human rights organization Heritage; Sandy Pierre, Community Activist of Organisation Arc-en-Ciel d’Haiti (ORAH); and Soeurette Policar, Executive Director of Organisation de Développement et de Lutte contre la Pauvreté (ODELPA). In the second hour, we will move into conversation and action planning with all attendees. What are the stakes of “living creatively” in Haiti at this moment? How might we build transnational solidarity projects together?

The Roots Are Many and Deep: Social, Cultural, and Spiritual Dimensions of Haiti’s Ecological Crisis (Oct. 19, 2021)

On boarding the ship to his captivity in 1802, Toussaint L’Ouverture delivered a characterization of liberty that would become famous: its roots are many and deep. In the 217 years since Haiti’s independence, the nation’s liberty has been challenged, its roots entangled with invasive species, likewise many and deep. This meeting of HSA’s Working Group on the Environment (Konbit) will present the multidisciplinary perspectives of five scholars and activists. After introductory remarks—presenters’ names and affiliations and discussion ground rules—each of the five presenters will make a statement of no more than five minutes in order to allow maximum time for comments, questions, and discussion with attendees. The meeting will end with an announcement from our blog/vlog team about the progress of that effort, and with suggested ways for all to become involved.

Documentary Screening: ‘Men Sa Lanmè Di’ with Q&A with Filmmaker & Marine Scientist (July 17, 2021)

From its trailer text: “The Haitian Sea as you’ve never seen or heard it before. In this documentary, the Sea tells its story with the Haitian people. Wave after wave, the Sea showcases its riches, reveals its mysteries, and raises the alarm. From the excessive use of its resources to the consequences of climate change and pollution, the Sea displays its different shades of blue and suggests opportunities to seize. This film is an invitation to travel, discover, and also to raise awareness. Haiti’s future lies in its coasts or will not be.”

Call for proposals – H.S.A. Working Groups (2021)

Last year the H.S.A. piloted Working Sessions, to great enthusiasm from our members. The five live webinars from three Working Sessions were well attended, and generated interest to keep this series of bottom-up interdisciplinary spaces going.

Members like you have asked for new ways of connecting, being involved, and many of you have expressed the desire to make our collective scholarship relevant to conversations in policymaking, philanthropy, and legislation regarding Haiti. We know that cultivating a diverse and inclusive scholarly community, a lakou, is one of the ongoing strengths of our association. Working Groups will both build on this strength and foster more engaged scholarship.

Last year’s pilot experience with Working Sessions has shown us that synchronous, online events can work for members, who expressed a strong desire for more regular events this year. We also learned about the process, sharpened our focus, and reminded of the still very pronounced digital divide regarding our colleagues in Haiti.

The Rights to Live Creatively: Artistic Expression, Visibility, Solidarity (Dec. 14, 2020)

In light of right-wing authoritarianism in Haiti today that exposes the clientelist nature of the justice system and increases violence against all who seek to live creatively, this Working Session convenes to hear from Haitian freedom fighters and artists on the ground in a series of webinar discussions and focused virtual gatherings.

This second panel features cultural workers Maksaens Denis, independent artist, and Hetera Estamphil, director of KOURAJ, who will share with us the ways in which their works challenge gendered and sexual norms and offer us another vision of and for Haiti. The conversation will be moderated by Josué Azor, and feature performances by Yonel Charles and Jenny Cadet. The goals are to think together with attendees to design an action plan that supports and amplifies their efforts toward creative living in Haiti.

The Rights to Live Creatively: Artistic Expression, Visibility, Solidarity (Oct. 8, 2020)

In light of right-wing authoritarianism in Haiti today that exposes the clientelist nature of the justice system and increases violence against all who seek to live creatively, this Working Group convenes to hear from Haitian freedom fighters and artists on the ground in a series of webinar discussions and focused virtual gatherings.

The first panel features cultural workers Josué Azor, Jenny Cadet, and Maksaens Denis who will share with us the ways in which their works challenge gendered and sexual norms and offer us another vision of and for Haiti. During the gathering that follows the webinar, they will think together with attendees to design an action plan that supports and amplifies their efforts toward creative living in Haiti.

Haitian Art: Koneksyon, Rezistans, Istwa (Oct. 5, 2020)

With the extremely generous and catalyzing platform offered to us by the Haitian Studies Association, the present project offers first and foremost a call to us as scholars, pedagogues, and publishers to be ever rigorous and conscientious  about the ways in which we engage theory, in this case, theory and historical scholarship on and about Haitian visual arts. How might we more rigorously create new mechanisms by which to better facilitate more constant dialogue in regard to the ways in which we speak, think, and write alongside Haitian artists and scholars, especially those writing in Haitian Kreyòl and French?

Working across Disciplines toward an Environmental Understanding for Haiti (Oct. 7, 2020)

The recently convened working session on the environment of the Haitian Studies Association (HSA) is pleased to announce its first public presentation at HSA’s 32nd Annual Conference, “Nou La Pi Rèd! Embodying a New Praxis.” The presentation will take place in virtual webinar format on the Zoom platform, with live streaming to Facebook, on Wednesday, October 7th, from 2 to 4 pm Eastern Time. Speakers across disciplines ranging from environmental sciences and agriculture to religion and musicology but with a common interest in the past, present, and future of Haiti’s ecosystems will present problems and perspectives from their research and application.

Working Sessions for 2020 Online Conference

Participation in these Working Sessions is free to all Members of H.S.A (renew your membership here) & also free to the public (you must register to each session individually). All members will receive their invitation links a day before the session. It will also be broadcasted live via our YouTube Channel & our Facebook.   For […]

Working Sessions 2020

For the 2020 Conference at American University in Washington, DC, which will be held from October 8-10, H.S.A. plans to pilot a new format of peer-to-peer and mentorship gathering: two-hour working sessions clustered around conference themes. Members like you have asked for new ways of connecting, being involved, and many of you have expressed the desire to make our collective scholarship relevant to conversations in policymaking, philanthropy, and legislation regarding Haiti. We know that cultivating a diverse and inclusive scholarly community, a lakou, is one of the ongoing strengths of our association. Working sessions will both build on this strength and foster more engaged scholarship. At our next conference in Washington, in addition to plenaries and concurrent sessions, H.S.A will dedicate space to accommodate the following six sessions.