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Announcements & Statements (44)
2023 Call for Nominations for the H.S.A. Board (Dec. 1, 2023)
The members of the Board of Directors of the Haitian Studies Association are elected by the general membership by electronic balloting and serve a three-year term. Board members can be re-elected for additional terms. The Board is composed of elected and advisory members, as well as a student representative, who, in turn, elect the Secretary and Treasurer. The officers of the Board of Directors are the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The Advisory Board is composed of the current Executive Director, the immediate Past President, and the Editor of the Journal of Haitian Studies (JOHS). Collectively, these members are the governing body of the Haitian Studies Association.
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2023 Haitian Studies Association Film Award - Call for Submissions (July 15, 2023)
The Haitian Studies Association (HSA) is now accepting short film entries for the first 2023 Haitian Studies Association Film Award. All films that are not in Kreyòl, English or French must be submitted with English, French or Creole subtitles. If the submitter fails to provide working subtitles by the final submission deadline, the project will be considered incomplete and will be disqualified. We welcome submissions via FilmFreeway.com.
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Call For Submissions for the 2023 HSA Book Prize Award (June 12, 2023)
The HSA Book Award is given in alternate years to the best book in Haitian Studies in the Social Sciences, with relevance towards the betterment of Haiti and its people. Books must have been published within the last 2 years, June 2021 to June 2023. Anthologies and edited volumes do not qualify.
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Conference (17)
H.S.A. 2023 Award Recipients
Here we have all our award recipients for our 2023 annual conference.
Lifetime Achievement Awards, Award for Excellence, Award for Service, Book Award, Arnold Antonin Haitian Studies Association Film Award, Emerging Scholars' Fund Recipients, & Michel-Rolph Trouillot Fund Recipients.
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2023 Conference Program
View Haitian Studies Association's 35th Annual Conference Program. Here you can see the conference's schedule and the sessions.
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2023 Annual Conference Keynote Speaker: Dr. Leslie Alexander
'The Cradle of Hope: How Haitian Independence Inspired the Birth of Black Internationalism in the United States'
Haiti’s emergence as a free, sovereign nation lit a beacon of hope for Black people across the African diaspora during the nineteenth century. In this talk, Leslie Alexander chronicles how Haitian sovereignty shaped Black political consciousness in the United States, especially among those demanding freedom. For them, Haiti was their “cradle of hope”—the only nation on earth where Black people could live free and equal. All their dreams for the global Black freedom struggle rested on Haiti’s shoulders, prompting free and enslaved Black people in the United States to wage an unyielding battle to defend Haiti and its sovereignty. In so doing, they gave birth to a new Black internationalist consciousness—one that not only demanded an end to slavery, but also insisted on full freedom, equality, and sovereignty for Black people throughout the African diaspora.
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Emerging Scholars (15)
Emerging Scholars Café (Nov. 10, 2023)
The Emerging Scholars Committee would like to invite you to its next Emerging Scholars Café on November 10 at 2:00 p.m./East on Zoom.
We welcome Victor Charly Camilien, PhD student, to present on the topic “formes communautaires de solidarité” and Ammcise Apply, PhD student on the topic “Climate change, human health and wellbeing, health & health disparities”. The event will take place on zoom. We also welcome Dr. Lefranc Joseph as a commentator on this panel. This panel will be moderated by Websder Corneille. We look forward to having you among us.
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Emerging Scholars Committee Message to Conference Attendees
The Emerging Scholars committee is dedicated to the development and support of new generations of scholars of Haiti and the Haitian diaspora. We coordinate mentorship events and advocate for the particular concerns of students and emerging scholars with the association.
Emerging as a scholar is an ongoing process and we welcome participation from all self-identifying emerging scholars. Those programs which are restricted to current students (undergraduate and graduate) are labeled as such.
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Emerging Scholars Café (Sept. 15, 2023)
The Emerging Scholars Committee would like to invite you to its next Emerging Scholars Café on september 15, 2023 at 3:00 pm East on Zoom.
We welcome Dr. France Neff, to present on the topic “Haitian Immigrant Families view of Acculturation: An interpretive phenomenological Analysis”; Dulanda Saintcyr, degree in Political Science & African American Studies on the topic “Political engagement, Black liberation”; and Marcea T. Daiter PhD student interdisciplinary Studies:Concentration in Humanities and Culture, on the topic “Ritual, Spirituality, Modernity, and Creativity”.
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Environment Blog (4)
Microplastics and Environmental Health: Identification of the Environmental Hazards in Haiti
Over the past several decades, various studies have highlighted the impact of microplastics (MP) on living organisms. By definition, MP refers to all plastic particles with a size less than 5 mm in diameter according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency of the United States (NOAA). They are themselves pollutants and act as vectors for the transport of various types of chemicals in natural ecosystems. Depending on their characteristics, they are easily introduced into the environment by wind and heavy rains and persist there due to their low solubility. They can be found in: seawater, freshwater, agroecosystems, atmospheric, food and aquatic environments, drinking water, natural biota as well as other remote locations (Lambert et al., 2014).
Read More »
Dappiyanp sou Tè: Seizure of Land, Rights, and Sustainability in Haiti
The month of May in Haiti has customarily celebrated the worker, and until very recent times people understood “worker” as one who tilled the soil. The month kicks off with Labor Day conflated with May Day, the former rooted in labor organizing and the latter in rural festivals marking the start of summer. Practitioners of Haitian Vodou salute Azaka Mede, spirit of the earth and farmers, throughout the month.
Read More »
The Energy Potential of Marine Macroalgae in Haiti
Haiti, like most Caribbean countries, faces a growing energy crisis due to the increasing costs of fossil fuels and the lack of indigenous domestic energy supplies. Biofuels are increasingly considered as alternatives to fossil fuels to power modern societies, but they carry their own negative environmental impacts and limitations. In order for biofuels to make a more positive impact on the energy economy of Haiti, three conditions must be met: (i) a new source of millions of tons of sustainably sourced biomass must be discovered with fewer negative environmental impacts than fuel wood; (ii) the biomass must be safely and efficiently transformed into a useful fuel to serve the needs of homes and industries; and (iii) an entire transportation and distribution network has to be created to place this new energy supply in the hands of the end users. Today, we will discuss our research into turning sargassum seaweed into useful biogas energy.
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Journal of Haitian Studies (10)
Journal of Haitian Studies Special Issue - Call for Papers (Apr. 15, 2023)
This special issue emerges from the Sexualities Working Group of the Haitian Studies Association, a group of Haitian and U.S. American scholars and practitioners who have, since 2015 in different configurations, mobilized in coalition toward the rights to live creatively for Haitian LGBTQ/M-community, Vodouyizan, and all those who do not conform to sexual/gendered norms. Responding to a call made by our Haitian activist interlocutors to support their on-the-ground endeavors through increased dissemination of research on the construction and performance of genders and sexualities in Haiti, the editorial collective hopes this special issue will document, share, and collectivize mutual commitments to bolstering the work of queer crusaders and all those who dare to live creatively in Haiti and its diasporas.
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Journal of Haitian Studies Fall 2022 – Volume 28, Number 2
HISTORIES OF EXCHANGE AND CONTESTATION
REIMAGINING LIBERATION: RESISTANCE STRATEGIES PAST AND PRESENT
INDIVIDUAL AGENCY, STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY
BOOK REVIEWS
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Journal of Haitian Studies Spring 2022 – Volume 28, Number 1
LAND AND THE STRUGGLE FOR AUTONOMY: DEVELOPMENT, DECOLONIZATION, AND THE COUNTER-PLANTATION
FINDING A NEW PATH FORWARD: HISTORICAL AND LITERARY MODELS FOR CONSTRUCTING BETTER FUTURES
BOOK REVIEWS
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Members' Corner (17)
Professors Petrouchka Moïse and Fredo Rivera Secure $350K Grant for "Haitian Art Digital Crossroads" Project
Petrouchka Moïse, assistant professor and Cultural & Community-based Digital Curator in the Grinnell College Libraries, and Fredo Rivera '06, assistant professor of Art History, have been awarded a $350,000 grant from the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources program of the National Endowment for the Humanities. The grant will support their project, "Haitian Art Digital Crossroads," which aims to digitize over a thousand Haitian artworks held at several sites in Haiti and the United States and incorporate them into a multilingual database. "We are thrilled to have this opportunity to share the richness and diversity of Haitian art with a wider audience and to make it accessible to scholars and researchers around the world," said Moïse.
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Video games, food and ‘aha’ moments make this Cal State San Marcos professor one of the best
Alyssa Sepinwall was named the best teacher in the CSU system for getting students to grasp how their lives have been shaped by events that occurred long ago and far away.
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Religion Prof Receives Fellowship to Help Preserve Vodou Temple
Professor of Religion Elizabeth McAlister is working alongside colleagues in Haiti to help preserve the precious art and sacred objects at one particular temple. To support her efforts, McAlister has recently been named a 2023 Crossroads Research Fellow by Princeton University. The Crossroads Project “responds to challenges that call for deeper public understanding of and scholarly engagement with Black religious histories and cultures,” according to its website.
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Opportunities (35)
2023 Call for Nominations for the H.S.A. Board (Dec. 1, 2023)
The members of the Board of Directors of the Haitian Studies Association are elected by the general membership by electronic balloting and serve a three-year term. Board members can be re-elected for additional terms. The Board is composed of elected and advisory members, as well as a student representative, who, in turn, elect the Secretary and Treasurer. The officers of the Board of Directors are the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer. The Advisory Board is composed of the current Executive Director, the immediate Past President, and the Editor of the Journal of Haitian Studies (JOHS). Collectively, these members are the governing body of the Haitian Studies Association.
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CALLS FOR PAPERS: "The 'Weaponization' of Ethnic Studies" (Dec. 15, 2023)
Kalfou is seeking submissions that address what Sunaina Maira describes as the “weaponization” of Ethnic Studies against itself. Despite the proliferation of “DEI” statements and agencies, we continue to see the neutralization of antiracist and antisexist discourses in order to perpetuate injustice. In various ways, such neutralization attempts to delegitimate radical struggles and the knowledge they produce.
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CALLS FOR PAPERS: "Kalfou at the Crossroads" (Dec. 15, 2023)
Kalfou is a gathering space for collaboration between academic researchers, community organizations, and insurgent artistry. The crossroads are a site for dreaming together about what a better world might look like and taking action to make that better world a reality.
At these crossroads, Kalfou is specifically seeking SHORT salvos (500–5,000 words) to serve as idea incubators for the challenges we face today.
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Past Conferences (54)
2022 Digital Book Launch
As we come together this year, we are showcasing titles published after our last in-person conference. So in keeping with the times, the Haitian Studies Association introduces our Digital Book Launch to display these new books in a more user-friendly format for your convenience. The following list includes books published during the pandemic and early 2022, including the forthcoming books closing out this year. This list of 60+ books includes texts written both in English and French. The books below address various issues and articulate different perspectives on Haiti and Haitian national history. Click here to view the digital gallery for book covers and abstracts. Listed below are the individual titles that will direct you to the purchasing site. Select the author from the index listed below for a brief book description.
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2022 Award Recipients
At H.S.A.'s 34th annual conference Dr. Régine Michelle Jean-Charles received our Award for Excellence; Dr. Charlene Désir received our Award for Service; and Edouard Duval-Carrié received our Florence Bellande Robertson Award. You can read information of all three award recipients here.
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2022 Scholarship Recipients
At H.S.A.’s 34th annual conference Walner Osna and Michaëlle Vilmont received the Emerging Scholars Fund; Louis Gédéon, Léo D. Pizo Bien-Aimé, and Elkins Voltaire received the Michel Rolph Trouillot Scholarship. You can read information of all five award recipients here.
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Past Events (68)
Kenya's Intervention in Haiti: An interrogation of Impetus, Objectives, and Consequences (Nov. 21, 2023)
In September 2023, the United Nations Security Council voted for the deployment of military forces to combat gang violence in Haiti. The United States pledged $200 million (USD) and Kenya more than 1,000 troops from its police force.
Progressive organizations and activists in Haiti and its diasporas denounce the mission, naming it as an occupation. They argue that, since 2004, Haiti has already been under the direct political, economic, and social control of the United Nations, and more precisely the United States. Moreover they recall that it is under U.S. tutelage that many of Haiti’s most murderous gangs formed and multiplied.
Read More »
Emerging Scholars Café (Nov. 10, 2023)
The Emerging Scholars Committee would like to invite you to its next Emerging Scholars Café on November 10 at 2:00 p.m./East on Zoom.
We welcome Victor Charly Camilien, PhD student, to present on the topic “formes communautaires de solidarité” and Ammcise Apply, PhD student on the topic “Climate change, human health and wellbeing, health & health disparities”. The event will take place on zoom. We also welcome Dr. Lefranc Joseph as a commentator on this panel. This panel will be moderated by Websder Corneille. We look forward to having you among us.
Read More »
#KanallaPapKanpe: Haiti-DR Border Politics & Konbit Sovereignty (Oct. 18, 2023)
In late August of 2023, several peasant organizations came together to build a canal on the Massacre River at the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in order to irrigate their nearby gardens and farms. After 10 years of failed negotiations with all three PHTK regimes in power, the visionaries turned to themselves to ensure their survival and development. Thousands of people and organizations in Haiti and throughout its diasporas have since answered their call to join the Konbit.
This panel features three community organizers who have been at the forefront of the canal construction project. They will clarify the history of the canal, provide updates on the construction, and contextualize the land struggles that underpin the project.
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Past Working Groups (6)
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.
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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.
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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?
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PDFs (5)
Town Hall Update (online event): 'Decolonizing Haitian Studies' (June 26, 2021)
As a follow-up to members' priorities expressed at the 2020 Town Hall meeting, our June event will focus on the problem of coloniality in the field of Haitian Studies and our strategy to decolonize the HSA. All are invited to hear from scholars examining the question of decolonization from the standpoint of their respective disciplines and research interests. We will consider the dynamics of knowledge production, alongside issues of global inequality and anti-blackness, language, ethical collaboration, citational politics and other research practices within the interdisciplinary field of Haitian Studies. Finally, we will describe the status of our Open Access database, a digital archive which aims to provide free access to scholarship by HSA members.
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Town Hall Response Strategy (2021)
International media often portrays Haiti as an ongoing crisis since its successful revolution for independence in 1804. This representation of history simultaneously fails to consider Haiti’s transnational roots and global connections and how Haitians persist in their brave fight for their freedom and sovereignty. Despite the Haitian Revolution’s triumph — an “unthinkable” act in the words of anthropologist/historian Michel-Rolph Trouillot — the event threatened the core of white supremacy. It resulted in dire repercussions against the new nation. In the face of “Western” critics, we aim to highlight real concerns in the country and stand in solidarity with Haiti. Men nou la! (We are here!)
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H.S.A. New Bylaws
Last Fall 2018, in the 30th Annual Conference in Port-au-Prince, the membership voted overwhelmingly (73 to 1) to adopt new bylaws. The new bylaws make provision for HSA members at-large to participate more directly in the running of the organization.
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Photos & Videos (40)
Kenya's Intervention in Haiti: An interrogation of Impetus, Objectives, and Consequences (Nov. 21, 2023)
In September 2023, the United Nations Security Council voted for the deployment of military forces to combat gang violence in Haiti. The United States pledged $200 million (USD) and Kenya more than 1,000 troops from its police force.
Progressive organizations and activists in Haiti and its diasporas denounce the mission, naming it as an occupation. They argue that, since 2004, Haiti has already been under the direct political, economic, and social control of the United Nations, and more precisely the United States. Moreover they recall that it is under U.S. tutelage that many of Haiti’s most murderous gangs formed and multiplied.
Read More »
#KanallaPapKanpe: Haiti-DR Border Politics & Konbit Sovereignty (Oct. 18, 2023)
In late August of 2023, several peasant organizations came together to build a canal on the Massacre River at the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in order to irrigate their nearby gardens and farms. After 10 years of failed negotiations with all three PHTK regimes in power, the visionaries turned to themselves to ensure their survival and development. Thousands of people and organizations in Haiti and throughout its diasporas have since answered their call to join the Konbit.
This panel features three community organizers who have been at the forefront of the canal construction project. They will clarify the history of the canal, provide updates on the construction, and contextualize the land struggles that underpin the project.
Read More »
Emerging Scholars Café (Sept. 15, 2023)
The Emerging Scholars Committee would like to invite you to its next Emerging Scholars Café on september 15, 2023 at 3:00 pm East on Zoom.
We welcome Dr. France Neff, to present on the topic “Haitian Immigrant Families view of Acculturation: An interpretive phenomenological Analysis”; Dulanda Saintcyr, degree in Political Science & African American Studies on the topic “Political engagement, Black liberation”; and Marcea T. Daiter PhD student interdisciplinary Studies:Concentration in Humanities and Culture, on the topic “Ritual, Spirituality, Modernity, and Creativity”.
Read More »
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Upcoming Events (1)
Gang Proliferation and the Political Crisis in Haiti: An Intricate Web (Dec. 15, 2023)
Upcoming online event: Gang Proliferation and the Political Crisis in Haiti: An Intricate Web
Get ready to delve into the tangled web of gang proliferation and political crisis in Haiti.
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Working Group – Environment (7)
Microplastics and Environmental Health: Identification of the Environmental Hazards in Haiti
Over the past several decades, various studies have highlighted the impact of microplastics (MP) on living organisms. By definition, MP refers to all plastic particles with a size less than 5 mm in diameter according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency of the United States (NOAA). They are themselves pollutants and act as vectors for the transport of various types of chemicals in natural ecosystems. Depending on their characteristics, they are easily introduced into the environment by wind and heavy rains and persist there due to their low solubility. They can be found in: seawater, freshwater, agroecosystems, atmospheric, food and aquatic environments, drinking water, natural biota as well as other remote locations (Lambert et al., 2014).
Read More »
Dappiyanp sou Tè: Seizure of Land, Rights, and Sustainability in Haiti
The month of May in Haiti has customarily celebrated the worker, and until very recent times people understood “worker” as one who tilled the soil. The month kicks off with Labor Day conflated with May Day, the former rooted in labor organizing and the latter in rural festivals marking the start of summer. Practitioners of Haitian Vodou salute Azaka Mede, spirit of the earth and farmers, throughout the month.
Read More »
The Energy Potential of Marine Macroalgae in Haiti
Haiti, like most Caribbean countries, faces a growing energy crisis due to the increasing costs of fossil fuels and the lack of indigenous domestic energy supplies. Biofuels are increasingly considered as alternatives to fossil fuels to power modern societies, but they carry their own negative environmental impacts and limitations. In order for biofuels to make a more positive impact on the energy economy of Haiti, three conditions must be met: (i) a new source of millions of tons of sustainably sourced biomass must be discovered with fewer negative environmental impacts than fuel wood; (ii) the biomass must be safely and efficiently transformed into a useful fuel to serve the needs of homes and industries; and (iii) an entire transportation and distribution network has to be created to place this new energy supply in the hands of the end users. Today, we will discuss our research into turning sargassum seaweed into useful biogas energy.
Read More »
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Working Groups (4)
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?
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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.
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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.”