Some Haiti-Related Posts

I came across some great, useful, and interesting posts pertaining to Haiti in the past few days. La Revue Indigène, started by the moderators of Haitian History on Tumblr, has posted again. Haitian History on Tumblr has also posted a useful overview of Duvalierism. And last but certainly not least, two lists of great 2014 books on Haiti from The Public Archive and Celucien Joseph are online.

Gospel Trane

Here is some spiritual jazz for Christmas, from Alice Coltrane. "Gospel Trane" is clearly a reference to her late husband, John. Alice Coltrane does not always get the recognition she deserves, and we tend to forget the ways in which she crafted art unique to her vision.

Grog Mwen

An adorable tribute to a Haitian classic, Makaya's rendition of "Grog Mwen" is a welcome addition. Also worth checking out are versions of the song from Haitiando, Africando, and last, but certainly not least, Super Jazz des Jeunes. Clearly, some Haitian music is indebted to the influence of Cuban styles.

The Revolutionary Abolitionists of Haiti

Listen to a Laurent Dubois lecture on the Haitian Revolution here. Dubois discusses the Haitian Revolution with a focus on individuals or biographies of some of the leading historical actors. "The Revolutionary Abolitionists of Haiti" is a great lecture and introduction to the Haitian Revolution, like Dubois's Avengers of the New World.

Lessons of Hayti

A very interesting documentary on the Hayti district of Durham, North Carolina. Named after Haiti, Hayti grew to be one of many self-sufficient, thriving black towns or urban districts across the US. It is fitting that this successful enclave of African-Americans in Durham would name their neighborhood after the first independent black republic, Haiti. Also worth checking out is this interview with the man behind the documentary series, and this historic film on Hayti.

Mary McLeod Bethune, Haiti, and Black Feminists

Source

Mary McLeod Bethune, influential figure in the Black Freedom Struggle and one of the leaders of the National Council of Negro Women. Often obscured in our memories of this important and powerful Black woman is her links to Haiti, a country she only visited once. Bethune was friends with the President of Haiti's wife, Lucienne Estimé, and awarded Haiti's Medal of Honor and Merit.

While she only visited in Haiti during 1949 (the same year of President Estimé's Exposition for the Bicentennial of Port-au-Prince), the National Council of Negro Women had been in communication and solidarity with the Haitian women's movement throughout the 1940s. The Ligue d'Action Feminine Sociale, established in the 1930s, maintained links with Black women organizations and feminists in the US and some of its members traveled and met with African-American women, too.

African American Women and Haitian women had also found solidarity and worked together earlier (as early as the 1920s, when African-American women showed an interest in anti-US Occupation collaboration and research on the conditions of Haitian women) in the International Council of Women of the Darker Races, an organization consisting mostly of African-American women and a small contingent of important Haitian feminists (including Theodora Holly, Haitian daughter of an African-American immigrant, Theodore Holly). Clearly, the Haitian women's movement of the 1930s and 1940s was tied to broader Black women's movements in the US and international collaborative projects.

For more information, read Grace Louis Sanders's "La Voix des Femmes: Haitian Women's Rights, National Politics, and Black Activism in Port-au-Prince and Montreal, 1934-1986." Her excellent work is the source for this post, and eloquently elucidates the origins and forms of Haitian women's activism in Haiti and the Diaspora.

Robin D.G. Kelley

Gotta love Robin D.G. Kelley, public intellectual, jazz aficionado, and an academic unafraid to take a stance. I have read his excellent biography of Monk, enjoyed his take on cultural politics and discourses of race and class, was fascinated by Black Communists in Alabama during the Great Depression, and was enthralled by his analysis of exchanges between Africa and US in the lives of 4 understudied jazz artists.