An Evening for Haiti: Celebrating Resistance, Making Change

Tickets are on sale NOW at Food for Thought Books. Suggested Donation: $ 25.00 - 12.00 (we encourage you to purchase a seat even if you cannot attend)

We are so proud to present this evening of powerful voices that join us as we honor the legacy of resistance in the Haitian community.

Featuring: Djola Branner, Myriam Chancy, Dee Dee Desir, Martin Espada, Jean Dany Joachim, Lenelle Moise and Patrick Sylvain with the soul-stirring music of REBIRTH.

Tickets are available at Food for Thought Books. There is a suggested donation per ticket of $ 25.00 -12.00. Community members are encouraged to support the fundraising effort by purchasing seats even if they are unable to attend. There will be an additional ask during the evening.

Resistance is passion,
it's taking a stand,
helping a friend,
helping a stranger,
sharing food in community,
speaking up,
speaking out,
speaking your truth.

Resistance is
also
envisioning the world we want to live in,
remembering our histories,
creating a world filled with justice,
never giving up
&
MAKING CHANGE

Proceeds will benefit: http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti

Djola Branner, MFA is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Hampshire College and an interdisciplinary theater artist who combines movement, sound, and light to create portraits of contemporary life for the stage. Cofounder of the critically acclaimed performance group Pomo Afro Homos, he toured extensively with their shows Fierce Love: Stories of Black Gay Life and Dark Fruit. He has created such shows as Sweet Sadie and The House That Crack Built. Publications include such journals and anthologies as XXZYVA and Colored Contradictions, A Guide to the Collaborative Process.

Myriam Chancy, Ph. D., is a Haitian writer/scholar born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and educated in Québec City, Winnipeg, Halifax and Iowa City. Her first novel, Spirit of Haiti (Mango 2003), was a finalist in the Best First Book Category, Canada/Caribbean region, of the Commonwealth Prize 2004. She is also the author of Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers 1997) and Searching for Safe Spaces: Afro-Caribbean Women Writers in Exile (Temple 1997; Choice OAB Award, 1998). She is Professor of English at the University of Cincinnati.

Dominique "DeeDee" Desir is a student at Hampshire College where she serves Community Council Chair. She is the founding member of The Urban Word a performance based group focused on all aspects of spoken word. From her bio: "I am never bound by what others think of me. I am here to build, develop and strengthen our abilities. I am of Haitian background and of a Haitian American up bring. My culture and my past servers as my tutor; and I mentor young girls and boys because there lies the future."

Martín Espada, called "the Latino poet of his generation" and "the Pablo Neruda of North American authors," he has published sixteen books in all as a poet, editor, essayist and translator, including; Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas (Smokestack, 2008), La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig (Terranova, 2008), The Republic of Poetry, (Norton, 2006), Imagine the Angels of Bread (Norton, 1996), which won an American Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Espada is now a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where he teaches creative writing and the work of Pablo Neruda.

Jean-Dany Joachim grew up surrounded by poets in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. He wrote his first poem at age 14, and his writing became a way to give voice to the life of his country. He moved to Cambridge 16 years ago and began writing in English, while also exploring poetry in other languages. His work has appeared in; A Review of Poetry (Runes), Lovers' Sweet Nothings, A Secret Anthology (Arctos Press) Mémoire d'encrier; Love and Other poems (Trilingual Press). Joachim has been the director of the Sunset Poetry Series at Bunker Hill Community College for over 10 years.

Lenelle Moise - is a "culturally hyphenated pomosexual poet" who creates jazz-infused, hip-hop bred, politicized texts about Haitian-American identity and the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, spirituality and resistance. Her essays are featured in several anthologies, including: WORD WARRIORS: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken Word Revolution and We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists.

Patrick Sylvain- is a Haitian-American writer, educator, lecturer and photographer who lives and teaches in Massachusetts. He received his Ed.M. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and has been published in African American Review, Agni, American Poetry Anthology, American Poetry Review, The Best of Beacon, 1999, Butterfly's Way, Callaloo, Caribbean Writers, Confrontation, Crab Orchard Review, Haitian Times, Kestrel, Massachusetts Review, Open Gate, Ploughshares, Revue Noire and Step Into the World. His latest book, Love, Lust & Loss/ Lanmou, anvi ak pèdans, was published by Mémoire d'Encrier in October 2005.

REBIRTH: The band born from the "Culture Shock" network, represents a merging of voices inspired by Julius D. Ford and featuring percussion, wind instruments, mc's and vocalists.

"Haiti Will Rise Again" image created by Eastside Art Alliance.

Community Collaborators for this event include:
Youth Action Coalition and TRGGR Media Group.