TGIF
Thank God It’s Friday because…. It’s live jazz night at Jazz966! With jazz vocalist, Tulivu Donna Cumberbatch And what were you doing on a Friday night that was better than listening to the Ray Abrams Big Band? In fact, when was the last time you listened to a big jazz band? (My last time was […]
Paroles de femme…
Jeanie Bogart Mwen ekri, m-ekri, m-ekri ………………………………………. emosyon mwen sou papye bèl pawòl literati bèl chema fe klenklen (J’écris, j’écris, j’écris… mes emotions sur le papier, de belles paroles de litérature, de beaux schémas clinquants..) Jou m-kontre’w cheri tout ti mo dous krase rak plim mwen tranble, krache, vomi tout chema tounen madigriji m-bliye konte, […]
After Love
After you left me I had a bloodhound sniff at my chest and my belly. Let it fill its nostrils and set out to find you. I hope it will find you and rip your lover’s balls to shreds and bite off his cock – or at least bring me one of your stockings between […]
Let me explain a few things…
Pablo Neruda is “the greatest poet of the twentieth century–in any language.” said Gabriel García Márquez Pablo and Gabo Explico algunas cosas (Let me Explain a Few Things), a poem written in fiery rage against what Franco’s troops had done to Madrid “And one morning, everything was burning” , is where Neruda traced his own […]
Good Fortune!
“Sonny Fortune is one of the most intriguing alto players in contemporary jazz.” Stereophile magazine You and the Night, Sonny… You and your alto sax and your music in the night at Jazz 966! Back in the 1970’s, when we were bright young things spending our nights in jazz clubs clouded with cigarette smoke, nursing […]
Leyla and the Medicine Women
Her instrument is: “this mermaid whose hair can sing this cross to bear a wooden box half hourglass half hollowness restraining resonant air to know what is not woman not thing but voice and with the audience mute as a landscape to let it scream” Ramon C. Sunico ~“Cello poem” “I believe we all have […]
Love and Defiance
“Bedil, weep not for your losses this party that is life is after all held in a glassmaker’s shop” AHMAD FARAZ enjoys a near cult status in the pantheon of revolutionary poets. Of him, Faiz Ahmad Faiz (the greatest Urdu poet of the last century) had said: “He protests against injustice as passionately as he […]
Bearing witness
“No foreign sky protected me No stranger’s wing shielded my face I stand as witness to the common lot Survivor of that time, that place” Requiem Anna Akhmatova “I have a lot of work to do today I need to slaughter memory Turn my living soul to stone Then teach myself to live again. . […]
Bourgeoisie?
“I need my memories. They are my documents.” I want to be like Louise Bourgeois when I grow up. At 96 years old and still working, bruised, battle-scarred Bourgeois is at once fragile and strong like the materials she uses to work: soft latex, fabrics, glass, wood, marble and metal. Provocative, emotionally intense, and very, […]
“Je t’aime à la (Franco) folie”
Un joli programme s’est profilé à Tamboril vendredi soir pour la première de Francopholie organisée par Francesca. La fête régnait grâce aux artistes d’ici et d’ailleurs, dans un tour du monde où diversité culturelle et vivacité rafraîchissante se mêlaient. Musiciens et poètes venus du Sénégal, du Mali, de la Guyane française, du Canada, de la […]
Music is the weapon
Fela believed that music was the weapon of social fight for the future. Throughout a career that began with the London jazz scene and the uptown Nigerian Highlife music in the 1950’s, peaked with the revolutionary Afrobeat in the 1970’s, and inspired countless artists ever since, Fela lived out the war cry ‘Music is the […]
Et la terre, comme la langue
In memoriam Mahmoud Darwich 13 Mars 1942 – 9 Aout 2008 ” Jamais nos exils ne furent vains, jamais en vain nous n’y fûmes envoyés, leurs morts s’étendront sans contrition. Aux vivants de pleurer l’accalmie du vent, d’apprendre à ouvrir les fenêtres, de voir ce que le passé fait de leur présence et de pleurer […]
The Prince
In 1968, in the Malian capital of Bamako, a land of kingdoms, a 19-year-old boy descended from Malian princes defied the conventions of his noble ancestry to become a singer. This begins like a fairy tale, and like most princes in fairy tales, he received at birth both gifts and curses: an incomparable voice, […]
Compère Jacques Soleil
” Pour moi, tout est toujours neuf sur la planète; tout m’étonne, tout m’affecte ou me ravit. Chaque jour, j’ai l’impression de naître dans un univers inédit, et il me suffirait d’apprendre à ouvrir les yeux avec une conception moniste du monde pour arriver à envisager et saisir à la fois l’arbre et la forêt.” […]
Le coeur entre les dents
Figure à la fois de l’homme révolté et du chercheur absolu de beauté, Kateb Yacine, imprégné de culture berbère, arabe et française est considéré aujourd’hui comme un des plus grands écrivains du siècle. Comme on se forge de nouvelles amitiés par l’intermediaire d’anciennes, je suis venue à Kateb Yacine parce qu’Anthony Phelps et Emile Ollivier […]
Master of light
Gesner Armand, Master of light ~and the light within can be seen through the eyes~ Yesterday was June 11th. It would have been Gesner Armand’s 72nd birthday. One of Haiti’s finest impressionists, he was born in Croix-des-Bouquets. And if the place is not pretty, the name is, which evokes colorful bunches of flowers and suits […]
Mauvais sort
on a tous le poids d’un mot sur l’épaule l’ellipse d’une parole donnée verre cassé qui remonte à l’enfance des sources on porte tous des bleus brèches dévorantes de l’être habitées par le bruit d’une langue qui ne parle que dehors j’ai raté le train de phrase qui traverse mon déraillement phrase qui m’éclaire papillon […]
Romances sans paroles
Ô Verlaine, Ô Lélian… “Ce barbare, ce sauvage, cet enfant a une musique dans l’âme, et à certains jours il entend des voix que nul avant lui n’avait entendues.” J. Lemaître Quand l’ai-je rencontré pour la première fois? Dans quelle anthologie obscure ai-je découvert ce poème solitaire qui me l’a fait aimer? Je fais souvent […]
Wandering Memory
” The past is never dead, it is not even past.” William Faulkner JJ Dominique’s latest book, Mémoire Errante (Wandering Memory), is dedicated to her father, Jean Dominique, theRadio Haiti journalist slain in Port-au-Prince in April 2000. Beyond the story of her relationship with a ‘charismatic, cantankerous but generous and brave man’ as she describes […]
The written word
To read is to marvel, to explore and meander through the universe of numerous alphabets, emotions, thoughts and intellect of writers: this eclectic group of people who immortalize what they think, believe, understand, and dream through a composition of words… To celebrate Haitian literature, the Association of Haitian Professionals regrouped 30 Haitian authors at […]
Rhythms and Rhymes
A tribute to Aimé Césaire with Tiga & Tchaka and Michèle at Toukouleur Friday, May 23rd, at 8pm “Everybody always asks me “Who are you?” I don’t know anything about that. When I want to know myself, gain some insight, I re-read my poems. It is through the poem that I know myself. The poem […]
Tamboo!
Sunday, May 18th~ Tamboo Lounge~ Brockton, Mass. There has never been a better time for jazz and poetry lovers, and Sunday night, the Brockton audience was given the opportunity to enjoy a performance of interwoven music and words at the Tamboo. To celebrate Haitian Flag Day, Buyu Ambroise opened the evening with a rendition of […]
Mon pays que voici
Ô mon Pays si triste est la saison qu’il est venu le temps de se parler par signes Je continue ma lente marche de poète un bruit de chaîne dans l’oreille et sur les lèvres un goût de sel et de soleil et je remonte lentement le lit de ton Histoire J’ai vu tes enfants […]
Toukouleur
Toukouleur, where Sénégal meets France; where Dakar-born owner Jeannette greets you as a guest in her home; where conversations are in French, Wolof , English and Créole; Toukouleur, where poetry meets jazz… Poetry was by Michèle and Jazz was by the Blues in Red musicians Markus on Haitian drums, Lou on piano, Buyu on tenor […]
Michèle Voltaire Marcelin is a poet/writer, performer and painter who was born and raised in Haiti, sojourned in Chile, and currently lives in the United States. The publication of her first novel “La Désenchantée” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2006) was followed by its Spanish translation “La Desencantada” and two other books of poetry and prose: “Lost and Found” and “Amours et Bagatelles” (CIDIHCA, Montréal-2009) - translated into Spanish by Editorial ALBA as "Amores y cosas sin importancia" - all of which garnered rave reviews. Her writings are also featured in 3 anthologies published in France: "Cahier Haiti" (published by RAL'M-2009), "Terre de Femmes" (Editions Bruno Doucey-2011) "Revue Intranqu'îllités" (2012). She speaks and writes fluently French, English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. She has a BFA from the Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts at CUNY and a Masters from The New School for Social Research.