Nèg Mawon Podcast

Covering a broad set of topics on Haitian culture, Dr. Cécile Accilien took questions from a live audience on the Clubhouse platform. 

From 1797 to 1801, during the Haitian Revolution, President John Adams and Toussaint Louverture forged diplomatic relations that empowered white Americans to embrace freedom and independence for people of color in Saint-Domingue. The United States supported the Dominguan revolutionaries with economic assistance and arms and munitions; the conflict was also the U.S. Navy’s first military action on behalf of a foreign ally. This cross-cultural cooperation was of immense and strategic importance as it helped to bring forth a new nation: Haiti. Diplomacy in Black and White is the first book on the Adams-Louverture alliance. Historian and former diplomat Ronald Angelo Johnson details the aspirations of the Americans and Dominguans―two revolutionary peoples―and how they played significant roles in a hostile Atlantic world. Remarkably, leaders of both governments established multiracial relationships amid environments dominated by slavery and racial hierarchy. And though U.S.-Dominguan diplomacy did not end slavery in the United States, it altered Atlantic world discussions of slavery and race well into the twentieth century. Diplomacy in Black and White reflects the capacity of leaders from disparate backgrounds to negotiate political and societal constraints to make lives better for the groups they represent. Adams and Louverture brought their peoples to the threshold of a lasting transracial relationship. And their shared history reveals the impact of decisions made by powerful people at pivotal moments. But in the end, a permanent alliance failed to emerge, and instead, the two republics born of revolution took divergent paths.

The Ulrick documentary introduces audiences to Haitian master painter Ulrick Jean-Pierre, who channels his ancestors and pours his soul onto the canvas with exacting detail and visceral impact.

This is part 1/2. The Guise of Exceptionalism compares the historical origins of Haitian and American exceptionalisms. It also traces how exceptionalism as a narrative of uniqueness has shaped relations between the two countries from their early days of independence through the contemporary period. As a social invention, it changes over time, but always within the parameters of its original principles. Guest Profile Page https://neg.fm/dr-robert-fatton-jr/

This volume is the first to focus on teaching about Haiti’s complex history and culture from a multidisciplinary perspective. Listen as Prof. Accilien makes broad connections between Haiti and the rest of the Caribbean. Other contributors in this book provide pedagogical guidance on how to approach the country from different lenses in course curricula. They offer practical suggestions, theories on a wide variety of texts, examples of syllabi, and classroom experiences. Teaching Haiti dispels stereotypes associating Haiti with disaster, poverty, and negative ideas of Vodou, going beyond the simplistic neocolonial, imperialist, and racist descriptions often found in literary and historical accounts. Instructors in diverse subject areas discuss ways of reshaping old narratives through women’s and gender studies, poetry, theater, art, religion, language, politics, history, and popular culture, and they advocate for including Haiti in American and Latin American studies courses. Portraying Haiti not as “the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere” but as a nation with a multifaceted culture that plays an important part on the world’s stage, this volume offers valuable lessons about Haiti’s past and present related to immigration, migration, locality, and globality. The essays remind us that these themes are increasingly relevant in an era in which teachers are often called to address neoliberalist views and practices and isolationist politics. Contributors: Cécile Accilien | Jessica Adams | Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken | Anne M. François | Régine Michelle Jean-Charles | Elizabeth Langley | Valérie K. Orlando | Agnès Peysson-Zeiss | John D. Ribó | Joubert Satyre | Darren Staloff | Bonnie Thomas | Don E. Walicek | Sophie Watt

On the 12th anniversary of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, we invited Prof. Yveline Alexis to talk about that tragic event and her prize-winning book, "Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Peralt." Lots of intelligent questions from our hardcore Neg et Fanm Mawon audience. Guest Profile Page https://neg.fm/dr-yveline-alexis/

From the publisher: In Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games, Dr. Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall analyzes how films and video games from around the world have depicted slave revolt, focusing on the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804).  Despite Hollywood’s near-silence on this event, some films on the Revolution do exist—from directors in Haiti, the US, France, and elsewhere. Slave Revolt on Screen offers the first-ever comprehensive analysis of Haitian Revolution cinema, including completed films and planned projects that were never made. In addition to studying cinema, this book also breaks ground in examining video games, a pop-culture form long neglected by historians. Sepinwall scrutinizes video game depictions of Haitian slave revolt that appear in games like the Assassin’s Creed series that have reached millions more players than comparable films. In analyzing films and games on the revolution, Slave Revolt on Screen calls attention to the ways that economic legacies of slavery and colonialism warp pop-culture portrayals of the past and leave audiences with distorted understandings. - Carolyn E. Fick, author of The Making of Haiti: The Saint Domingue Revolution from Below, writes: "Alyssa Sepinwall’s exciting new book, Slave Revolt on Screen, examines how the Haitian Revolution—the modern world’s first and only successful Black slave revolt—has been portrayed in film throughout the past century, exposing not only the flagrant distortions and factual departures from the historical record in these films, but also their exoticitized notions about Haiti and their implicitly and often explicitly white supremacist attitudes toward Haitians, and toward Blacks in general, that have permeated Hollywood and the film industry up to today. The book draws upon a sweeping range of films and video games (a new genre) on or about the Revolution as well as personal relationships and interviews with some recent filmmakers. Yet the skillful hand of the historian is omnipresent as Sepinwall brilliantly weaves together the history of the Haitian Revolution and the history of filmmaking about it, urgently calling for the yet-to-come masterpiece film on this historically epic Black liberation struggle for freedom."

El Maniel Maroon community and women's reproductive rights.

A Conversation w/ Diego La Diosa. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/negmawonpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/negmawonpodcast/support

Missie is a fascinating person. This episode was wide-ranging: we covered the Mariel boatlift era and what it meant for the Haitian community in Florida; the role of the Haitian Church in the community; blindness; generational continuity in terms of community service, from her grandma to her mom to her; a cautionary tale on the personal cost when one answers that call to serve others; parental grace. Talent runs deep in the Etienne family. The beautiful cover art is courtesy of Missie’s sister, Rachèl Etienne. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/negmawonpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/negmawonpodcast/support

Haiti’s Reforestation Initiative - A Conversation w/ Martha Johnson, Former Administrator, US General Services Administration under the Obama administration.

Michael Anello has lived and worked in Haiti at a local level for ten years. Following a 32-year career as a psychotherapist in Charlottesville, VA, he was drawn to work with rural Haitian communities as they rebuilt their lives after the 2010 earthquake. In 2018 he joined Haiti Reforestation Partnership, realizing that his skills with people and the trusting relationships with Haitians that he had built would prove valuable. He works now with the 750- person CODEP organization that has planted and nurtured 15 million trees over the past 30 years. He plays a crucial role with the Animators, the CODEP leaders, as they shift away from a faith-based donor relationship with Americans and respond to two imperatives: to lead their community on its long road to improved health and well-being and to recognize, leverage, and extend their extraordinary success at reforestation. MICHAEL@HAITIREFOREST.ORG | +1 (434) 981-4464 | HAITI CELL: +509-3163-1797

Today, our convo is with Mischemas Casimir—a fashion disrupter with a traditionalist bent, stylishly wrapped in self-actualization. The great poet T.S. Eliot said that you couldn't inherit tradition; it has to be earned. Mischemas has certainly put in the work.  He has a deep historical sense of where he and fashion came from. He is a disciplined traditionalist and a devil may care disrupter. Join me on this fascinating couture boat ride with Mischemas Casimir, a Haitian brother who’s making waves in the fashion world.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/negmawonpodcast/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/negmawonpodcast/support

In this episode, Dr. Popkin discusses his riveting book "Facing Racial Revolution: Eyewitness Accounts of the Haitian Insurrection." We discussed the underdeveloped state of French scholarship on the Haitian Revolution, the controversial accounts of white colonial survivors, and the critical role of literacy and correspondence in maintaining the slave regime. The Haitian revolution represented the scales of power tipping in an unexpected direction. For the first time in Atlantic history, blacks wielded control over the lives of whites, giving rise to the then unheard of publication of white captivity narratives.

Dr. Fatton connects the popular Haitian term "Tout moun se moun" within the context of the Aristide era.

In this week's Konesans, I asked Yale's Haitian historian Dr. Marlene Daut the following question: Are We in the Golden Age of Haitian Studies?

In this week's Konesans, Dr. Greg Beckett, a noted anthropologist, tackles the following question: how much of our African culture did Haitians retain?

Listen as Dr. Robert Fatton discusses a revealing slice of what it means to be a Haitian elite.

Winner of the 2021 Haitian Studies Association Book Prize Haiti Fights Back: The Life and Legacy of Charlemagne Péralte is the first US scholarly examination of the politician and caco leader (guerrilla fighter) who fought against the US military occupation of Haiti. The occupation lasted close to two decades, from 1915-1934. Listen as Professor Alexis argues for the importance of documenting resistance while exploring the occupation’s mechanics and its imperialism. She takes us to Haiti, exploring the sites of what she labels as resistance zones, including Péralte’s hometown of Hinche and the nation’s large port areas--Port-au-Prince and Cap-Haïtien. Alexis offers a new reading of U.S. military archival sources that record Haitian protests as banditry. Haiti Fights Back illuminates how Péralte launched a political movement, and meticulously captures how Haitian women and men resisted occupation through silence, military battles, and writings. She locates and assembles rare, multilingual primary sources from traditional repositories, living archives (oral stories), and artistic representations in Haiti and the United States. The interdisciplinary work draws on legislation, cacos’ letters, newspapers, and murals, offering a unique examination of Péralte’s life (1885-1919) and the significance of his legacy through the twenty-first century. Haiti Fights Back offers a new approach to the study of the U.S. invasion of the Americas by chronicling how Caribbean people fought back. Guest Profile Page https://neg.fm/dr-yveline-alexis/

Yes. Haitians were in the nation-building business! This episode covers a little-known chapter in Haitian history. Dr. Regine Jackson offers a fascinating, multi-sited, and interdisciplinary study of the United Nations Organization in the Congo (ONUC), a civilian operation established after the Democratic Republic of Congo achieved independence from Belgium.   Through narrative interviews in New York City, Port-au-Prince, Montreal and Paris and analysis of archives in Haiti, Kinshasa, and at UN headquarters in New York and Paris, Dr. Jackson helps us understand better the lived experiences of the Haitian educators, engineers, and doctors in the ONUC during the Congo crisis. her previous research suggests that many of these Haitian professionals saw postcolonial Africa as a space of possibility (see Jackson 2014).   This episode seeks to answer crucial questions about our best and brightest: about their pre-migration experiences in Haiti under Duvalier, the role of international organizations such as the UN and WHO, relations between Haitians and the Congolese, as well the circumstances of their departure from the Congo under Mobutu Sese Seko. Visit her guest page https://neg.fm/dr-regine-ostine-jackson/