NYPL Blogs: Haiti

Homage to Jean Léon Destiné

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:04:15 -0500

Jean Léon Destiné, master Haitian dancer, choreographer and drummer, died on January 22, 2013. The staff members of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division mourn his passing. And as the Dance Division Curator, I will truly miss him. He was also a great friend of the Dance Division. During his long career as advocate and artist for Haitian dance he donated materials to the Dance Division, gave lecture/demonstrations at the Performing Arts Library, and was recorded by the Jerome Robbins Archive of the Recorded Moving Image. We are delighted to have these materials in our collection, so that dancers, researchers and scholars can come here and view these photographs, clippings, programs and videos.

Witch Doctor, Jean Léon DestinéAmong the materials he donated to the Jerome Robbins Archive was the 1951 film of Witch Doctor presented by Ritter-Young-Lerner Associates and Unity Films with original stage choreography by Jean Léon Destiné. This film version of a dance work inspired by an exorcism ritual is performed by Jean Léon Destiné (witch doctor) and Jeanne Ramon (possessed woman) with Alphonse Cimber (drummer).

The Jerome Robbins Archive of the Recorded Moving Image recorded his company’s performances on several occasions. Included in these tapings were two performances recorded at the Kaufmann Theater, American Museum of Natural History, New York, on December 3, 1995. If you want to see these films or other videos on Jean Léon Destiné, you can access them here at the Dance Division of The Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. All access is free of charge and you can view them on the Third Floor. If you want to learn more about how to research within the Dance Division collection, check out Arlene Yu's blog post.

Jean Léon Destiné and dancers, Witch Doctor

Jean Léon Destiné, Spider Dance

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts also held a public program produced by Alan J. Pally titled Dances, Chants and Drum Rhythms of Haiti with Jean Léon Destiné. In this lecture-demonstration, Jean Léon Destiné used dances, songs, and instrumental pieces to explore the artistic heritage of the Africans brought to Haiti. He was joined by dancer Nadia Dieudonné and drummers Damas "Fanfan" Louis, Ti-Ga Jean Baptiste. The program includes: an invocation to Papa Legba and Papa Damballah, a work-song and dance, contredanse/Juba, merengue (Angelico), compas, rabodaille, mazoune, Congo paillette, yanvalou, nago, ibo, pas rigole, mahi, zépaules, Dahomey, Petro, and Banda. This was videotaped on May 8, 2004 by Aram Tchobanian.

Among the performances of Jean Léon Destiné that I will never forget is his stunning salute to the Iwa of Haiti at the Tribute to Katherine Dunham at Town Hall in 1994. This program, presented by the Caribbean Cultural Center, was recorded by the Dance Division and I am grateful every time I see this clip to have this example of his artistry: flowing, spine rippling, passionate and luminous. We miss you.

Haiti's Patent Law of 1826 ...or? Help Solve the Mystery

Kenneth Johnson, Thomas Yoseloff Business Center at SNFL — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 12:16:21 -0400

Frederic loves a paradox. Me, I like to read detective and suspense fiction every once in a while, but abhor a real mystery — at least one that isn't easy for me to solve. With this one I've hit a dead end and can't think of a better way to find someone to carry this forward than to post it here. This document is in one of the Patent Pamphlet Volumes in SIBL's collection. Its title says: Republique D'Hayti : Loi Sur les Patentes. But I don't believe it's about patents (patents for inventions, at any rate). Can anyone tell me what this document is?

Rather than offer you my speculation on this document, let me start with what I would tell Joe Friday:

Linked here and at the end of this post is a true and correct (as to content) DIY copy of the first 14 pages of the document. There are additional pages; lists or schedules similar to what's at the end of page 14.
The document has been cataloged by NYPL as follows:
In Volume 13 of NYPL's G.K. Hall Catalog of Government Publications, page 473 -
Call Number: *V p.v. 17, No. 1
Haiti (republic). Statutes
Loi sur les patentes. [Port-au-Prince: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, 1826.] 29 p. 8vo
1. Patents — Jurisprudence, Haiti
Cataloged March 18, 1919

It is also cataloged in Volume 331 of the Black Book Catalog, page 204

What do I want to know?

What is this document, and what is it about?
Is there bibliographic information out there showing another copy?
Is there full text out there from another source?

I've looked and found nothing, but I don't have a background in French or in the history of Haiti (or history at all, for that matter). I figure those might be the kinds of expertise needed to go on from here.

If you have an answer(s), feel free to email me at kennethjohnson@nypl.org.

Enjoy! And bòn chans ...

Candide in New York (or the Problem of Evil)

Eric Palmer — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 11:54:04 -0500

In 2003 I began work on an edition of Candide for Broadview Press that was published in 2009. For the cover image, I suggested a photograph of the twin towers in flames. I also had an idea for an image to balance it on the back cover: the famous snap from Abu Ghraib of a hooded man standing on a box, arms outstretched and apparently in mortal fear of electrocution. If you find that poor taste, or cannot conceive of why I would choose those images, please read on.

Though it is a comedy, Candide is also about what philosophers have called "the problem of evil." In Voltaire's time and before, the problem was framed in terms of God's role in evil. The problem gets its classic, clear characterization in philosophy as a tangle of problems authored by the Roman-African scholar Lactantius (240 - ca. 320 CE), who attributes it to the Greek thinker Epicurus (341-270 BCE). Lactantius writes:

"God, says Epicurus, is either willing to remove evil, and is not able: or else he is both willing and able. If he is willing and not able, he must then be weak, which cannot be affirmed of God. If he is able and not willing, he must be envious, which is likewise contrary to the nature of God. If he is neither willing nor able, he must be both envious and weak, and consequently, not God. If he is both willing and able, which only can agree with the notion of God, whence then proceeds evil?"

After Epicurus, philosophers also divided the argument further by making a distinction between two types of evil: physical and moral. An earthquake – like the one that occurs in the fifth chapter of Candide – is an example of physical evil, of suffering for which God is the sole author.

Earthquake in Haiti: Port-au-Prince, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010 (AP Photo/Carel Pedre)Earthquakes appear to produce great undeserved suffering for which humans cannot be blamed in the least – not before the era when seismology and building codes were feasible, anyway. But war, rape and torture – which are found throughout Candide – seem to be of our manufacture. Though a physical evil of pain is bound up within them, we ourselves choose to inflict that suffering. We are responsible for such moral evil, but are humans the only source? How could a good God present us with the choice of evil, and how could a good, all-seeing (omniscient) and all-powerful (omnipotent) God allow the victims to suffer, rather than foresee and forestall our damaging choices?

Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) re-acquainted Europe with these arguments at the end of the seventeenth century. He wrote in a compelling fashion that prompted a chain of response and discussion over more than half a century by Gottfried Leibniz, Alexander Pope and many others, including Voltaire. (By the way, a collection of such writing accompanies Candide in the Broadview edition). Voltaire was one of a few thinkers who, giving a nod to Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), attempted to remove God from the tangle of evil. Voltaire's writing suggests that he retains a role for a creator of the universe, but he expects that human happiness is not the point of that universal order and he suspects that our ideas of good and evil might not be present to the creator's mind. If either holds true, then we should not expect that this is the best of possible worlds.

Voltaire finds that all is decidedly not well, but if we sever the Gordian knot that links God to good, the problem becomes much simpler. The natural evil in the make-up of the world we might never understand, but we can use our reason to produce sensible building codes to limit the damage done by earthquakes. Human-made evil we can also prevent or avoid. Voltaire attempted to prevent it by writing Candide and other criticism of his society, and his character Candide attempted to avoid it by tending his garden.

Broadview Press did not go with my suggestion: they decided instead to feature a melancholy photo of the wasted city of San Francisco following the earthquake of 1906. It suits the tone of lament found in Candide as well as the aesthetics of the book jackets of the series within which the volume was published. It will raise fewer alarms than a snap from Abu Ghraib, but I think Voltaire is more concerned about the moral evil we willingly do to each other than the natural evil we suffer from the unforeseen hazards of nature.

Explore Eric Palmers annotations in Candide 2.0 »

Helping Haitians Living in the U.S. to Understand Temporary Protected Status

Susan Gitman — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:42:49 -0500

In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Haitians residing in the United States are granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months, allowing them to legally work in the United States.

Since the terrible tragedy in Haiti, many have sought information about the Haitian community in the United States. According to the American Community Survey 2008 Census Bureau data indicates that out of the 546,000 foreign-born Haitians in the United States,135,836 reside in New York. It is estimated that there are 75,000 to 125,000 undocumented Haitian immigrants in the country. When the Department of Homeland Security extended Temporary Protected Status to Haitians, it estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people could be eligible. This estimate also includes those on temporary visas such as tourists, foreign students, and guest workers who will not have to go home.

To support the Haitian community in New York, the New York Public Library’s Office of Community Outreach Services - Immigrant Services, in association with the Legal Aid Society will be offering free TPS assistance workshop clinics. Experienced immigration law attorneys will be available to provide information and assist in filling out the TPS application.

The workshop schedule is as follows:

St. George Library Center, Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 10 am - 11 am

Bloomingdale Library, Saturday, March 13, 2010 from 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Bronx Library Center, Friday, March 26, 2010 from 2 pm - 3 pm

Allerton Library, Saturday, March 27, 2010 from 11am - 12 pm

The following documents are necessary for the application process:

Proof that you are Haitian (Birth Certificate)
Proof that you were in United States on or before January 12, 2010
(Passport or I-94 Form, or pay-stubs, or W-2 form, or IRS Tax Transcript)

Reading Haiti

Jenny Baum, Supervising Adult Librarian, Jefferson Market Library — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:17:10 -0500

“When you write, you give your version of reality.” —Maryse Condé

Many, many people have been motivated by the catastrophe in Haiti to donate, including one librarian who donated $10,000 of his personal savings and whose fundraising efforts were picked up by several blogs. Librarians can contribute in a different way, as well, by highlighting the wealth of literature that Haiti and the Caribbean offer.

The traditions of Haitian and French Antillean literature are both very different, as Jean Jonaissant details in “Literatures in the Francophone Caribbean,” but there is a shared understanding in the literature based on several historical, cultural, and ideological movements.

One of these movements, la Négritude, originated in the 1930s and was heavily influenced by the Harlem Renaissance in the United States and by Haitian history including the slave revolt led by Toussaint L’Ouverture in the 1790s. Some of the foremost thinkers of this movement were from the Caribbean, including two of the three founders: Aimé Césaire, a poet, playwright, and politician from Martinique; and Léon Gontran Damas, a poet from French Guiana. The other founder was the poet Léopold Sedar Senghor who later became President of Senegal.

The 1980s brought Créolité, a movement born in Martinique and represented by writers Patrick Chamoiseau, Raphael Confiant, and Jean Bernabé. It differed greatly from Négritude, which encompassed the entire black world. Créolité is concerned only with the Caribbean world made of descendants of Africans, but also of Europeans and East Indians. Earlier, Edouard Glissant from Martinique had built upon the concept of Antillanité ("Caribbeanness") which also has the Caribbean and meso-America at its center. Today, most Caribbean literature is written in both Creole and French. Maryse Condé, an author who currently lives in the New York area, talks about what she perceives as “authentic” in this interview.

Arguably, the most well-known Haitian author to New Yorkers is Edwidge Danticat, winner of both the Pushcart Prize and the National Book Award before she reached the age of thirty. Ms. Danticat was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and moved to New York at the age of twelve to a Haitian American neighborhood in Brooklyn. Her writing has been celebrated for showing the character and strength of spirit of Haitians instead of the misery that is often portrayed by the media. Breath, Eyes, Memory, Krik? Krak! and The Farming of Bones are among her best-known works.

For more see “Haiti in Ink and Tears: A Literary Sampler” in the New York Times.

Special thanks to Sylviane A. Diouf, Ph.D., Curator of Digital Collections, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Local Library Resources on Haiti

Ryan Donovan — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:39:17 -0500

The tragic earthquake in Haiti has shaken the emotional core of the entire world. We're all trying to make sense of the upsetting images and heartbreaking stories that have been all over the news since January 12th. This tragedy has sparked an interest for many to explore the history and culture of Haiti. Many titles, for all ages and reading levels, are available if you want to learn more.

Look on the shelves under Dewey number 972.94 for basic country information.

The following resources would be ideal for a middle or high school student starting a research paper, but would also be a great place to start general research on Haiti for anyone. You can check to see if your local branch either has these books on the shelf or request them in person with any library staff member at the information desk. You can also request these titles from home using your library card and PIN number through the catalog.

Haiti: A Guide to the People, Politics and Culture. Charles Arthur. Interlink Books, 2002.
Haiti. Jean F. Blashfield. Children's Press/Scholastic, 2008.
Culture and Customs of Haiti. J. Michael Dash. Greenwood Press, 2001.
Haiti. Rosalie NgCheong-Lum & Leslie Jermyn. Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 2005.
Haiti: Land of Inequality. Mary C. Turck. Lerner Publications, 1999.

Can't make it into your local branch? Check out these electronic resources:

Land & Peoples is an encyclopedia of countries, cultures, and current events geared to student readers, available through Grolier Online, which can be accesses from anywhere with your New York Public Library card. A simple search on Haiti will yield this helpful encyclopedia entry.

The Columbia Gazetteer of the World is a unique world encyclopedia of geographical places and features with over 170,000 entries, including a brief country breakdown of Haiti.

In Motion: The African-American Migration Experience features images, maps, and other primary source documents related to the long, complex, and intertwined histories of the United States, Hispaniola, and Haiti.