The Arts

Arts and Crafts

The most frequent art forms discussed in the resources I consulted are painting (oil and mural), metal sculpture (especially with metal from the imported oil drums), sequin art and woodcarving. 

Since the mid-twentieth century, Haitian popular art has become increasingly popular in the international market. David Dash, Culture and Customs,  attributes the beginning of this emergence to recognition by the French surrealist André Breton during a visit to Haiti in 1945.  Art motifs then were frequently associated with the recently legalized (1946) Voudon religion and its wall paintings, including its geometric vèvè drawings and were executed in a folklorist/primitivist/naive style.  Today this style and these themes continue to be popular, but not exclusively.  In the Upper Midwest, the Milwaukee Art Museum has a permanent collection of Haitian art.

Mrs. Mellon continuously tried to foster crafts which would help the HAS community be self-supporting - some, such as the pottery workshop, are so successful that they sell items all over Haiti.  Others were dropped as they became unprofitable.  My tropical fruit motif coasters clearly are produced for the tourist trade, quickly painted on pressboard.  Dolls for the tourist trade are dressed in colorful fabrics.  The small oil on canvas which I choose as a souvenir is typical of one style of painting. It shows a rural scene with the ever-present chickens and boys playing marbles, and has its own painted frame.

From the opening of the hospital in 1956, Mrs. Mellon fostered Haitian artists by purchasing their works for display in both the hospital and housing.  On one wall of our living area hangs a large oil on canvas by Alix Dorléus, a Tree of Life featuring native fruits and vegetables symmetrically distributed on a tree with the pineapple of hospitality atop.  Mrs. Mellon commissioned Alix Dorléus and others to paint large murals at the hospital when original art works disappeared from the walls.  As a quilter, I was more interested in the large painting on the opposite wall, a landscape with small fields and colorful houses in a quilt-like pattern, with a skyline painted in a traditional style showing only a few isolated trees.

Music

Music is an integral part of Haitian life.  Folktales usually have a choral response component (see Diane Wolkstein and Harold Courlander).  Vaudou ritual relies on drums, song and dance.

A few Haitian rock groups have become internationally popular. Many have left Haiti, but have maintained an active political protest. See The Immaculate Invasion by Bob Shacochis for a glimpse into the early years of RAM, when RAM band leader Richard Morse owned and managed the reknowned Port-au-Prince Hotel Oloffson, where his band also played.  Morse felt RAM's short song Fey (Feuille, Leaf)* about death and resurrection quite unintentionally became "an anthem for the movement, for freedom" (p. 47) during the years of President Aristide's ouster and exile.  To hear the expatriate group Boukman Eksperyans, go to the website Afromix, or catch them the next time they are touring in the US.  Students may also want to look for music by the group The Fugees.  An overview of popular Haitian music should take you to campa, merengue, rap and reggae.

Film and LIterature

See bibliography notes.  I have listed films and literature which a French teacher could use to help beginning French students experience some aspect of Haitian culture.  For intermediate and advanced levels, see the syllabii from the many university courses available in Francophone cinema and literature.

Look at me on my branch.

A terrible storm came and knocked me off.

The day you see me fall is not the day I die.

And when they need me, where are they going to find me?

The good Lord, and St. Nicola,I only have one son

And they made him leave the country.