Contextual Resources: Haiti

Nonfiction for Adults 

• Walking on Fire: Haitian Women’s Stories of Survival and Resistance by Beverly Bell
• Haiti: the Aftershocks of History by Laurent Dubois
  Read about Professor Dubois and watch him discuss his work.
• Vodou Nation: Haitian Art Music and Cultural Nationalism by Michael Largey
• Rara! Vodou, Power, and Performance in Haiti and the Diaspora by Elizabeth McAlister
  Watch McAlister discuss Haitian and rara music and the complex relatinship with aid and international perceptions.

Fiction for Adults

• All Soul’s Rising by Madison Smartt Bell
  Watch Bell discuss his approach to writing
• The Dew Breaker by Edwidge Danicat
• Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry  by Paul Laraque, Jack Hirschman, and Boadiba
• Love, Anger, Madness by Marie Vieux-Chavet

For Young Readers

• Eight days: A story of Haiti by Edwidge Danicat
• Children of Yayoute: Folk Tales of Haiti by Turenne Des Pres
• Sélavi: A story of hope by Youme Landowne
• Tap-Tap by Karen Lynn Williams
• The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales by Diane Wolkstein

Haitian Music, Dance, Visual Art

• A Haitian professor's whirlwind tour of his country's relationship with music
• Popular Haitian music: a short article and playlist about Haiti’s diverse and vibrant pop music.
• A two-part roundtable about Haitian music, including authors, musicians, and scholars, hosted by New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones: Part I and Part II.
• The intersection of music and politics; Haiti's current president (as well as past candidates) have been pop musicians.  Read about it here and also here.
• Eurpean and U.S. influences on Haitian music
• Influence of Haitian culture on contemporary dance: Katherine Dunham, who at one point made her home in Haiti.
• Interviews of Haitian painters, discussing their work and the joy they find in their art.
• The Art of Resiliance: How Haiti's artists have coped with and reacted to life after the earthquake.
• A profile of Frankétienne and a trailer for an upcoming documentary film on the writer - painter - philosopher.

Images and Daily Life

• Images from Haiti, chronicling everyday life
• The tap-tap busses: a colorful look at Haiti's art on wheels
• A Taste of Haiti a cookbook by Mirta Yurnet-Thomas
• Photo essay two years after the 2010 earthquake
• Black in Latin America: Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores the history of Hispaniola, and discusses Haiti’s complex and riveting past
• Haitian-American author Edwige Danicat talks about women’s lives and her memories of Haiti, where she grew up.
• Hip-hop icon Wyclef Jean talks about growing up in Haiti.
• The role of vodou in everyday life and in supporting Haiti's recovery from the earthquake, from an elder practioner's perspective.  BBC video on the role of the botanica shops.