A Passport to Haiti: An Immersive Cultural Workshop Series is a four-part program happening at HAMOC from March - June 2023. Each month will feature a different part of Haitian culture.
In April, we will highlight Haitian Vodou. During the event, you will learn about veves through a new art installation at HAMOC and an artist talk with Dr. Petrouchka Moïse, watch and engage with dance, movement and music with Lēnablou, Linda Isabelle Francois Obas, and Julio Cesar Montaño, and listen to a panel discussion on how Vodou continues to make a positive influence in culture, moderated by Dr. Mario LaMothe. This event is in collaboration with five talented artists, scholars and professors from the Midwest, Haiti and Guadeloupe, including:
Dr. Petrouchka Moïse
Dr. Moise is an Assistant Professor and Cultural & Community-based Digital Curator at Grinnell College Libraries, artist, and scholar that focuses on cultures in the Carribean.
Lēnablou
Lēnablou is a dancer, choreographer and doctor in dance anthropology that has dedicated her career to Gwoka, the traditional Guadeloupean dance, that has long inspired her choreographic writing.
Linda Isabelle Francois Obas
Linda Isabelle Francois Obas is a Haitian Artist, Choreographer, Dancer, whose Contemporary Signature, is essentially sourced in Haitian Vodou Culture.
Dr. Mario LaMothe
Mario LaMothe (Ph.D., Performance Studies, Northwestern University) is Assistant Professor in the Departments of Black Studies and Anthropology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on embodied pedagogies of Caribbean arts and expressive cultures, and the intersections of queer lifeworlds and social justice in Haiti. He is a performance artist and Haitian LGBT Rights Advocate.
Julio Cesar Montaño
Julio Cesar Montaño formed Ecos del Pacifico Afrocolombia, a Chicago-based group created in 2006 and steeped in the Afro-Colombian music and dance traditions of the Pacific coast of Colombia.
The canvas questions… “The journey begins with an introduction, not of colored objects or cooked delights, but of characters drawn grain by grain embraced by the remnants of dirt and dust. What will you have me offer… What will you gift me… as I am greeted by the aspect of my ancestral self that remains protected by the wisdom of my guides?”
12.5 X 12.5 in.
Acrylic on Vinyl
2022-2023 series
Papa Legba stands at a spiritual crossroads and gives (or denies) permission to speak with the spirits of Guineé, He is the great elocutioner. Legba facilitates communication, speech, and understanding.
Azaka is the Lwa of agriculture and harvest and is mainly depicted as male, although some scholars say that this Lwa is also female. Azaka is humble in its knowledge of Earthly possibilities and is therefore always depicted as shy, yet representative as strongly symbolic of the human spiritual and physical roots.
Gran Bwa is an elemental, nature-oriented lwa closely associated with trees, plants, and herbs in Haitian Vodou. As a petro lwa and lwa of the wilderness, he can be fierce and unpredictable in some respects. Grand Bois represents the rich earth you spring from and the dark woods you stumble through. He is the lwa that is mostly associated with the Tainos and the maroon culture for the use of ecology for healing and defense.
LSU College of Art and Design Doctor of Design 2020 Virtual Thesis Exhibition
curated by
Dr. Petrouchka LL. Moise, 2020 DDes Graduate
hosted by
LSU Alfred C. Glassell Jr. Exhibition Gallery
July 28 thru August 14, 2020
The Canvas questioned "How his arrival, in 1492 to redeem his reputation... looking for the path to the East Indies,...
was not the same curse when she arrived in 1975 for the promise of fidelity... on the path to the White House?"
2020 - Mix Media on Paper, Framed
20 x 17 in., framed
The Canvas questions "Is the CIA's generational wealth of the Duvalier regime enough to compensate those who still mourn their lost memories?"
2020 - mix media on canvas
24x48 in., framed
Fort Dimanche is an infamous prison in Haiti located near La Saline in Port-au-Prince that was notorious for torture and murder during the reign of François Duvalier. During the reign of Duvalier he and his Tonton Macoutes used the facility as an interrogation center and prison to incarcerate, torture, and murder political opponents. His son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, continued to use it as an instrument of terror. The Fort was destroyed by the 2010 earthquake, but the Duvaliers have resurged. Nicholas Duvalier, the grandson of Francois Duvalier, is considered a presidential contender for 2022.
The Face reflects, “I cry for my people who welcomed you with open arms. I cry to the mountains to protect those left behind.”
2020 - Sculpture, Mix Media
20 x 12 in.
Anacaona (1474 (?) –1504) also known as Golden Flower, was a Taíno cacique (chief), shaman, and poet born in Xaragua (Haiti). She was born into a family of chiefs. After the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Anacaona succeeded her brother Bohechio after his death to become the Chief of Xaragua, now known as the island of Hispaniola (Haiti and Dominican Republic)
Under Anacaona's rule, the Spaniard settlers and Xaragua people coexisted and intermarried. In 1503, during his visit to Xaragua, the governor of the island, Nicolas Ovando, suspected an insurrection among the Taino chiefs, and Anacaona was arrested and hanged.
The Face reflects, “This land has tasted my blood each time the sugarcane cuts my flesh. This river washes your crimes as the bullets open my chest.”
2020 - Sculpture, Mixed Media
20 x 13 in.
In October of 1937, then president, Rafael Leonidas Trujillo ordered the execution of roughly 30,000 ethnic Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. It came to be known as the Parsley Massacre.
Haitian migrants in the Dominican Republic remained largely confined to isolated company towns in the cane fields, known as “bateyes”, but in the late 20th century, Haitian immigrants and their Dominican-born children left to work in other parts of the Dominican economy.
In 2015, the Dominican government tried to erase birthright citizenship and over three years deported 70,000 to 80,000 born Dominicans of Haitian descent. Those left behind live in institutionalized terror.
The Face reflects, “I showed you the blueness of the water. I shared with you the sweetness of the fruit. I showed you the movement of my dance... all so that you didn’t have to see the color of my skin.”
2020 - Sculpture, Mix Media
20 x 13 in.
The 1949 Bicentennial International Exposition of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, also known as the “Festival of Peace,” was held to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the founding of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It also represented an effort by Dumarsais Estimé’s government to beautify and modernize the capital to encourage American tourism and international investment.
the Expo cost the Haitian government about USD $4 million. During the exposition, Pan American Airways had to increase the number of flights from the United States to Haiti. Part of the Expo’s legacy was its inauguration of the period that has been called the "Golden Age" of Haitian tourism.
The Face reflects, "The kompas sounds were like lullabies reminding us of home, but they mocked me in the classroom because I didn't sound like America.
I dressed in the colors of "onè, respè" to remember the sacrifice my parents made for me to be here, but they laughed at me in the hallway because I didn't dress like America.
I wanted a ti cherie who could see my shine, but they beat me down because I wasn't welcomed in America."
2020 - Sculpture, Mixed Media
20 x 13 in.
In the late 80's and 90's Haitian youths, living in Miami, Florida, were constantly attacked in schools and in the streets. In 1992, a group of youths created Zoe Pound to retaliate against anyone who attacked the Haitian community. "Zoe'" is the anglicized variant of the word zo, Haitian Creole for "bone", as members were known to be "hard running and fighting,” (Some Haitian-Americans refer to one another as Zoe, even if they’re not affiliated with the gang.)
The Face reflects, "The sun rose over the settled dust and the smell of burnt wood and plastic competed with the blaring horns of the vehicles speeding by. The old lady swept her front steps while half her house was the broken rubble behind her. A little girl walked to school with ribbons in her hair wondering who will not be coming home."
2020 - Sculpture, Mixed Media
20 x 13 in.
With approximately 3 million people affected, the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on the afternoon of January 12, 2010, was the most devastating natural disaster ever experienced in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Roughly 250,000 lives were lost and 300,000 people were injured. About 1.5 million individuals were forced to live in makeshift internally displaced person camps. As a result, the country faced the greatest humanitarian need in its history.
The Face reflects, "I used my intelligence as a scaffold for my universe and build inclines to consciousness so that no trees or knees will kill my conviction."
2020 - Sculpture, Mix Media
20 x 13 in.
When I say blackout, I mean / Black Lives Matters. / Not All Lives Matter, / because slavery wasn't where / All Lives Mattered. / I mean, when lynch mobs hung us / As high as their almighty crosses, / OUR Lives didn't matter.
When I say blackout, I mean / Blacks outside of stores on Black Friday. / Boycotting with the mindset of Malcolm / and the patience of Martin. / Businesses crashing harder than the twin towers. / Harder than black bodies hitting the ground. / On the libra scale balancing: the 1-ton weight of a billion dollars / burrowing in consumer pockets. / Versus the 7 lbs of the vital organs / riddled with .9 mm hollow-point bullets holes. / I mean, what's the value of a hollowed soul?
- Excerpt from "Blackout" by Kaiya "Soski" Smith
The Canvas questions "If we couldn't stop them from stripping our mountains and our markets, how can we get them to stop them from stripping our soul?"
2020 - Mix Media on Canvas
24x48 in., framed
Foreign Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) have been part of the Haitian socio-economic infrastructure for the past 75 years. After the 2010 Earthquake, 1.3M people were left homeless. NGO's endorsed a $1.4 million effort titled "Beauty versus Poverty: Jalousie in Colours" - a government project to relocate people from the displacement camps that sprouted up after the earthquake. While most residents welcome the attempt to beautify Jalousie, a slum of 45,000 inhabitants, critics say the project was an example of superficial changes. Jalousie is unique in that its mountainside presence makes it visible to people living in the wealthy district of Petionville. Critics have suggested that the choice of Jalousie is as much about giving the posh hotels of Petionville a pretty view as helping the slum's residents. Many say that the money many say should have been spent on sanitation, water, electricity, schools, or infrastructure.
The Body discovers " where the elders buried their pain waiting for the sun to raise their hopes, and the rain to soothe their struggle until it is their time to return home."
2020 - Mix Media (Acrylic, glitter, resin, sand) on Plexiglass
40 x 25 in., framed
The Body discovers "each moment outside of you is dressed by what is already inside of you."
2020 - Mix Media (Acrylic, beads, findings, resin, sand) on Plexiglass
40 x 25 in., framed
The Canvas questions......"Why did the driver tell the state trooper that it was his "civic duty to run the n....s off the road'? Why did the doctors feel it was their civic duty to inform my parents that their ethnicity excluded them from saving their daughter's life? Why did the FDA decide that it was their civic duty to declare that AIDS “Patient Zero” were the 4H - Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, Heroin Addicts, and Haitians? Why did 250,000 Haitians feel it was their civic duty to rally across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest the racism of the AIDS epidemic?"
2020 - acrylic on canvas
40 x 30 in., framed
On April 20, 1990, 150,000 Haitians Shook The Brooklyn Bridge Protesting Against FDA “Bad Blood” HIV Claims.
In the collection of Wanda Jacob, Long Beach, CA
The Canvas questions...
“When did you give me permission to love you?
When did you give me permission to teach you?
When did you give me permission to share you?
When did you give me permission to let you go?”
2020 - Acrylic on Canvas
12 x 36 in., unframed
2020 - Sculpture, Mixed Media
20 x 30 in.
A Wanga, also known as Paket Kongo, is a magical charm packet found in the folk magic practices of Haiti. Wangas are Haitian spiritual objects made by Vodou priests and priestesses (houngans and mambos) during ceremonies. Their name comes from the ancient Kongo Kingdom in Africa, where similar objects called "nikisi Bambi" are found.
A paquet is a collection of magical ingredients - herbs, earth, vegetable matter - wrapped in fabric and decorated with feathers, ribbons and sequins.
Paquet congo are said to have the power of “healing” or activating the loa (Haitian diety. Paquet serves as power objects and is kept on Vodou altars and used in healing ceremonies. They are also used as protective amulets in people’s homes, bringing health, wealth and happiness.
2020 - Sculpture, Mixed Media
2020 - Sculpture, Mixed Media
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
"MUSE! / MUSE makes? / MUSE makes MY... / MUSE makes my MUSIC. / #MusicMakesMyMuse
Mix Media on Canvas Cardboard
12" x 24"
2018
"Get yourself together / Give it all you got / Get yourself together / Make sure the flow never stops"
Acrylic on Canvas
12x24
2018
"Dot, dot, dot / Can you save me? / Dash, dash, dash / Can I save you? / Dot, dot, dot"
Mix Media on Canvas Cardboard
12x24
2018
"Stand with me / Stand on my words / Hold me / Give me your attention / Turn with me / Follow my inflections"
Acrylic and Sand on Canvas
12" x 24"
2018
You parted my mind / I gave it to the clouds / you parted my heart / I gave it to the stars/ Your parted my soul / I gave it to the universe"
Multi Media and Canvas Cardboard
12" x 24"
2018