Haiti

Education

Why do Haitians eat squash soup on New Year’s Day?

December 30, 2021 Jack Drees 2

By Jack Drees The New Year is celebrated by a series of traditions in the United States and around the world. For some, it’s a lively party on New Year’s Eve. For others, it’s the Times Square Ball Drop. For Massachusetts, it’s fireworks over the Boston Harbor. Haitians celebrate the New Year by enjoying a special soup. It is one of the first dishes they eat in the calendar year, and a tradition that reminds them of the liberation they have achieved. Haitians gained independence on January 1, 1804 after a 13-year revolution against France. Their independence arrived after the only successful slave revolt in history. Haiti became the second independent nation in the Americas and the first in Latin America. Yearly, in honor of the country’s freedom, the nation’s people and those with Haitian roots enjoy Soup Joumou, or squash soup. During France’s colonization of Haiti, Soup Joumou was often eaten by colonial masters and plantation owners. In many cases, this dish was prepared for these higher-class individuals by the slaves. While the masters […]

Featured

For local Haitians, the pain of tragic events in Haiti continues

September 29, 2021 annedr 1

By Anne D’Urso-RoseMartha Bezzat and Ose Schwab contributed to this article Right after the devastating earthquake in Haiti on Aug. 14, Nekita Lamour of Malden received a message from her cousin from Jérémie, in the south of Haiti. Her family’s home was completely destroyed and her cousin went into labor when the earthquake started. Her baby son was born the day after the earthquake and she is now living in makeshift housing under tarps with her husband, the new baby and her two other children. “I thought of my half brother and his wife who had a baby right after the 2010 earthquake and were living in the same kind of situation,” Lamour said. “The baby died because of the breezes and the germs that are not conducive to a baby’s health. But I didn’t tell [my cousin] that.” The enormity of Haiti’s suffering can overwhelm any sense of actionable empathy; the island nation has suffered from two massive earthquakes in the last decade and a recent presidential assassination. For non-Haitians, it can be easy […]

Arts

Encounter Haiti, hope and love in multimedia exhibit by Nicolas Hyacinthe

April 21, 2020 joanneelie 1

“When I put a piece of art on the wall it’s no longer mine anymore. The viewer sees it and resonates with a truth within it and walks away with it. It is my kaleidoscope experience and their human experience colliding; and at that point it belongs to them,” says Hyacinthe. Hyacinthe was born in Haiti and immigrated to America at the age of 10. Bringing  with him the cultural background and history of the island, he was then immersed in the new narrative of American culture. As he watched films and television, he developed a passion for photography and filmmaking, which he began to study at Emerson College, where he graduated in 2001 with a degree in Visual Media Arts. His experience of living in two countries revealed a universal truth about the world: pain and love. These truths unified the human experience to a young Hyacinthe, convincing him that pain and love transcend any surface differences among varying cultures. Hyacinthe expresses this truth through mediums such as photography, abstract paintings, and film. With […]