Could publishing a magazine for Haitians living in the United States—with mass appeal to other Caribbeans in the middle of a much-publicized decline of print—be a success? Esther Lafontant thought so.

The former model and fashion industry employee put her mind to work, formulating a publication she named Amour Creole. With an ever-growing subscriber base, as well as an online version, the magazine which recently celebrated its first year, has had cover stories featuring a host of luminaries: singer Dawn Richard, actor Jimmy Jean-Louis, celebrity chef Manoushka Guerrier, and teen heartthrobs Olivier Duret and Jason Derulo. The efforts of Lafontant and her staff have paid off; this year Amour Creole joined other major magazines on the racks of national newsstands as one of the content-heavy publications targeting black and Caribbean readers. It’s been quite a journey for Lafontant, a single mother who immigrated to the United States and is now based out of Boston.

Q&A

At which point did you get the concept for Amour Creole?
I always wanted to do something that would uplift the Haitian community in the U.S. and show the beauty of my people and culture. I had the idea for a magazine for a long time – I felt like it was the best medium to display the beauty of my people and culture.

There’s this impression that it’s doomsday for the magazine and print industry in general.
Yes, the last couple of years have been very difficult for print because of the other media outlets. The numbers for print seem to be rising again and there is still an impressive demand for print. People like to curl up with a magazine, feel the pages. Experts say print will be around for a long time. Amour Creole is such a new niche, our target market loves the direction of Amour Creole. There’s clearly a big need for it in our community.

What do you feel sets apart Amour Creole from other Caribbean lifestyle and entertainment publications?
Amour Creole covers a range of topics. We are very diverse in our writing. We don’t focus on just one aspect like most other magazines. We cover so much: beauty, fashion, entertainment, culture, etc. I think our in-depth, well researched features are a huge part of capturing readers attention. And we cater to a bigger audience. We are not just a women or men’s magazine. We are the people’s magazine.

Any aspect of your background that made starting and operating Amour Creole a little smoother?
Not necessarily. I modeled for a while and was always part of the fashion industry, but nothing related to publishing.

The arrival of the internet killed a lot of other mediums. What do you think will kill it?
I maintain the position – every avenue has an end. Where? No one knows.

As the Founder of Amour Creole, and its publisher, what is a typical day like for you?
Very stressful. Even though Amour Creole is quarterly it feels like a weekly publication. Our editorial schedule is very tight and we have to get to the next issue before we even close the current one! There are days that my staff and I are in the office until 1 or 2 AM. I am just so grateful that I work with a group of amazing people.

You probably have some counsel for someone delving into the publishing world.
Know what you are getting into. Educate yourself as much as you can – go to as many publishing conferences, trade shows and network events that you can. Publishing is a very hard business to get into especially if it’s print publication because they are so many regulations. If you are not prepared, you will fail. When someone sees a finished product, they just see the glamour of it, not the work that goes into putting it together.

What’s in the plans for Amour Creole?
The plan for Amour Creole is to become a household name in the Haitian/Caribbean community. I want it to be a name that all Haitians everywhere can be proud of and that will last for many generations.

For information on how to subscribe, go here.

I still can remember the first time I ever heard of Marie Vieux Chauvet. It was from reading Dr. Myriam J.A. Chancy’s study of Haitian literature by women entitled: Framing the Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women. I think that for sure I may have read briefly about her in Léon François Hoffman’s survey of Haitian literature, and J. Michael Dash’s book, Literature and Ideology in Haiti, 1915-1961, and perhaps didn’t notice. While I’m on the subject of Chancy, I will also say that I’m eternally grateful to her because before I read her book, I had no idea that there were so many women Haitian writers. To me that book is a great contribution to Haitian women’s literature, though it’s just a survey. Nadine Magloire, Yanick Lahens, Madame Virgile Valcin, better called Cleanthe Desgraves, Annie Desroy, all were introduced to me by Framing the Silence.

Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Triptych is translated from the French by Rose-Myriam Réjouis and Val Vinokur, and the translation, as far as I can tell is outstanding. Nothing seemed amiss. I must say that I’m extremely grateful to those two as well, and the Vieux estate for making this English translation possible, and to make it accessible to so many of us. And thank you Modern Library Classics.
Edwidge Danticat wrote a rather gracious forward. I’m sure she feels a lot of gratitude towards Vieux Chauvet, who in a way, paved the way for Ms. Danticat. I’m sure she views her as an inspiration.

Marie Vieux Chauvet-undated photo (left)

Reading the book put me in quite a state. A state of fear, it’s like classic horror, but the bogeymans were all visible. I had read on Haitiwebs.com about how Marie Vieux Chauvet (to self: I wonder if she’s related to the CaRiMi singer Carlo Vieux), and how she went into exile, how her family had her books burned for fear of reprisal from the government, because, really she was denouncing the 1960s-era Duvalier government in thinly-disguised plotlines even though in the narrative she set her story decades before. In the first book (Love), Claire Clarmont (a rather ironic name, considering that Claire means light in French), a dark-skinned Haitian born into an elite Haitian family consisting of mulattoes and near-white relatives, feels isolated and unloved, but facing the tyranny of a dictatorship gives her the strength she needs to affirm her identify. In the second part of the trilogy, Rose Normil, the beautiful daughter of one of Haiti’s most powerful mulatto families allows herself to be sodomized by a police chief to save her family’s land from governmental pillagers. I almost couldn’t muster the gumption to read the last novella Madness, the story of Réné, the political prisoner, who’s being starved and terrorized in a prison cell, along with other dissidents.

I felt horrified throughout the time I was reading the novellas in this trilogy. What a way to live. I felt the pain of Rose’s family; I felt Claire’s frustration, the agony of the Normils, as the family maid who was secretly envying their lifestyle and their wealth, betrayed them.

I couldn’t help but notice a lot of anti-black Haitian sentiment throughout the novel. The police chief in Anger doesn’t have a name, but is referred to as the Gorilla, and in the narrative his African features are constantly put in derision. But I try to understand that it must not have been pretty for people to be victimized because of their skin color.

I understand from reading the books Written in Blood by Heinls clan, The Breached Citadel by Patrick Bellegarde, that up to the 1950s, there was no black middle class in Haiti. And that one of the things that occurred during the late-50s and up to the 1970s, was an incessant persecution and purging of the fair-skinned middle and upper class to make way for the Haitian black middle class. But why did one color need to be wiped out to make place for another. Coexistence wasn’t possible? SMH.

If you’ve read this book, kindly share your thoughts on it. If you can help it, try to stick to general storylines, so as to not spoil the plot for others who have yet to read it.

Ayiti Mon Amour

Ayiti Mon Amour, a film by Haitian filmmaker Guetty Felin has been drawing praise all over the film festival circuit. The films centers on the lives of three individuals: a young man who’S going through a semi-rebellious phase, and a fisherman helping his beloved wife battle an unknown disease, and a novel character trying to evade an actor. Their lives seem so disconnected, but Fellin’s script will bring them together somehow.

One of the characters in Ayiti Mon Amour, a film by Guetty Felin grieves following an earthquake.

Ayiti Mon Amour features some really nice views of Haiti and its colonial architecture, not to mention some views of the sea and fishermen wharves.

A scene from Ayiti Mon Amour a film from Guetty Felin, a Haitian filmmaker. #kreyolicious #Haitian

Ayiti Mon Amour has been screened at the Toronto International Film Festival as well as the Curaçao film festival to maximum acclaim. Felin is being heralded by critics as a voice in post-2010 Haitian cinema. The talent roster in the film Jaures Andris, Joakim Cohen, Anisia Uzeyman are all first-time actors and what talent they display!

Felin previously directed a feature film through her BelleMoon Productions film company entitled A Rooster in the Fire Escape.

Check out the Ayiti Mon Amour trailer below and let me know what you think!

This has been another episode of KREYOLICIOUS CINEMA OR SHOULD I SAY KREYOLICIOUS AT THE MOVIES? See you next time.