In conjunction with Haitian Heritage Month, the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami (MOCA) will display “PÒTOPRENS: The Urban Artists of Port-au-Prince” which brings together the work of over 20 artists working in the Haitian capital. The exhibition, on view April 23 to August 11, 2019, highlights Port-au-Prince’s many diverse centers of cultural production, informal street life, religious heritage and mythologies to create a compelling portrait of a historically significant and intensely complex city in flux.

Co-curated by Haitian-American artist and curator Edouard Duval-Carrié and British artist and curator Leah Gordon, and organized by Pioneer Works Founding Artistic Director Gabriel Florenz with special advisor Jean-Daniel Lafontant. PÒTOPRENS is a large-scale exhibition of sculptures, photographs, and films, accompanied by a recreated Port-au-Prince barbershop as well as extensive public programming. The entire exhibition is depicted in the native Haitian tongue Creole.

Port-au-Prince is a polyphonic city declaring its cultural history via multiple voices. Representing one of the most vibrant and creative cities in the Caribbean, PÒTOPRENS is not simply a survey show, nor is it a comprehensive snapshot of contemporary Haitian art. It is an exhibition that uses the city of Port-au-Prince as a lens through which to view the chaotic intersections of history, music, politics, religion, magic, architecture, art, and literature— to enable the viewer to reflect upon the past and speculate about the future of this vital city and its country.

The exhibition presents a diverse group of sculptures including sequined Vodou flags, stone and wood carvings, and found object assemblages, most of which have never before been seen in the United States. The sculptural installation mirrors the organization of the city itself by highlighting specific districts in Port-au-Prince where art is produced—each with its own particular subjects, forms, and materials. The neighborhood of Bel Air, situated on a hill that rises behind the remains of the Catholic Cathedral in downtown Port-au- Prince, has a rich concentration of Vodou flag artists and sequin sculptors—a tradition alleged to have originated from the royal flags and banners of Benin.

Read more on www.mocanomi.org

In 1805 French troops were still posted on the eastern part of the island (mainly in Santo Domingo) led by the French officer Marie-Louis Ferrand. He mobilized his troops and ordered them to seize all black children of both sexes below the age of 14 years to be sold as slaves. When Dessalines learned the news, he was outraged and decided to invade Santo Domingo, with his forces looting several towns, such as Azua and finally laying siege to the city of Santo Domingo, the stronghold of the French.
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According to sources, General Henry Christophe (referred to as Enrique Cristóbal), under Dessalines, attacked the towns of Moca and Santiago. The barrister “Gaspar de Arredondo y Pichardo(1)” wrote, that 40 children had their throat cut. They finally retreated after their failed invasion attempt. –
The story continues and says that on 6 April 1805, General Christophe and his troops took all male prisoners to the local cemetery and slit their throats, along with 20 priests. Later he set the whole town on fire along with its 5 churches. On his way out he took along, fashioned like a herd, 249 women, 430 girls and 318 boys. Alejandro Llenas wrote that Christophe took 997 from Santiago alone, and “Monte Plata, San Pedro and Cotuí were reduced to ashes, and their residents either had their throats slit or were taken captives by the thousands, like farm animals, tied up and getting beaten on their way to Haiti.”
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Many challenge the occurance of this event or its outcome, some even use it to justify the tension between some hispaniolans. We share the infos available to inform and so you can have discussions on it.
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Sources:
1.Wikipedia
2.History of my departure from the Island of Santo Domingo on the 28th of April,1805.
3.Johnnenry Gonzalez Ph.D. gonzalez27@usf.edu (islandluminous.fiu.edu/part03-slide08.html)
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