Under/Water

For the departed
For Haïti
And in reference to Asako Narahashi’s ‘half wake and half asleep in the water’ (photograph) 2001
…under water,
sinking, eyes
closed, listening
to the voices
the sea, hopeful
not to drown
remembering,
arms wide, mantra:
the body is but water
and salt
…will float up
…sooner or later
…deep under,
sky water,
salt swimming
open
eyes….the ocean murmurs
from the depths
her belly
broken, to jagged shore:
“this time,
I would gladly have [...]

Presentation for Human Rights Project, Bard College, “Beyond Silence: Meaning & Memory in the Noise of Haiti’s Present” (March 12, 2010)
“Hearing Our Mothers: Safeguarding Haitian Women’s Self-Representation & Practices of Survival.”[1]
by Dr. Myriam J. A. Chancy, Professor of English, University of Cincinnati
(Please do not quote without permission or proper attribution)
Revolution is the most dramatic appearance [...]

Hope in Collectivity: The Women Artists of Matenwa, La Gonâve, Haïti
The following piece was written before the 2005 elections and post the devastations of the 2004 hurricane season.
At present, the Atis Fanm Matenwa Collective is more or less stranded in the interior of l’Ile de la Gonave and seeking to rebuild their community after the [...]

These photos were taken by Phillippe Qualo in Haiti shortly after the earthquake. As the body count increases, some with the names of loved ones, others without names, and as places that once held the meaning of one’s first days and existence appear in photos as evidence of their disappearance, it becomes increasingly difficult to fathom the immensity of our collective and individual losses, for those who are Haitian, for those of us born in Haiti. It is one thing to leave a country behind out of necessity, political or economic, quite another to lose to natural and man-made disasters, traces of one’s existence. Words are insufficient to mark what cannot be recovered, lamented, properly buried with dignity. MC

YOUR HELP IS NEEDED
PLEASE MAKE A DONATION to a Haiti Earthquake Relief Fund TODAY :

Wyclef Jean’s YELE earthquake relief fund online
(Small donations of $5 can also be made by texting YELE to 501501)

International Child Care works in Haiti & the Dominican Republic

Doctors without Borders

Partners In Health / Location [...]