Engaged art: the role of creatives in the revitalization of vulnerable communities in Haiti.
We currently live in an air of oppression. For lack of saying too much, we can find ourselves, in no time, under the dark headlights of repression without measure. Should we be silent when everything around us is moving in the opposite direction? How do we close our eyes, when darkness itself is no longer different from our reality? But more importantly, as someone who lives by expressing their deepest feelings, as a gateway of escape and invasion, how can we say nothing when we have everything to say?
This person is none other than an artist, a creator also called Creative. Equipped with this fine vision that reads between the lines, our artists are immediately faced with our nightmares, our ills, our sorrows, our joys and insecurities. They feel on edge what we hide under our eyes and hear our quietest cries
But how to manage to channel all the information they receive in less than the blink of an eye. How to speak for silent voices and how to also be its own spokesperson without murdering their creativity? Is it a civic duty or pure personal devotion?
In the history of the hunt for the rights of colored men, there is no doubt how much the contribution of our artists has helped with their ink weapons in the fights for freedom and access to our rights. We can consider the “Black Art Movement” and artists like Amiri Baraka with her famous The Book of Monk, Maya Angelou and her poem On the Pulse of Morning. Or the contribution of artists in the Haitian revolution with Gerald Bloncourt, Philomé Obrin, André Breton, Aimé Césaire, Prince Mars, to name a few.
Even today, in this 21st century of masked democracy, we need the voice of our artists and creatives more than ever to lend a hand. Whether through their words, paintings and thoughts, artists carry messages and serve as our shields. However, in addition to these inseparable characteristics in our committed creatives, nowadays they lend themselves to passing the torch to the youngest, to sharing their light with the most frightened and to embellishing our streets with their talent.
Art at the service of the communities is also reflected through drawing, painting, music and writing workshops in the vulnerable neighborhoods of the capital of Haiti while insecurity is walking at high speed in our corridors, let’s look at the work of WayBetter Future with its workshop with the street children of Petion-ville. These workshops allow our children to have a glimmer of hope, not to let go, to remain attached to their dream despite everything. Art at the service of communities is also expressed through recreational and educational initiatives where young people in search of hope meet their model for the very first time, and discover their own talent in broad daylight, the workshops of Les Couleurs Charity in is the proof. It is also reflected through open-air exhibitions accessible to an audience of all genders and social classes, what could be more true than with this session of Music and Monde at the Center d’Art. Street Art revitalized today thanks to the majestic work of our young creative people with Festi Graffiti. There is therefore an aggressive number of workshops, conferences, debates and exhibitions, in universities, classical schools and even within various institutions and companies.
we also wonder why do we notice much more youth and creative organization in the cities of the country? Not that misery is not in its free field, but it is above all because, as Alex Gray had said, “the purpose of art is to express something that you are not yet, but that you can become”. Young people express themselves better through art and their creativity! Young people mature much earlier when they engage in creative activity! And more importantly, our young people are more interested in the issues of their community through art. Let us remember the words of Barbara Januszkiewicz “Creative thinking inspires ideas. Ideas inspire change”.
And yes, by dint of using their creativity to fish for new ideas, the nets of our young creatives venture into the recesses of the problems that they want to change and/or improve in their neighborhood and those nearby. The HART’S community is an example of this: some of our young creatives voluntarily participate in charitable and social activities. Our activities with the Rotaract Club of Pétion-ville 30 trees for 30 orphans or with the FHACI Rose et Or Campaign to name but a few. Creativity introduces young people to the economic and socio-cultural issues of the country, our conference Revitalizing the creative economy with young Haitian creatives and our short film on the Creative Economy are proof of this.
Above all, we must not forget technology, this tool that raises borders and connects cultures. I still remember the impact generated by the Creative Tech Lab in Banj two years ago, in the midst of the covid-19 crisis, the creativity of our young creatives and developers made it possible to offer an experience without measure. Access to technology in some remote neighborhoods, an initiative made possible above all and thanks to art and creative fields, places young people and children in front of innovative tools and ideas. All these activities and initiatives fall under what I will call “the revitalization of these districts”. They also offer a new perspective of these communities and the young people who grow up there. They passively attract attention from elsewhere to the ills that communities are experiencing and train the youngest to do their best to react to the problems of their own community. And above all, keep them away from this bitter candy of insecurity.
Encourage artistic and creative practice, it’s planting a tree of hope accessible to future generations while protecting those of today, it’s painting the streets of our neighborhoods of love and peace for a future soothing. It is writing history with bare hands on our walls and windows.
Wendy CIVIL
Founder and Director of HART’S — Creative Career and Community Manager
