The Displaced Inheritance
1. MA(H)GA - Make America’s Haiti Great Again
The Canvas questions "Is the CIA's generational wealth of the Duvalier regime enough to compensate those who still mourn their lost memories?"
2020 - mix media on canvas / 24x48 in., framed
Fort Dimanche is an infamous prison in Haiti located near La Saline in Port-au-Prince that was notorious for torture and murder during the reign of François Duvalier. During the reign of Duvalier, he and his Tonton Macoutes used the facility as an interrogation center and prison to incarcerate, torture, and murder political opponents. His son, Jean-Claude Duvalier, continued to use it as an instrument of terror. The Fort was destroyed by the 2010 earthquake, but the Duvaliers have resurged. Nicholas Duvalier, the grandson of Francois Duvalier, is was considered a presidential contender for 2022.
2. You Don’t Look Haitian IV: Kanpe dwat...defann katye ou mumzel zoe (Stand straight... defend your neighborhood miss zoe)
The Face reflects, "The kompas sounds were like lullabies reminding us of home, but they mocked me in the classroom because I didn't sound like America. I dressed in the colors of "onè, respè" to remember the sacrifice my parents made for me to be here, but they laughed at me in the hallway because I didn't dress like America. I wanted a ti cherie who could see my shine, but they beat me down because I wasn't welcomed in America."
2020 - Sculpture, Mixed Media / 20 x 13 in.
In the late 80's and 90's Haitian youths, living in Miami, Florida, were constantly attacked in schools and in the streets. In 1992, a group of youths created Zoe Pound to retaliate against anyone who attacked the Haitian community. "Zoe'" is the anglicized variant of the word zo, Haitian Creole for "bone", as members were known to be "hard running and fighting,” (Some Haitian-Americans refer to one another as Zoe, even if they’re not affiliated with the gang.)
3. You Don’t Look Haitian V: Kanpe dwat...nou pèdi kay nou men nou pa pèdi nanm nou (Stand straight...we lost our homes but we didn't lose our souls)
The Face reflects, "The sun rose over the settled dust and the smell of burnt wood and plastic competed with the blaring horns of the vehicles speeding by. The old lady swept her front steps while half her house was the broken rubble behind her. A little girl walked to school with ribbons in her hair wondering who will not be coming home."
2020 - Sculpture, Mixed Media / 20 x 13 in.
With approximately 3 million people affected, the magnitude 7.0 earthquake that struck Haiti on the afternoon of January 12, 2010, was the most devastating natural disaster ever experienced in Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Roughly 250,000 lives were lost and 300,000 people were injured. About 1.5 million individuals were forced to live in makeshift internally displaced person camps. As a result, the country faced the greatest humanitarian need in its history.
4. Tambou
The Wood said "Your first birth put the boldness of life in your lungs... Your second birth put the pounding of drums in your heart... Your third birth put the fire of movement in your body... Now dance your way back home."
2014 - Acrylic on Wood
Unframed - 68"x10"
5. Never Forgotten
The wood said "... I dangle him straight and take his pain while I write it in the wrings of my memory. When I am done, then they can take him down and give him back to the earth."
2009 - Acrylic on Wood
24 x 24 in., Framed
6. Katrina Count
The wood said "For all those counted as lost above and below the waters that devestated all our lives in 2005."
Salvaged wood from Magnolia trees destroyed in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
2008 - Acrylic on Wood / 6 x 26 in., Unframe
7. Civic Duty
The Canvas questions......"Why did the driver tell the state trooper that it was his "civic duty to run the n....s off the road'? Why did the doctors feel it was their civic duty to inform my parents that their ethnicity excluded them from saving their daughter's life? Why did the FDA decide that it was their civic duty to declare that AIDS patient zero were the 4H - Homosexuals, Hemophiliacs, Heroin Addicts, and Haitians? Why did 250,000 Haitians feel it was their civic duty to rally across the Brooklyn Bridge to protest the racism of the AIDS epidemic?"
2020 - acrylic on canvas
40 x 30 in., framed
8. Bloodline
The wood said "One soul inhabits many bodies. Coursing through time, we all tell the tales that ties us to pain, life, shame, joy, anger, and pride of our existance".
2014 - Acrylic on Wood
41 x 29, Framed
9. Make Your Ripples Count
10. Sa Kap Kebem (That Which Holds Me)
The canvas questions “Which is more true… the framework that puts it together or the content that fulfills the spaces?”
2024 - Acrylic and Plaster on Canvas
20 x 16 inches
11. Tapestry Of Greed
The Canvas questioned "How his arrival, in 1492 to redeem his reputation... looking for the path to the East Indies,...
was not the same curse when she arrived in 1975 for the promise of fidelity... on the path to the White House?"
2020 - Mix Media on Paper, Framed
20 x 17 in., framed
12. Jalousie - Blan Nan Mache (Foreigner in the Market)
The Canvas questions "If we couldn't stop them from stripping our mountains and our markets, how can we get them to stop them from stripping our soul?"
2020 - Mix Media on Canvas
24x48 in., framed
Foreign Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) have been part of the Haitian socio-economic infrastructure for the past 75 years. After the 2010 Earthquake, 1.3M people were left homeless. NGOs endorsed a $1.4 million effort titled "Beauty versus Poverty: Jalousie in Colours" - a government project to relocate people from the displacement camps that sprouted up after the earthquake. While most residents welcome the attempt to beautify Jalousie, a slum of 45,000 inhabitants, critics say the project was an example of superficial changes. Jalousie is unique in that its mountainside presence makes it visible to people living in the wealthy district of Petionville. Critics have suggested that the choice of Jalousie is as much about giving the posh hotels of Petionville a pretty view as helping the slum's residents. Many say that the money many say should have been spent on sanitation, water, electricity, schools, or infrastructure.
13. Kouvri’m pou Dekouvri’m (Cover Me to Discover Me)