Click Picture for more on Zing Experience.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Tagged: haitian
Discovered her through a friend, bought an album through itunes, but I wasn’t listening til I heard this song:
Popularity: 3% [?]
During the release of an anthology entitled The Butterfly’s Way, that author Edwidge Danticat put together, I had a chance to interview her for a now-defunct online magazine called Native.
By Richard Louissaint
Imagine this scene: a grandmother of Haitian descent serving up stories to a group of children—many of whom are little nieces, nephews, and grandchildren—as they sit around her. Before the start of each story, the grandmother shouts “Kric!,” and only begins speaking, in her native language Kreyol, after the young audience responds with an affirming “Krac!” In the oral tradition of Haitian storytelling, these two phrases “Kric” and “Krac” represent the backbone of any story told (spellings of both words vary).
Following much in the footsteps of these normal, everyday Haitian orators, is Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat. The critically-acclaimed Brooklyn, NY native has continued that tradition with her three published works—including her aptly-titled short story debut Krik? Krak! Danticat has a remarkable knack for packing anyplace she speaks at, and help push the sales of any publication she plays a role in— either as a contributor (foreword in the latest edition of Zora Neale Hurston’s classic tome Their Eyes Were Watching God) or as guest editor for an anthology (The Beacon Best of 2000 : Great Writing by Women and Men of All Colors and Cultures). However, this is not about her.
This influence is not lost on the Oprah Book Club winner and National Book Award nominee– the ability to get people to read like Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling. In 1999, an email was sent out by her detailing a book project she hoped would embody experiences and accounts by Haitians who have lived in the most reluctant of melting pots—the United States. The electronically-administered message urged anyone to place their thoughts on their Haitian-American identity to paper. What would eventually surface is the recently-released anthology, The Butterfly’s Way (Soho Press) edited by Danticat.
Over the course of several emails, Danitcat expounded on the issues facing a new generation of Haitian’s living and growing outside and estranged from their own homeland– something that is at the core of Butterfly’s center. » Continue Reading…
Popularity: 13% [?]