[Haiti_action] Friday

[Liza Neal]

*Tickets are on sale NOW at Food for Thought Books. Suggested Donation: 
$ 25.00 - 12.00** (we encourage you to purchase a seat even if you 
cannot attend)*

We are so proud to present this evening of powerful voices that join us 
as we honor the legacy of resistance in the Haitian community.

Featuring: Djola Branner, Myriam Chancy, Dee Dee Desir, Martin Espada, 
Jean Dany Joachim, Lenelle Moise and Patrick Sylvain with the 
soul-stirring music of REBIRTH.

Tickets are available at Food for Thought Books. There is a suggested 
donation per ticket of $ 25.00 -12.00. Community members are encouraged 
to support the fundraising effort by purchasing seats even if they are 
unable to attend. There will be an additional ask during the evening.

Resistance is passion,
it's taking a stand,
helping a friend,
helping a stranger,
sharing food in community,
speaking up,
speaking out,
speaking your truth.

Resistance is
also
envisioning the world we want to live in,
remembering our histories,
creating a world filled with justice,
never giving up
&
MAKING CHANGE

Proceeds will benefit: http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti

Djola Branner, MFA is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Hampshire 
College and an interdisciplinary theater artist who combines movement, 
sound, and light to create portraits of contemporary life for the stage. 
Cofounder of the critically acclaimed performance group Pomo Afro Homos, 
he toured extensively with their shows Fierce Love: Stories of Black Gay 
Life and Dark Fruit. He has created such shows as Sweet Sadie and The 
House That Crack Built. Publications include such journals and 
anthologies as XXZYVA and Colored Contradictions, A Guide to the 
Collaborative Process.

Myriam Chancy, Ph. D., is a Haitian writer/scholar born in 
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and educated in Québec City, Winnipeg, Halifax 
and Iowa City. Her first novel, Spirit of Haiti (Mango 2003), was a 
finalist in the Best First Book Category, Canada/Caribbean region, of 
the Commonwealth Prize 2004. She is also the author of Framing Silence: 
Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers 1997) and Searching for 
Safe Spaces: Afro-Caribbean Women Writers in Exile (Temple 1997; Choice 
OAB Award, 1998). She is Professor of English at the University of 
Cincinnati.

Dominique "DeeDee" Desir is a student at Hampshire College where she 
serves Community Council Chair. She is the founding member of The Urban 
Word a performance based group focused on all aspects of spoken word. 
 From her bio: "I am never bound by what others think of me. I am here 
to build, develop and strengthen our abilities. I am of Haitian 
background and of a Haitian American up bring. My culture and my past 
servers as my tutor; and I mentor young girls and boys because there 
lies the future."

Martín Espada, called "the Latino poet of his generation" and "the Pablo 
Neruda of North American authors," he has published sixteen books in all 
as a poet, editor, essayist and translator, including; Crucifixion in 
the Plaza de Armas (Smokestack, 2008), La Tumba de Buenaventura Roig 
(Terranova, 2008), The Republic of Poetry, (Norton, 2006), Imagine the 
Angels of Bread (Norton, 1996), which won an American Book Award and was 
a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. Espada is now a 
professor in the Department of English at the University of 
Massachusetts-Amherst, where he teaches creative writing and the work of 
Pablo Neruda.

Jean-Dany Joachim grew up surrounded by poets in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 
He wrote his first poem at age 14, and his writing became a way to give 
voice to the life of his country. He moved to Cambridge 16 years ago and 
began writing in English, while also exploring poetry in other 
languages. His work has appeared in; A Review of Poetry (Runes), Lovers' 
Sweet Nothings, A Secret Anthology (Arctos Press) Mémoire d'encrier; 
Love and Other poems (Trilingual Press). Joachim has been the director 
of the Sunset Poetry Series at Bunker Hill Community College for over 10 
years.

Lenelle Moise - is a "culturally hyphenated pomosexual poet" who creates 
jazz-infused, hip-hop bred, politicized texts about Haitian-American 
identity and the intersection of race, class, gender, sexuality, 
spirituality and resistance. Her essays are featured in several 
anthologies, including: WORD WARRIORS: 35 Women Leaders in the Spoken 
Word Revolution and We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next 
Generation of Feminists.

Patrick Sylvain- is a Haitian-American writer, educator, lecturer and 
photographer who lives and teaches in Massachusetts. He received his 
Ed.M. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and has 
been published in African American Review, Agni, American Poetry 
Anthology, American Poetry Review, The Best of Beacon, 1999, Butterfly's 
Way, Callaloo, Caribbean Writers, Confrontation, Crab Orchard Review, 
Haitian Times, Kestrel, Massachusetts Review, Open Gate, Ploughshares, 
Revue Noire and Step Into the World. His latest book, Love, Lust & Loss/ 
Lanmou, anvi ak pèdans, was published by Mémoire d'Encrier in October 2005.

REBIRTH: The band born from the "Culture Shock" network, represents a 
merging of voices inspired by Julius D. Ford and featuring percussion, 
wind instruments, mc's and vocalists.

"Haiti Will Rise Again" image created by Eastside Art Alliance 
<http://www.eastsideartsalliance.com/>.

Community Collaborators for this event include:
Youth Action Coalition <http://www.youthactioncoalition.org/>and TRGGR 
Media Group <http://trggradio.wordpress.com/>.
 
Location: 
Food For Thought Books
106 N Pleasant St
Amherst, Massachusetts 01002-1703