dig

Category: haiti

  • nothing to break or barter but my life

    AG2026_SmallOscillations_DCG-Document082226_-page006b
    AG2026_SmallOscillations_DCG-Document082226_-page006b

    I have just realized that the stakes are myself
    I have no other
    ransom money, nothing to break or barter but my life
    my spirit measured out, in bits, spread over
    the roulette table, I recoup what I can
    nothing else to shove under the nose of the maitre de jeu
    nothing to thrust out the window, no white flag
    this flesh all I have to offer, to make the play with
    this immediate head, what it comes up with, my move
    as we slither over this go board, stepping always
    (we hope) between the lines

    Revolutionary Letter #1, Diane di Prima

    Dans la nuit du 23 au 24 août 2026, Kenscoff a une nouvelle fois été frappée par les gangs : au moins 47 morts, dont cinq enfants, plus de 50 personnes enlevées et 25 maisons incendiées. (Haiti Inter)

    Man on the street via FB (Medya Laria )

  • Not “overtly racial”

    The matter of race was central to the T.P.S. case, Adam Liptak writes. Trump has a history of derogatory statements against Haitians: He has accused them of “poisoning the blood” of the nation, accused them of “eating the pets” of their neighbors, and described their home country as a “shithole” that is “filthy, dirty, disgusting.”

    If discrimination was “a motivating factor” in Trump’s determination, the leading precedent said, it would violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause. But Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, concluded that Trump’s comments had not cleared that bar. The president’s statements, he wrote, were not “overtly racial.”

    Justice Elena Kagan, in her dissent, was incredulous. “The references — of filth, disease and primitiveness — are shot through with racial stereotypes and tropes,” she wrote. (NYTimes)

    Mullin v. Doe (25-1083), Supreme Court.

  • never let the charm be broken

    Haiti Inter sur Johnny Nicholas (Jean Marcel Nicholas). The Search for Johnny Nicholas, Hugh Wray McCann, David C. Smith, David L. Matthews (1982/2011).

    Yesterday we walked apart, 
    Separate and cold and mortal. 
    Now the mystic kiss has joined us, 
    Now we stand inside the portal

    That permits of no returning,
    And my heart is strangely burning. 

    I know not what the word may be, 
    Or what the charm, or what the token, 
    That has filled us with this glory. 
    But never let the charm be broken. 

    Let it stay a mystery
    For all time to be. 

    Yesterday, with lighter joys,
    We wantoned at the outer portal. 
    Now, with love’s old alchemy, 
    We have made ourselves immortal.

    Sudden Friendship, Elsa Gidlow

  • what does he think about, i

    _1000532

    here’s a little mouse) and 
    what does he think about, i 
    wonder as over this 
    floor (quietly with 

    bright eyes) drifts (nobody 
    can tell because 
    Nobody knows, or why 
    jerks Here &, here, 
    gr(oo)ving the room’s Silence) this like 
    a littlest 
    poem a 
    (with wee ears and see? 

    tail frisks) 
                                   (gonE) 
    “mouse,”
                   We are not the same and 

    i, since here’s a little he 
    or is 
    it It 
    ?  (or was something we saw in the mirror)? 

    therefore we’ll kiss; for maybe 
    what was Disappeared 
    into ourselves 
    who          (look).          ,startled 

    Here’s a Little Mouse, E. E. Cummings

    Lionel Benjamin pote yon mesaj ki fè diferans

  • Toussaint L’Ouverture, Letter to “Citizen Pascal in Paris”, 1799

    L’Ouverture, Toussaint. Letter to “Citizen Pascal in Paris” (#5034), 1799, B, Box: 13, Folder: 7; Box: 21, Folder: 12. Joseph J. Williams, SJ ethnological collection, MS-2009-030. John J. Burns Library.

    Burns Library has one of the many letters Louverture wrote to French powers as he attempted to ease their anxieties attached to the situation in Saint Domingue. Addressed to “Citizen Pascal in Paris”, this letter, dated the 28th of March, 1799, reassures its reader that liberty thrives in Saint Domingue, and that Louverture remains dedicated to the French governing body (find image and translation below). There remains an uncertainty as to whether or not Citizen Pascal was an actual person, or rather a name meant to encompass the people of Paris. Louverture claims that any economic struggles that the people of Saint Domingue are facing do not have to do with infertile soil on the island, but rather can be attributed to European and American reluctance to enter the ports of Saint Domingue which “leave the crops without a market.” This letter specifically shows the political maneuvering Louverture had undertaken towards the end of the Revolution as he attempted to appease the French while simultaneously arguing that the people of Saint Domingue were self-sufficient. There are also hints towards the writing of a constitution, which was penned soon after in 1801.

    Alaurea Holder, Burns Library Reading Room Assistant & PhD student in the History Department

    The First and Last King of Haiti : The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe, Marlene L. Daut

    _1000565
    Thomassin, 2015.

  • 100-0537

    100-0537

    going over small things like these.

  • Local helpers L’Atalaye

    Local helpers L'Atalaye [Haiti]

    Local helpers L’Atalaye [Haiti]

    Creator: Watson Perrygo  Local number: SIA2008-2532  Summary: The photograph documents Watson Perrygo’s field work with Arthur J. Poole in Haiti.  Dates: 1928-1929  Collection: SIA RU 7306, Watson M. Perrygo Papers, circa 1880s-1979. Box 2, Folder 10.  Repository: Smithsonian Institution Archives

  • Looking toward Morne Tranchant, 1927

    Image from page 33 of "Bulletin - United States National Museum" (1877)
    Text Appearing After Image:
    Looking toward Morne Tranchant from the lower slopes of La Selle. note scanty cover of forest Near Furcy, Haiti, April 9, 1927.

    Image from page 33 of “Bulletin – United States National Museum” (1877)

    Smithsonian Institution

    United States National Museum

    Buttetin 155

    THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

    by

    ALEXANDER WETMORE

    Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution

    AND

    BRADSHAW H. SWALES

    Honorary Assistant Curator of Birds United States National Museum

    January 27, 1931

    bulletinunitedst1551931unitfo_0034
    bulletinunitedst1551931unitfo_0034