The Art A[u]ction for Haiti Committee, in association with the Edna Manley Foundation, the National Gallery of Jamaica, Hi-Qo Galleries, Harmony Hall, the Mutual Gallery and Art Centre, and Roktowa, is pleased to present: Art A[u]ction for Haiti, a fundraiser to assist with the recovery of the Haitian art world.

Included in the auction will be prints by FIRST photographers Peter Dean Rickards and Marlon ‘Biggybigz’ Reid.

The proceeds of this benefit will support the reconstruction and revival of the Centre d’Art, and the sculptors’ collective of the Grand Rue inner city community, which had in December 2009 hosted the Ghetto Biennale in which Jamaica’s Ebony Patterson participated. A portion of the proceeds will also go the upcoming residency of nine Haitian artists, including three Grand Rue sculptors, at the Roktowa studio facility in West Kingston.

The sale section consists of works of art that will be offered at fixed price and that will be on view at the National Gallery, along with the auction preview, from Wednesday, April 14 to Sunday, April 18. Viewing and sales hours are: Wednesday and Thursday: 10 am to 4:30 pm, Friday: 10 am to 4 pm, Saturday 10 am to 3 pm, Sunday: 11 am to 3 pm.

See the National Gallery of Jamaica blog for the full catalogue.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – walking around in the rubble on Grand Rue, one gets the distinct feeling that people are putting on a brave face. Three months after the earthquake that took the lives of more than 200,000 people, life continues despite the indescribable destruction as its residents continue the painstaking process of rebuilding the capital – arguably the most important cultural and historical city in the Caribbean.

Coming from Kingston, the scenes of poverty are not entirely alien, and yet, despite its obvious economic disadvantages there’s something distinctly developed about the Haitian people. Amid the piles of broken concrete, trash and flattened buildings, there’s no begging, no wailing, no time for anything but digging upward and outward for the inhabitants of this rebel nation.

On Grand Rue I follow the unconquerable Melinda Brown to the studio of her fellow artist Andre Eugene. Brown’s got some bad news to tell the sculptors who’ve gathered there: their visa applications to visit Jamaica have been rejected. While Brown has received no official explanation (yet) as to why some of Haiti’s most respected visual artists were denied entry to Jamaica, one can’t help but feel a sense of shame as she relates the news to the disappointed faces.

“We’ll find out why and try again in June,” Brown tells the artists she handpicked to create a one-of-a-kind testimonial to the Haitian cataclysm aptly titled The Trembling Heart.

The Australian-born Brown is no stranger to the process of rebuilding places that most people would never tread. Back when the Meatpacking district in New York City still had rampant crime, fish guts and beef blood running in the streets, Brown was running Bombora House. Years later she arrived in downtown Kingston where she set about doing the same in places like Church Street and Rose Town.

Months before the earthquake, Brown had been noticeably missing from the Kingston landscape as she had begun working with sculptors and artists from Port-au-Prince and Grand Rue. For Brown, the Haitian earthquake was no ‘hot charity’ – she was in the narrow alleys of Grand Rue long before the tragedy of January 12.

Back into the streets I follow Zaka, a 22-year-old filmmaker (and primary translator for us hopelessly monolingual Jamaicans) who was just granted a US$10,000 artist residency at the prestigious Vermont Studio Centre in the United States.

As we walk through a tent city and the remnants of a destroyed church, Zaka tells me about the people he lost and the chance for renewal: “Grand Rue can be a symbol to world,” he says with almost bizarre confidence, “a chance to show how the people of Haiti can create good from so much destruction.”

Click on more to see the rest of the photographs:

For a horizontal view of the photographs visit: The Afflicted Yard

More from FIRST’s trip to Haiti:

VIDEO: Return to the Trembling Heart: Grand Rue, Port-au-Prince
PHOTOS: Port-au-Prince: In Living Colour

Well, it’s for charity still. Haiti 12:01:10, an exhibition of still and moving work by David Levene goes on show and sale at the Draw Walk Gallery at the Old Truman Brewery in London today.

Proceeds from the signed, limited edition prints of photographs taken in 2010 and in 2008 will going to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Haiti Earthquake Appeal. Meantime, the Guardian newspaper is running a slideshow of Levene’s images.

With the previous incumbent forced out by food riots and after Preident Renee Preval’s first choice was turned down by the senate, Robert ‘Bob’ Manuel is the new Prime Minister of Haiti.

Read more HERE

Ángel Luis Joseph could be in the United States playing major leagues baseball but like other Haitian children, even those born in the Dominican Republic, the government of that country is refusing them citizenship, striking out the 17 year old’s dream for the time being.

Read more: The New York Times

One of the great causalities of colonialism in the Caribbean has been the reporting of news from the region, particularly as it relates to our neighbours to the northeast on the island of Haiti. To those who know better, the constant mistreatment of Haiti and Haitians in the local and international media is something to be abhorred if one considers (for just a moment) the reasons and causes behind Haiti’s punishment by the west.

As such, it is often difficult to disseminate truth from fact in relation to Haiti as it is typical of the foreign press to get their facts in reverse about arguably the richest island in the Caribbean. So when I happened across a photo essay entitled ‘Las Pajas and the Lucky Haitians’ on JPG Magazine, I was at once drawn in by the atypical photographs of Haitian Sugar Cane workers in the Dominican Republic by photographer Reed Young, and pleasantly surprised to discover not even one picture of a garbage dump.

I decided to ask Young a few questions and he responded with enthusiasm.

Q. Tell us a some more about your experiences in Las Pajas. You said that a good friend of yours had invited you there. Can you tell us a little about her work and perhaps what were you expecting to find?

Las Pajas was nothing like I expected. My friend Rachel is doing volunteer work for the United States Peace Corps, so she had been living in this village for months. She told me a few different things about it, but for some reason it didn’t prepare me for what I would experience.

One thing I wont forget was all of the children. After the first day we had 35 kids following us everywhere we went. There we’re moments that made it very hard because the kids were so excited and they created such a different atmosphere. But it wouldn’t have been the same experience without them. On the second morning, they we’re all waiting outside of the house when we left for the day. So it was obvious they we’re planning to spend the entire week acting as our shadows.

Another one of my fondest memories was the power situation. The residents have power, but for only an average of three hours per day. Usually the lights come on at dusk and last until most everyone is in bed, but residents never know when the power will come on – or go off. On the night we arrived the power had not come on yet, so we ate dinner by candlelight. Then half way through dinner, the lights came on and the whole family screamed “Luce!”(light) at the same time. So on the second night as we we’re walking back to our shack, the power came on and we could hear “Luce!” being screamed from every single home that was near. This was obviously one of the many traditions of Las Pajas.

Q. Have you ever been to Haiti?

No, It would be an interesting experience, but I think it would be very difficult. Haiti has so many problems right now and I feel terrible for the country’s people.

Q. The photograph of the little girl titled Gris Luis is particularly striking. Can you tell us a little about how this photograph came about?

This was the end of the second day of shooting and I was very tired. Rachel and I we’re walking home when we saw her with the white dress and a green purse – it was just too hard to resist photographing her. It was getting dark so we had to work fast, but this was very difficult because we had so many children following us. To divert the attention of the children, Rachel invented a game that kept them occupied for most of the 10 minutes it took me to set up the lighting. Here is a photo I snapped of them as I was finishing my setup: http://www.reedsftp.com/rachel_game.jpg

After setting up my lights it was time to shoot. So Rachel attempted to keep the kids interested in the game but it just didn’t work. So every time I took the photograph and the flashes went off, the kids screamed with excitement and ran into the photo to try and be a part of it. Out of 30 pictures, 25 of them have naked babies running through the shot. It was an experience I will never forget.

Q. What was the best thing about your travels to Las Pajas. What was the worst?

The best was the people I met. They we’re so warm and welcoming and genuinely happy that I was there. The worst thing was the stomach problems that I got from the food. I was basically told to work as much as I could the minute I got to Las Pajas because it wasn’t a matter of if, but when I would be too ill to work. We planned to shoot for four days, and after the middle of the third day I was very sick and we had to end it there.

Q. Have you photographed anywhere else in the Caribbean? If so where? If not, did this journey pique your interest in looking further into other countries of the region? Which countries interest you most and why?

I’d love to do a story in Cuba before Castro dies. I know his brother is running the show now, but I think that when Fidel dies a lot of interesting things will change in Cuba.

Q. Are you someone who uses natural light more than artificial light or vice versa? How did you find the behaviour of natural light in the Dominican?

I almost always use a mixture of natural and artificial light. It was very difficult to control the light in Las Pajas because of the clouds. On average it rained for two hours each day, and the rest of the time it was sunny on and off. I spent a lot of time waiting for the clouds to come and go to get the light that I wanted.

See more of Reed Young’s work on his website here: http://www.reedyoung.com/

Haiti — There was pain in Jean François’s eyes, real suffering, an awful look of woe.

It might have been that he had little to eat that day, or his lack of a job or any real hope of securing one. Perhaps it stemmed from the squalor in his neighborhood, a sprawling and rather depressing slum of tin-roofed houses.

Looking on, one wanted to help this desperate 29-year-old man, console him, somehow help him break out of what was clearly a deep funk.

But there was nothing to be done. It turns out that Mr. François’s life was not the immediate source of his desperation. It was his losing streak — and the dozens of clothespins clipped onto his face, arms and belly.

Read the rest of this article HERE.

Haitian priest Gerald Jean-Juste narrates a Miami Herald slideshow on the anniversary of the resignation of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in February, 2004. Now, two months after his narration was recorded, the Haitian government is again under pressure with high food prices sparking rioting and Prime Minister Jacques-Édouard Alexis consequently voted out of office.

Source: The Miami Herald