BLOG: Updates from Leogane
Join members of the Green Family Foundation (GFF) during an experience like no other. From Thursday June 17th through Sunday June 20th, we will upload reports of the Sinema Anba Zetwal (Cinema Under the Stars) screenings in the refugee camps of Leogane, Haiti. The four-hour events feature giant screens that show entertaining educational films about human rights, culture, hygiene, environment, health care, and gender equity. Positive messaging through live performances, featuring folkloric dance and music, and a raffle distribution wrap up the nights. Check back with us or head to our Facebook page for updates.
We'll be blogging live from Leogane starting Thursday. See you under the stars!
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Team Lomax just spent the past three hours in the peristil (dance area of the temple) with Max Beauvoir, the premier vodou priest in the world. He has studied and watched the Lomax material over the past month and stated: "This is Haiti," which, coincidentally, is the name of our radio project. His daughter Rochelle was also in attendance. She is a university professor and has agreed to work on our educational component to disseminate the Lomax material. Surrounded by images, statues and paintings of the sacred Loa, we listened as Max and Rochelle spoke of the importance of the Lomax project for the rebuilding of Haiti, and for helping reinvest in its cultural institutionalized memory.
He spoke of the stigma of vodou, and how the religious NGO (non-governmental organization) community will attempt to silence us, but he stressed how we must persevere and move forward. He and Gage (Averill, the University of Toronto Arts and Sciences Dean and contributor to the Haiti Box Set), discussed the nuances in the music and lyrics and how bringing these songs back to the people of Haiti will instill the pride that they are the actual children of kings from Dahomey. The children of kings!
They both expressed the wonderful energy and spirit around this project and, and how they believe that Team Lomax will finally set the record straight on the work of Alan, who Max believes to have been misunderstood even by his own people.
"Now is the time," he told us. Now is the time. This is Haiti, mes amis!
We make our way back to the Sinema Anba Zetwal campgrounds. A lovely lunch is laid out and we all laugh and feast, awaiting the evening's show, the last one of the Leogane stop on the Food for Souls tour.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
We are on night three of the screenings in Leogane, a town at the epicenter of the earthquake that lost over 30 thousand souls in the heart of voodoo territory. We have been filming here off an on for weeks, meeting with the families that live in the lakous, places where the voodoo traditions date back generations and generations. The short we finished today featuring a blind voodoo priestess talking about the Lomax recordings and films will air tonight. The crowd is gathering in the cow pasture in Leogane and so are the storm clouds. I fear we will have another deluge tonite. People are walking with chairs and plates of food, more prepared today than they were on Thursday. Now they understand what's going on here. A feast for souls. A motorbike just scooted by with two men holding a table over their heads. Looks to be about 300 people so far and the show hasn't started yet.
Three out of four of our team members are sick in some way. One's in the truck, feeling woozy and nursing a cold. Another holds his side, some gastrointestinal distress. But we are healthy in spirit and and excited for tonight's performances. Partners in Health are here, complete with mini-clinic. Sean Penn's mobile clinic has arrived. The players are in place.
The show begins and the children go nuts. It's raffle time. Some of the winners scamper off with their prizes, backpacks full of goods and cartons of fizzy drinks. There are a few technical difficulties during tonight's show, but it doesn't seem to damper anyone's spirit. There is a condom (or kapot) demonstration during the show that features Polyana rolling a condom on to a prosthetic penis. She tells them to wait until the penis points skyward to put it on. It draws whoops from the crowd, but also attention.
Lightning threatens, but the dancers are on stage. The singer's voice is earthy and loud. It beckons, sings for the spirits to come and join the party. This party that feeds souls. Everyone left replenished.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Due to some technical and rainy difficulties, we were unable to update this blog on Thursday night. Let's just say the Food for Souls show was amazing, a feast of learning and celebration for the people of Leogane. They embraced the Lomax recordings and videos, dancing and singing along with them. It was an incredible, validating and moving experience. Please stay tuned, we will update this blog later this evening.
Update: Thursday night's screening was everything we had hoped for and much, much more. There are about 50 people scattered throughout this cow pasture before the show. The show opens with drummer Welele and singer/guitarist Michou, part of the Sinema Anba Zetwal family. Their songs are sweet and powerful all at once. They are followed by the emcees, Polyana, Maritza and the boys. It's immediately clear that Polyana is an emcee of a different kind -- she elicits responses from this unsure crowd, getting them to scream back at her, to learn her teachings.
Just then, the entire crowd looks behind them. Off in the distance there is a low groan, a thunderous rhythm. It's the local Rara band, Bann Rara Model. They enter through the main entrance, complete with tuba. It's the tuba sounds that got everyone's attention. Many of the crowd members run to the band, and accompany them all the way down the field to the stage. There are three trumpets, three trombones, and countless drummers. Once on stage, their songs are punctuated by shouts of LOMAX! LOMAX! Once the band finishes, Polyana introduces the Lomax films portion of the event. The crowd changes just then, from a modd of fun and frivolity to earnest interest. We are, after all, in Leogane, site of many of Lomax's famed vodou recordings and films.
It was incredible to see the reaction of the crowd. The rapture which overtook them when they saw their history on screen. On a giant screen, on this giant pasture. Not one person looked away; the respect was almost palpable. It was a crossroads moment -- modern technology meets vodou heritage. And everything felt right.
Heavy rains flooded our campsite after Thursday night's show. Wet clothing, rainy tents and slight panic overcame us. Claudie, the best driver we know, chauffeured us back to Port au Prince after hours, in the rain. We were glad to be out of the Leogane rains, but sad that our camping excursion didn't pan out.
