BHR 2-12The February 2012 edition of the Boston Haitian Reporter is now available in print and online.

In this month's edition, the Boston Haitian Reporter is pleased to introduce our readers to a new section of the newspaper that will feature the work of Haitian cartoonists and journalists. Their work has been brought to our attention through a groundbreaking project led by an international organization called the Cartoon Movement.

We encourage our readers to learn more about the background of Cartoon Movement and their Haiti project by going to their website. You can also view more work from very talented Haitian artists, cartoonists and journalists who have teamed with Cartoon Movement in recent months. There is also a video that documents the month that the Cartoon Movement’s editorial team spent in Haiti last July.

On January 12, 2012, the second anniversary of the earthquake, Cartoon Movement published the first chapter of the 75-page comics journalism project focused on life in Haiti— the first section of which is printed here in the Reporter.

Written by Port-au-Prince reporter Pharés Jerome, and illustrated by Chevelin Pierre, Tents Beyond Tents takes us down to the Champ de Mars in front of the crumbled presidential palace to the squalid conditions in tent camps on the outskirts of town. Jerome tells us of the forced evictions by state authorities and the modest progress that is finally allowing some families to relocate.

Cartoon Movement will be publishing installments throughout 2012 written by various Haitian journalists, focusing on such issues as Haitian politics, the role of NGOs, and what exactly happened with all the relief money that came flooding in after the earthquake.

The entire series will be drawn by perhaps the most talented comic artist working in Haiti today, Chevelin Pierre.
“This is an opportunity to express my frustrations, and those of my countrymen, with the recovery after January 12 through my drawings,” says Pierre. “And comics journalism lends itself perfectly to the subject.”

The Boston Haitian Reporter will publish more panels over the coming months.

“We are very excited to team with Cartoon Movement to bring our readers a new Haitian perspective on life in the post Jan.12 world,” said Managing Editor Bill Forry. “This is exceptionally good work, done by Haitians living and working in Haiti. We are pleased to bring them to an American audience for the first time in a U.S. publication.”

“There is a grand tradition of cartooning in Haiti and largely goes unseen here in the United States. We look forward to bringing our readers more of this exciting work in the coming months and years. And we encourage our readers to visiti CartoonMovement.com to see many more examples of innovative cartoon journalism.”