Jean Appolon leads dance class in Cambridge.Jean Josue Appolon grew up in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, where he began to dance at the age of 13. He began his training under the instruction of the iconic choreographer Viviane Gauthier. He performed with her dance company and the Folkloric Ballet of Haiti. At first he would lie to his family about where he was going because dance was generally frowned upon. “I used to say I was going to play volleyball,” said Appolon. “They even had my uncle follow me one time, to dance class. My family was against dance for many reasons, but mostly because they didn’t think you could make a real living. It’s not a real profession.” Read more

Sonia Pierre, photographed in 2007 by Ramon Espinosa (AP)SANTO DOMINGO _ Sonia Pierre, a human rights activist who bravely fought discrimination against poor Dominicans of Haitian descent since she was a child, died Sunday, according to colleagues. She was 48. The renowned activist died outside of the municipality of Villa Altagracia while being rushed to a hospital after suffering a heart attack around noon Sunday, said Genaro Rincon, a lawyer who works with Pierre's Dominican-Haitian Women's Movement. Read more

On Saturday evening, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston welcomed "a contemporary vision" of Haiti as Aksyon, a New York-based diaspora group, hosted a benefit gala featuring a performance by Haitian-American musician Wyclef Jean. Roughly 500 attendees enjoyed a showcase of cuisine from celebrity chef Todd English and fashions by prominent Haitian designers Prajje, Jeff Lahens and Dayanne Danier. Proceeds from the event benefit Aksyon’s initiatives in tourism, permanent housing and educational programs. The group's goal is to promote economic development with a focus on art, design, and fashion. “We wanted to ensure that we organized an event that showed a different side of Haitian culture," said Reggie Canal, gala chair and board member. “Aksyon is here to promote Haiti as a positive brand.” Read more

On November 20, Boston will host the first annual Haiti Movie Awards. This celebration is organized by the Motion Picture Association of Haiti (MPAH), which is run by movie enthusiast, Hans Patrick Domercant. Boston-based MPAH works to help further develop and bring structure to the burgeoning Haitian movie industry. More recently, the movie industry has been slow to recover after the Jan. 2010 earthquake. According to MPAH, very few movies have been produced in the last two years and morale has been generally low. Domercant hopes to change that with this year’s Haiti Movie Awards. Read more

This week, the Massachusetts Black and Latino Legislative Caucus sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security urging Secretary Janet Napolitano to create a Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program. The lawmakers join Governor Deval Patrick and most of the Mass. congressional delegation in this call for humanitarian parole for Haitians who have already been approved to come to the US. “As representatives of the state containing the third largest population of Haitians and Haitian Americans, we are deeply concerned about the precarious status of many Haitian children, elders and families as they wait in Haiti to be reunited with their families in the United States,” the caucus wrote. Read more

Members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation are urging the Obama administration to expedite humanitarian parole for approved Haitian petitioners. In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, Senators John Kerry and Scott Brown, along with Representatives Edward Markey, Barney Frank, John Olver, Jim McGovern, Stephen Lynch and Michael Capuano, ask that the DHS grant entry into the U.S. for beneficiaries of already approved family-based immigration petitions. The individuals in question have already been approved, but remain in Haiti because Legal Permanent Residents, who have the right to petition for spouses and children, face a delay of as long as five years before families can be reunited. There are 105,000 Haitian beneficiaries – of which 16,000 are children and spouses – who are ready to come to the United States. Read more

On Thursday, October 20, social service advocates host a meeting to address continuing needs and challenges faced in the community after the Jan. 12, 2010 earthquake. Local officials will tackle a host of issues such as immigration, housing, education and job training for the displaced. This community meeting will take place at the Boston Baptist Missionary Church, 336 Dudley Street in Roxbury, from 6-8 pm. Featured speakers include Anny Jean-Jacques Domercant from the Governor's Office of Community Affairs, Vivie Hengst from the Office of Immigrants and Refugees, Robert Pulster from the Department of Housing and Community Development, and Dennis Riordan from the Boston branch of US Citizenship and Immigration Services. For more information, contact Keke Fleurissaint at 617-296-6000 or Jean Vatelia at 617-866-3633. Read more

BHR October 2011: Click to download full PDF of this month's edition.Haitians are sometimes baffled when I tell them that I do not speak Creole (Kreyòl); rather, that I speak Haitian, the language of a politically and culturally established independent nation. Once I explain my position, they either agree with my reasoning or they completely reject it, and revert to their default beliefs. For many Haitians, the ‘Creole’ notion is a significant problem, and it is old. The entire Caribbean region became a constructed space once the Spanish colonizers who decimated the original inhabitants brought in West African slaves. Shaped by European economic needs, the region became an initiate of the first systematic process of globalization, linking the “New World” to new markets – a system entrenched to the point that a restructuring the physical landscape of the region was rendered. Differentiated social class structures were established as the aristocratic Spaniards (who wanted to distinguish themselves from the various grades of descendants born in the colonies) referred to colony-born Spanish descendants as “Criollos”. From the outset, the term “Criollo” became a social marker for otherness, describing un-pure Spaniards. As other European countries joined the colonial quest, they too applied the Spanish term to their own descendants. “Criollo” became “Criole” for the French during their conquests of the Americas in the early 1600’s. Read more

Haiti's new president said Friday that U.N. peacekeepers have committed ``unacceptable errors'' in his country but they should remain to help with the stalled post-earthquake reconstruction. President Michael Martelly's first speech to the U.N. General Assembly bridged the anti-U.N. sentiment he campaigned on in an election held months after the January 2010 earthquake with his more conciliatory approach to the foreign troops since taking office. ``I am aware of the fact that unacceptable errors were committed that marred the prestige of the mission, but the trees must not hide the forest,'' Martelly said. Read more