Haiti On Our Mind: Strong in Struggle & Survival

Saturday, February 20th, 2010, 7:00 p.m. Join us for a fundraising night with live music, discussion, and Haitian food in solidarity with our Haitian sisters and brothers in their struggle and survival.

Guest Speaker: Dumas, a local Haitian artist and organizer, who has just returned from Haiti, will share his firsthand experiences and his thoughts on Haiti's struggle with economic imperialism.

Featuring: Op from the Foundation Movement, Sergio Reyes, Brian O'Connell & other local artists.

Suggested Entry Donation: $5 to $15 + donations for food and beverages.
Money will go to Haitian grassroots organization: Batay Ouvriye.

Frederick Douglas: "[A]fter Haiti had shaken off the fetters of bondage, and long after her freedom and independence had been recognized by all other civilized nations, we continued to refuse to acknowledge the fact and treated her as outside the sisterhood of nations. ...While slavery existed amongst us, her example was a sharp thorn in our side and a source of alarm and terror. She came into the sisterhood of nations through blood. She was described at the time of her advent, as a very hell of horrors. Her very name was pronounced with a shudder. She was a startling and frightful surprise and a threat to all slave-holders throughout the world, and the slave-holding world has had its questioning eye upon her career ever since."
-- Speech in Chicago, 1893

Eduardo Galeano: "In l803, the black citizens of Haiti gave Napoleon Bonaparte's troops a tremendous beating, and Europe has never forgiven them for this humiliation inflicted upon the white race. Haiti was the first free country in South America or the Caribbean. The free people raised their flag over a country in ruins. The land of Haiti had been devastated by the sugar monoculture and then laid waste by the war against France. One third of the population had fallen in combat. Then Europe began its blockade. The newborn nation was condemned to solitude. No one would buy from it, no one would sell to it, nor would any nation recognize it. ... The history of the abuse of Haiti, which in our lifetime has become a tragedy, is also the story of Western civilization's racism."
-- WorldPress Review, 1996