Nathalie Joachim: Travel Diary to Haiti, Part III / August 23, 2017 by Liquid Music

Nathalie Joachim describes her family home and gives a first-hand account of a bus ride in Haiti in the third installment of her Fanm d'Ayiti travelogue.

Today was a travel day, which after several days of excitement, I was happy for. It gave me some great time to reflect on all of the wonderful conversation I’d had while in Port-au-Prince, and allowed me to appreciate just how much more connected I felt to this project. The music has never been the real struggle of developing this work, but how to work in the storytelling aspect has been a challenge for me. I wasn’t sure what I would get out of these interviews I’ve had over the past few days, or if they would even happen. Now that they have, I’ve decided to allow the stories to be told by those who they belong to. Fanm d’Ayiti will be an evening length experience, so my plan now is to interweave the musical tales with the audio I’ve been collecting on this trip. I’m hoping that it will allow me to share my process in creating this work, and the stories of these phenomenal women as intimately as I’ve experienced them. I’m so excited to get to editing!

Anyway, funny story about my travel from Port-au-Prince to my next destination: my family’s small town of Dantan, Haiti. This drive is usually a part of all of my trips to Haiti – about 4 hours beautiful riding through the mountains and often on the coast. My dad and/or cousin will pick me up from the airport, and the ride will be filled with great conversation, lots of laughter short naps, and music – always music, with a touch of talk radio. You know... balance! This time, because of my Port-au-Prince adventures, Yolaine (stepmom/Fanm d’Ayiti assistant extraordinaire) and I took a bus. A BUS. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love a good bus. I’m a city girl! I take buses all the time, and I not ashamed to say that I have rocked a Greyhound ride or two in my day. But a bus in Haiti?!!! To actually call it a bus is to submit to a very loose understanding of the word. When I saw my luggage ascend to the top of this vehicle to be tied down with some rope, I think I actually swallowed a squeal and internally thanked every item in my suitcase for its service, Marie Kondo style. No part of this experience brought me joy. There weren’t any live animals on the bus... but it was so bad, that the ride would not have been worse if there actually were live animals onboard. I texted my siblings a minute to minute update of the entire experience for good humor, and also so there would be a record of all of my final thoughts in the event of my passing to be read at my funeral.

I planned to work on this blog entry during my ride, but mostly I held on for dear life and hoped for the best. That will likely be my first and last bus ride in Haiti, but I’m thinking about getting a t-shirt that says “I survived the wild Haitian bus ride 2017,” LOL!

Arriving in Dantan always feels amazing. The drive to my dad’s from the city of Les Cayes is just gorgeous, and every moment of it – the rice fields, the farmers, the cows and goats on the side of the road, the blue skies and sunshine, the friendly waves and curious stares – it all feels like home. This trip was slightly more somber because much of the vegetation was torn up by Hurricane Matthew. In fact, when we turned into our driveway, I almost didn’t recognize the place! But the love of generations of my family was there to greet me as always.

Our family home is still a functioning farm, and I was happy to see that as the farming community are piecing their lives back together, there is plenty of new life to be celebrated. The trees are baring their first fruits since the storm, and signs of a productive spring were fully evident in the farm animals. All in all, there were 3 kittens, 5 puppies, 8 baby chicks, a whole load of ducklings and piglets too!

After greeting these new additions, and sharing many warm hugs and kisses with family, I ate a great plate of home cooked Haitian food grown on the very land I sat on, and relaxed with my dad. It certainly does feel good to be home.

See the World Premiere of Fanm d'Ayiti
Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 7:30pm (purchase tickets)
Amsterdam Bar and Hall, Saint Paul

Fanm d’Ayiti Related Event:
On Being with Nathalie Joachim and Krista Tippett
Monday, January 15, 2018 (reserve tickets)
Doors at 7:00pm | Conversation at 7:30pm
On Being Studios, Minneapolis

Keep up with Fanm d'Ayiti on the Liquid Music Blog:
Travel to Haiti Part II
Travel to Haiti Part l
Liquid Music Connects: Students Visit Virtually with Nathalie Joachim, Part II
Liquid Music Connects: Students Visit Virtually with Nathalie Joachim
Introducing Nathalie Joachim

Follow Nathalie Joachim:
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Facebook: facebook.com/nathalie.joachim.39
Twitter: @flutronix (twitter.com/flutronix)
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Nathalie Joachim: Travel Diary to Haiti, Part II / August 16, 2017 by Liquid Music

Join Liquid Music Artist in Virtual Residence Nathalie Joachim on a virtual tour of Haiti as she collects research for her upcoming world premiere, Fanm d'Ayiti. Nathalie's account of Day 2 of her travels is included below (Read Day 1 here).

Today was a day I'll remember for the rest of my life, without question.

Things started first thing this morning, when we drove to Milena Sandler and Joel Widmaier's home in Port-au-Prince. Quick recap: Milena is daughter of Toto Bissainthe, who is basically my muse for this project, and for sure someone whose artistry and history is SUCH an inspiration for me in this project and in life ❤️. Milena and Joel run Radio Metropole, one of Haiti's national radio stations, as well as the International Jazz Festival. To be casually invited to their home is like Rashida Jones meeting you blindly and being like "hey – wanna come over? I can tell you stories about when I was little and my dad, Quincy, and I used to hang out with young Michael Jackson!" I mean... I definitely changed my outfit 3 times before leaving the house.

Anyway, we show up and Milena was super warm and welcoming. Immediately, she gives me a copy of this 2 disc compilation of her mom's greatest works, and also a book that she and Joel helped produced entitled "Grandes Dames de la Musique Haïtienne" (Grand Ladies of Haitian Music) aka... a book I wish I'd gotten about a year and a half ago...!!! She ushers us into her living room - it's flooded with natural light, and the treasures of a lifetime of world travel. For the next half hour, she tells me stories of her mother's life: her beginnings as an actress and founder of Les Griots – France's first African American Theater company; her tumultuous and sometimes dangerous relationship with Haiti; her deep love for music; and her deep commitment to activism (though she did not consider herself an activist or political in any way. Milena said "she simply believed in justice"). To hear her speak of her mother, was enthralling. And like her mother, her big doe eyes gave away every emotion: excitement, wonder, respect, and an underlying sadness for someone she loved deeply and feels was never during her lifetime appreciated as much as she should've been by a country she loved with her whole heart. The woman I've been reading endlessly about and listening to feverishly throughout this virtual residency came to life through Milena's words. We wrapped our conversation with an interesting chat about Milena's work to fight for copyright law in Haiti (which essentially doesn't exist...!!!), her work with the jazz fest, and some ways I might be able to get more involved in the country's music community... yahoo!

From there, we went back to the National Theater, where I was hoping to go through archives, only to discover there were none, but to be offered a meeting with the Executive Director instead – who, as it turns out, is serving his second term as director, which is unprecedented in the Theater's history. So, I thought "I bet this guy has seen a whole lot, and probably has so much to offer me in terms of my research for this project!" Boy was I wrong. To be frank: it was what felt like 3 hours (but was maybe actually 30 min) of mansplaining, boasting and doing literally anything to avoid discussing the importance of women in Haitian music history.* I guess I should've expected this from a government appointed official who is just trying to do his job, but...it was a real low point after so many highs on this trip. Basically he talked about how great he was, and I sat there looking at him like this:

*(Side note: the Director was a nice guy, who was very generous with his time, and is very resourceful... just not for this project.)

Best thing to happen during this visit? We had been trying to reach Émerante de Pradines all morning (remember her? 99 year old living legend? See hopeful rant from Day 1), when the phone miraculously rang as the director was mid-sentence talking about something relatively uninteresting. It was Émerante's assistant saying that she was no longer at Hotel Olaffson, but was instead at a community music school that she runs in Pernier (a neighborhood outside of PAP's city center). She had no plans to return to the city (drat!), but was happy to meet me if I was willing to make the trek to see her (yahoo!). So after a swift goodbye and odd obligatory photo with the National Theater Director, Team Fanm d'Ayiti was off!

Major Kudos to driver James and fancy family friend Exume for managing to navigate to what turned out to be a pretty remote area. I'm not going to lie: I was pretty nervous that we'd gotten ourselves lured into a hairy situation, but that might only be because I watch too many action movies and have an active imagination...

Anyway, after a little bit of shady alley road waiting in the car, a random pick up of Émerante's assistant outside of an unmarked "church", and a short drive down a fairly treacherous and deserted road, we showed up at a quaint building that maybe used to be a church itself at one time. Her assistant leads us through a courtyard, and down a small corridor walks a gentle faced elderly woman whose smile reminds me fondly of my own grandmother. We introduce ourselves, and explain who we are and why we're there. She smiles at me and says that anything she can do to help me will be a great pleasure for her. It was a warm and honest greeting, which set the tone for our entire discussion.

I spent an hour with Émerante, and I wish I could've stolen several more, but I didn't want to overstay my welcome. A self-described beloved trouble-maker, Émerante's spirit shone through with every word. Born September 24, 1918 (!!!), her memory of beguiling ambassadors with her voice at the age of 17 with Haitian folkloric (aka vodou) songs (rather risky behavior at the time), which led to her America for what ended up being 65 years, was quite vivid. Upon arriving in the States, she was determined to go to Juilliard (eek!), but ended up studying with Martha Graham instead (double eek!!). You KNOW I would've passed out if we shared an alma mater! She considered herself a theater actress first, a dancer second, and a musician only because it ran through her blood (her father was a famous singer as well). She had a deep love for Haiti, and a desire to help those less fortunate whenever possible (hence moving back and starting this small music school, in an area so remote it surely isn't served by anyone else in her home country).

There were odd coincidences between Émerante and Toto: they both left Haiti for abroad and eventually felt called to return; though their songs empowered and continue to empower Haitian people, they hardly viewed themselves as singers; and certainly not as activists.

She told me story after story – almost too many for me to keep up with (very thankful for that Zoom recorder again!). My favorite story Émerante told was about meeting her husband. Many people had encouraged her to get a "real job", and "let go of all of this theater talk" as she put it (we've all heard it, am I right?!?! Shout out to all my artist friends doing the most with the least!). When she met her husband, a well known Latin American scholar and renowned university professor (for the likes of Yale, Stanford and Columbia among others), and told him what she did for a living, he said "wow... that's a lot! You need someone to help you!" And for Émerante, that was the first time that anyone had encouraged her to commit to this career path. And so she did. (Shout out to every artist's someone who told them they sure could and should!) And to see the look of love in her eyes when she said "and he did... he did help me," is surely one of the sweeter things I've ever experienced.

I asked Émerante if she could give one piece of advice to female artists today, what would it be? I also asked Milena what she thought her mom's one piece of advice would be. They both said two things (...which is two pieces of advice, but whatevs - better for us!):

Don't try to be cute for anyone to get ahead with your work. Be honest, and be yourself, and if people can't accept that, too bad for them. Someone, somewhere will accept you for who you are, and it's probably the people who will end up mattering most.
Never stop doing what you love. Keep your eye on the prize and keep moving forward. Don't give up!

I gave Émerante a long hug after she said that. It's something I of course know, and believe in, and promote, but often times it helps to hear it. Especially from someone who's lived it for nearly a century.

My whole heart is full after this day and this encounter with a true national treasure and one of the great voices of Haiti's golden age. I imagine I will be smiling about it for a very long time to come.

See the World Premiere of Fanm d'Ayiti
Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 7:30pm (purchase tickets)
Amsterdam Bar and Hall, Saint Paul

Fanm d’Ayiti Related Event:
On Being with Nathalie Joachim and Krista Tippett
Monday, January 15, 2018 (reserve tickets)
Doors at 7:00pm | Conversation at 7:30pm
On Being Studios, Minneapolis

Keep up with Fanm d'Ayiti on the Liquid Music Blog:
Travel to Haiti Part l
Liquid Music Connects: Students Visit Virtually with Nathalie Joachim, Part II
Liquid Music Connects: Students Visit Virtually with Nathalie Joachim
Introducing Nathalie Joachim

Nathalie Joachim: Travel Diary to Haiti, Part I / August 8, 2017 by Liquid Music

Liquid Music Artist in Virtual Residence, Nathalie Joachim is in Haiti conducting interviews with pillars of the Haitian musical community and collecting field recordings as inspiration for her new work, Fanm d'Ayiti. Nathalie created a travel diary, shown below, for Liquid Music audiences to join her on this incredible journey.

Today was an absolutely incredible day full of pretty wonderful serendipity. This trip to Haiti has been a bit hard to plan because of a combination of island time and logistics. Nonetheless, I arrived today with a hopeful itinerary in hand. Little did I know that it would all pan out to be an amazingly eventful day, resulting in an exciting tomorrow!

After an early morning flight from NYC (ouch 6am... I need to stop doing that), I landed in Port-au-Prince (PAP), and was greeted at the airport first by a live band and then by my dad, stepmom Yolaine, aunt and step-uncle. It's really awesome to have them all here helping on my quest for music and history in Haiti.

Live band at PAP airport

The plan was to meet my dad’s good friend Jean Joseph Exume (a big time lawyer here in Port-au-Prince), who would hook us up with not only a driver, but the inside scoop on the top 3 things I want to accomplish in PAP:

The plan was to meet my dad’s good friend Jean Joseph Exume (a big time lawyer here in Port-au-Prince), who would hook us up with not only a driver, but the inside scoop on the top 3 things I want to accomplish in PAP:
A visit, interview and archive crawl at Radio Metropole (a major national radio station) run by a guy named Joel Widmaier, whose wife, Milena Sandler is daughter of Toto Bissainthe — you might remember Toto—now deceased—from my earlier blog post aka my muse for this entire project).
A visit and tour (and maybe also an archive crawl) of the National Theater, formerly home of the Theatre de Verdure, which was the home of some of the most iconic performances of my featured female artists, going all the way back to "La Reine Chanterelle" aka Lumane Casimir aka one of the very first famous female singers (more on her later, but see my first blog post for a taste).
A visit to Hotel Olaffson, owned by Richard Morse — founding member of ultra famous Haitian band RAM (like... the Rolling Stones of Haiti) and son of Émerante de Pradines, aka the only famous singer left from Lumane’s time, clocking in 99 years old!

All of this comes at the recommendation of Carole Demesmin (also a featured artist on my list, who I had the most awesome phone call with about a month ago, and who I plan to meet in person in September — all fingers and toes crossed). It's a long and somewhat far fetched list because Carole did a lot of recommending but not a lot of introductions, however… a girl can dream. Especially a slightly crazy, super ambitious New Yorker!

After a quick drive, we land at Exume’s house, and my stepmom (official Fanm d’Ayiti assistant), Exume and our driver James head immediately to Radio Metropole. We get there, tell our story and ask for Joel and Milena. There's a lot of back and forth and some name dropping when the woman at the front desk breaks and gives us Milena’s number. We call, tell our story, drop some more names and… she agrees to meet us at 5pm! WOOT! One mission down… sort of... and two to go. So, we head off to the National Theater.

Drive to Radio Metropole

We arrive there, and it's actually scary at first. The neighborhood is pretty rough and the streets are lined with trash but Carole had described the old amphitheater and the beauty of Theatre de Verdure as once having been surrounded by green rolling hills and the ocean in the distance. I see remnants of it beneath the grit. We walk in, do our name dropping bit and end up getting a personally guided tour of the space from the Artistic Director, Felix Amcito. Felix is a soft-spoken guy who's a bit suspicious of me and my zoom recorder but he is also kind and generous. He says there isn't much going on at the theater today but the first thing we run into is an epic Haitian folkloric dance rehearsal with live drummers (and later a flutist!!!). I record fervently and get left behind as Felix moves onto the next space, which is a rehearsal room where a singing duo is rehearsing a song together and others are gathered around a chalkboard full of music. At this point, I'm glad I've decided to just leave my zoom running as we tour the space because each turn brings new auditory wonders! We see a costume shop, run into a sculpting class taking place outside in the shade (run by two dudes in cute as ever dashikis who ask me about a world famous flutist I've never heard of — must Google), and meet Jean Miché Bellevue: a composer and trumpet player who was meeting with a young violinist and played a midi file of some of his music for me.

Folkloric Dance Rehearsal at Theatre de Verdure

Later, Felix shows us remnants of what was once a sweeping tarp that shielded the entire amphitheater from the sun (destroyed in the 2010 earthquake). He tells us a glorious story about how when Lumane Casimir performed here it was one of the most iconic performances to date — for which she was not paid. In fact she was never paid in her career, but she loved to sing and people loved her, so she continued singing. She actually died living in extreme poverty (we'll unpack that later). He tells us about how the government sought to unify the arts in Haiti, and so changed the name to the National Theater and took control in the 80s... effectively destroying this gorgeous place mostly unintentionally. At this point, I wander into the theater on my own to stand on the very stage these Haitian songstresses performed on. The stage creaks and feels like it will cave in at any moment. I climb to the very top of the amphitheater steps and look out to take in what I know was once an incredible view, now surrounded by slums...it was heavy. But at the same time, I was glad to see so much of the arts still happening in that space. And still being enjoyed by people who simply love what they do.

So Felix wraps up the tour, and I ask daringly about the archives. Do you know what this amazing human turns to me and says? “The best archive we have is our Executive Director, who recently returned for a second term. We can set up a meeting for you. Does tomorrow at 11:30 work?” After picking my jaw up from the floor, I say yes and thank you too many times, and Exume kindly escorts me out to the car so I don't stand there blubbering like an idiot, LOL.

That visit was a WIN. My first real win of the trip, with so much inspiration and so many stories recorded and safely stored to creatively unpack when I get back to NYC because my mind is currently exploding.

But truth be told: my heart sunk when we drove out of the Dream gates into the nightmare streets covered in trash. There was literally a river of it. How did this happen to such a beautiful place?

Our next stop is Hotel Olaffson, where Carole tells me I'm sure to find Émerante, who she assures me is still alive at a reported 99 years old. I tell Yolaine and Exume all of this and they are pretty skeptical... as am I.

We pull up and find yet another folkloric dance camp with live drummers. I record again, knowing that these rhythms and this movement will undoubtedly become part of my piece. When I'm able to pull myself away from the dance area, I turn to find what looks like a huge New Orléans style plantation home. The lawn is peppered with recycled object sculptures and weird vodou deities. It's got a whole lot of quirky character. While Exume is off sweet talking the ladies at the front desk, I can't stop taking pics of the artwork, of the architecture, of the tiling. It’s just... gorgeous. Exume seemingly strikes out with the front desk workers, so we decide to sit out on the veranda and have a glass of fresh passion fruit juice (my favorite!). Sitting there, it feels like we've been transported through time. It's sort of surreal.

Sculpture and voodoo deity garden at Hotel Olaffson

Enjoying passion fruit juice on the porch of Hotel Olaffson

We finish our juices and begin to leave when Exume spots Richard Morse, who it turns out he knows! Richard introduces himself to me, and makes a few quirky jokes. I tell him about the project and he says “you've GOT to talk to my mom. she'll love you!” And tells us to call her assistant and have them make an appointment for us (ps: an assistant at 99?!?!!! Life goals!). So tomorrow morning first thing, we’ll call. The way this day’s going, I believe it will work.

At this point it's 4pm — we've been going strong all day, but we've got to get back to Radio Metropole. I gotta be honest: I figure there's no way Joel and Milena will show up, but they do! They invite us into the studio. They are both kind, but formal. Warm, but reserved. So I tell them about Fanm d’Ayiti and they tell me 4 things:

They wrote a book about Haitian female artists and they want me to have it.
They did an installation with all of these archival photos and interviews with Haitian musicians (male and female) and they want me to experience it.
They would love to give me any archival recordings I need access to.
They would love to invite me to their home in the morning so I can interview Milena about her mom’s life. Remember her mom? Aka Toto Bissainthe? Aka my muse? Aka a legend? Freaking. Out.

So that's that. Not a bad day at all, which admittedly ended with the most AMAZING plate of traditional Haitian food. I don't know how it could be possible to top it today... but tomorrow just might do it... stay tuned!!

See the World Premiere of Fanm d'Ayiti
Wednesday, March 14, 2018, 7:30pm (purchase tickets)
Amsterdam Bar and Hall, Saint Paul

Fanm d’Ayiti Related Event:
On Being with Nathalie Joachim and Krista Tippett
Monday, January 15, 2018 (reserve tickets)
Doors at 7:00pm | Conversation at 7:30pm
On Being Studios, Minneapolis

Keep up with Fanm d'Ayiti on the Liquid Music Blog:
Liquid Music Connects: Students Visit Virtually with Nathalie Joachim, Part II
Liquid Music Connects: Students Visit Virtually with Nathalie Joachim
Introducing Nathalie Joachim

Liquid Music

Nathalie Joachim: Travel Diary to Haiti, Part III / August 23, 2017 by Liquid Music

Nathalie Joachim: Travel Diary to Haiti, Part II / August 16, 2017 by Liquid Music

Nathalie Joachim: Travel Diary to Haiti, Part I / August 8, 2017 by Liquid Music

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