Photo Credit: Tequila Minsky

On July 27^th, HCX and its members and friends met at Colors Restaurant in Manhattan for our monthly An n’ Pale | Café Conversations. The room buzzed as we ordered off the interesting happy hour menu and awaited the start of the evening. In the corner booth, sitting inconspicuously next to a pile of books for sale was our featured guest. Hervé Lemoine is a very interesting character. His pepper grey hair and long, quiet smile give him an air of thoughtfulness, but his ideas expose a person and a people torn by the conflicting and lost stories of Haiti. Lemoine’s book, Face à Face autour de l’Identite Haïtienne (2009), created a startling and controversial image of the modern Haitian.

“You are Haitian if Haiti is in you.” Lemoine pointed to the ability and the necessity for Haitian culture to be taught. The resulting value of these lessons and appreciation of the culture becomes “Haitian-ness.” In this way, Haiti isn’t necessarily a birthright or a title to bestowed, it becomes a mentality.

But the internal conflicts of this mentality as a result of French colonial rule and the remnants of a plantation system that was later perpetuated by Haitian culture has created the walking contradiction that Hervé eventually realizes himself as.

Commentary on his medium language of choice was particularly interesting. When asked why, if the book was written for Haitians and to Haitians, was it written in French, a language that alienates the entirety of Haiti’s large illiterate population and distances others who speak little or no French. Lemoine viewed this as a battle of propriety. Admitting that the intellectual community in Haiti feels uncomfortable writing and even reading Kreyol, it didn’t seem to make sense to express his ideas in a language that didn’t offer him real access to his target audience.

From what I have read so far, Hervé’s writing is interesting and political as it delves into the depths of identity search. There is a tone of anger and urgency in Lemoine’s writing and occasionally voice. But one that seems to seek out the chaff in hopes of burning it away and leaving the kernel of truth so that it might grow into something substantive, powerful, and decidedly Haitian at heart.

Check out a photo archive of the event here. Photos courtesy of the fantastic Tequila Minsky.