Bazaar Kreyòl | Memorial Day Weekend Market
2026-05-23 - 2026-05-25 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
Join HCX for a special Memorial Day edition of Bazaar Kreyòl! Shop from a curated array of local Haitian vendors or take home unique artisanal goods from the HCX Boutik. Savor Brooklyn’s historic first step into the sunshine season with a cool drink, a tasty bite, and afternoon DJ sessions with Okai Musik right here on Lafayette Ave.
Haiti Cultural Exchange
35 Lafayette Ave Brooklyn, NY 11217
Saturday, May 23 | 12-10pm
Sunday, May 24 | 12-8pm
Monday, May, 25 | 12-8pm
RSVP to let us know you’re coming!

Mizik Ayiti! Residency Late Spring Series | Rasin Okan
2026-05-28 - 2026-06-25 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
Join us on Thursdays for the Mizik Ayiti! Residency Series. The Spring residency will be held by Rasin Okan!
This residency honors the legacy of mizik rasin in Haiti and abroad and its role in collective storytelling. Rasin Okan will share popular folk songs from legends such as Lenord Fortune (a.k.a. Azor) and Jacques Fortere (a.k.a. Wawa), as well as original songs that echo the courage of Haiti’s freedom fighters while calling us to remember, reconnect, and rise. This residency is a sacred pilgrimage home—a journey for healing, reflection, and protection. We invite you to take this symbolic trip with us through rhythm, drum, dance, and song. Let the music move your spirit. Let the memory ignite your soul.
—
About Rasin Okan: Born of Haiti’s mizik rasin movement, Rasin Okan is a Brooklyn-based Haitian roots ensemble. In the spirit of rasin sèch (directly translated to dry roots), Rasin Okan emphasizes the sounds and songs of traditional Haitian Vodou ceremonial music without much electric accompaniment. Led and co-founded by Jean E. Montina, Sanba Mayombe, the group writes original songs and evocative folk music to insight the revolutionary spirit of Haiti’s freedom fighters, set to a pulsating rhythm.
Members: Jean E Montina (Sanba Mayombe), Trudy Pierre (Sanba Verite), Wilgainson Toussaint (Sanba Nènèl), Gregory Fanor (Atis Alèz), Véronëque Ignace (Awoyo)
—
Dates & Tickets
Get your tickets today and don’t miss out on these incredible performances!
Performance will take place weekly on Thursdays this Spring:
May 28 and June 4, 11, 18 and 25
6-9pm (45 min sets at 6:30 & 7:45)
Get your tickets to one, or all these performances, here »
Tickets include a complimentary beverage.
Special pop-up offerings from Bon Pâtés.
Limited capacity, RSVP strongly recommended.
—
HCX | Mizik Ayiti! Residency
HCX positions this invitational residency as an opportunity to innovate and workshop concepts and works-in-progress, showcase new work, and build networks for artists’ future presentation (e.g. booking, touring) at other cultural institutions and stages.
Rarely do artists receive a consistent opportunity to create and share in “real time”–to develop their ideas in a beta form, experiment, and refine amidst presenting publicly. Over the course of 6 weeks, resident artists receive a platform to fine tune approaches, activate jam sessions, and explore sonic possibilities while developing relationships with their audiences.
On Thursday evenings, artist-composers host unique sets joined by a rotation of guest artists and ensembles. Performances offer the opportunity to showcase new work and workshop arrangements across the musical landscape, from traditional genres reverberating the strength of the tanbou to the contemporary sound like fusion jazz and electronic music carrying Haitian vibration into the future.

Vizyon Atistik | Collage Workshop with Mel Isidor
2026-06-07 14:00 - 16:00 (America/New_York) | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
In this participatory workshop, join exhibiting artist Mel Isidor to discover the art of collage in this engaging, beginner-friendly workshop designed to spark imagination and experimentation. Using a mix of found materials, papers, images, and textures, you’ll learn how to layer and compose elements into a visually compelling piece that reflects your personal memory.
Participants will be guided through a short introduction to the history of collaging and an overview of key techniques and approaches. With guided support throughout, you’ll explore composition, color, and storytelling as you cut, arrange, and assemble your own original collage. Emphasizing creativity, play, and self-expression, this session invites you to loosen up, try new ideas, and enjoy the process of making something uniquely yours.
Register for this workshop here »
Registration includes a complementary beverage & light refreshments.
Limited capacity, RSVP required.

Sunday, June 7
2–4pm
Haiti Cultural Exchange
35 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn, NY
This event is part of the Vizyon Atistik public programming for What Paper Remembers: Marks, Memory and Labor on view until June 7, 2026.

—
About the Instructor

Mel Isidor is a Haitian-American mixed-media artist, designer, and urban planner based between Seattle, WA, and Boston, MA. Her work draws inspiration from the built environment, exploring how cities reveal the relationship between people and culture. Mel holds a Master’s in City Planning from MIT and a B.A. in Urban Studies from Brown University—a foundation that brings a philosophical and analytical lens to her practice, shaping both how she sees the world and how she translates that understanding through to her compositions. Her artistic practice combines photography and collage to create layered compositions that merge realism and abstraction—physically and metaphorically connecting different moments in time and space. Using imagery from her own photography, family archives, and public records, she builds scenes grounded in memory and heritage that reimagine familiar geographies through a speculative lens.
Mel also leads Isidor Studio, her design practice dedicated to the intersections of art, design, and urbanism. Across both her art and studio work, she transforms research and observation into visual narratives that deepen our understanding of place and the everyday materiality that shapes it. Her work has been exhibited across the United States through galleries and public installations in Boston, Seattle, and New Orleans, and she has been invited to speak on her creative practice at institutions including Adobe, Yale University, and the University of Southern California. Learn more about Isidor’s work at www. melisidor.com

—
About the Exhibition
Through drawing, printmaking, collage, and mixed media, the exhibition considers paper as a material that carries memory, labor, and cultural continuity. Paper absorbs gesture records pressure and hesitation, time, revision and return, while holding traces of the hand and the persistence of ideas. Centering practices shaped by embodied knowledge and movement across place, the exhibition affirms paper not as a provisional surface, but as one that remembers and endures.
Curated by HCX fellow Yvena Despagne and Executive Director Régine M. Roumain.

—
Learn more about the exhibition and artists here »
Join the artists & curators for other activations taking place as part of this exhibition »

Vizyon Atistik | CLOSING RECEPTION | What Paper Remembers: Marks, Memory and Labor
2026-06-07 16:00 - 19:00 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
Join HCX for the closing reception of What Paper Remembers: Marks, Memory and Labor on June 7, 2026, presented by Haiti Cultural Exchange, Vizyon Atistik.
Sunday, June 7
4–7pm
Haiti Cultural Exchange
35 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn, NY
On view from April 25 through June 7
—
About the Exhibition
Through drawing, printmaking, collage, and mixed media, the exhibition considers paper as a material that carries memory, labor, and cultural continuity. Paper absorbs gesture records pressure and hesitation, time, revision and return, while holding traces of the hand and the persistence of ideas. Centering practices shaped by embodied knowledge and movement across place, the exhibition affirms paper not as a provisional surface, but as one that remembers and endures.
Curated by HCX fellow Yvena Despagne and Executive Director Régine M. Roumain.
—
Featured Artists
Sally Yolaine Binard | Ani Brutus | Jennica Drice | Mel Isidor | Nathalie Jean-Baptiste | Rejin Leys | Julie Rouzier Mevs | Vané Russo
—
Learn more about the exhibition and artists here »
Join the artists & curators for other activations taking place as part of this exhibition »

Lakay Foutbòl | World Cup 2026 | Haiti vs. Scotland
2026-06-13 19:00 - 22:00 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
HCX is HQ to watch Haiti’s national team Les Grenadiers bring us to World Cup victory!

Hosted in collaboration with Maison Demar, this series of watch parties will feature summer evening kick-backs with cold drinks, great vibes, exclusive product releases by Haitian fashion designers and lifestyle brands.
Grenadye Alaso!

Saturday, June 13: Haiti vs. Scotland
Doors open at 7pm | Kick off at 9pm
Location: HCX, 35 Lafayette Ave Brooklyn, NY 11217

RSVP on Eventbrite & grab exclusive add-ons while availability lasts! »

Join Us for More Watch Parties
—
Friday, June 19: Haiti vs. Brazil
Hosted in collaboration with Rooftop Films & Council Member Chi Ossé
Event start TBA | Kick off at 9pm | NO RSVP NEEDED
Location: Von King Park, 670 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11216
Wednesday, June 24: Haiti vs. Morocco
Doors open at 4pm | Kick off at 6pm
Location: HCX, 35 Lafayette Ave Brooklyn, NY 11217

Lakay Foutbòl | World Cup 2026 | Haiti vs. Brazil
2026-06-19 19:00 - 22:00 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
HCX is HQ to watch Haiti’s national team Les Grenadiers bring us to World Cup victory!

Hosted in collaboration with Maison Demar, this series of watch parties will feature summer evening kick-backs with cold drinks, great vibes, exclusive product releases by Haitian fashion designers and lifestyle brands.
Grenadye Alaso!

Friday, June 19: Haiti vs. Brazil
Hosted in collaboration with Rooftop Films & Council Member Chi Ossé
Event start 12pm | Kick off at 8:30pm | NO RSVP NEEDED
Location: Von King Park, 670 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11216

Join Us for More Watch Parties
—
Saturday, June 13: Haiti vs. Scotland
Doors open at 7pm | Kick off at 9pm
Location: HCX, 35 Lafayette Ave Brooklyn, NY 11217
RSVP Required
Wednesday, June 24: Haiti vs. Morocco
Doors open at 4pm | Kick off at 6pm
Location: HCX, 35 Lafayette Ave Brooklyn, NY 11217
RSVP Required

RSVP on Eventbrite & grab exclusive add-ons while availability lasts! »

On View: 2025 Lakou NOU Culminating Expo
2026-06-21 - 2026-07-05 | kafou gallery, 1120 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11225, United States
A week-long exhibition featuring the culmination of work from the Lakou NOU 2025 Artists-In-Residence.

On View
Sunday, June 21 – Sunday, July 5, 2026
Kafou Gallery
1120 Washington Ave 2nd floor
Brooklyn, NY 11225
Gallery Hours
Thursday, June 25 6–9pm
Friday, June 26 6–9pm
Saturday, June 27 12–6pm
Sunday, June 28 12–6pm
Thursday, July 2 6–9pm
Friday, July 3 6–9pm
Sunday, July 5 12–6pm

Hosted & Curated by Haiti Cultural Exchange and Kafou Gallery
The 2025 Lakou NOU Culminating Expo highlights four expressive and collaborative projects that seek to empower, understand, and archive the Haitian experience. This cohort of artists explore core themes of care, familial connection, and the Haitian community’s relationship to their homeplaces and the natural world. Lakou NOU artists-in-residence Bo Dautruche, Georgie Exinord, Cici Osais, and Zarita Zevallos welcome us into a dynamic experience of oral history, creative storytelling, and visual art installations.
This free event and week-long exhibition presents the artists’ work in conversation with each other, highlighting their distinct approach to unpacking stories and approaches to cultural preservation in Brooklyn.
Unlike traditional artmaking, where an artistic creation amplifies a sole perspective, Lakou NOU residents generated their projects collaboratively with community members, providing creative outlets to convey inner experiences and share histories that are rarely shared or often under-presented.
Established in 2016, Haiti Cultural Exchange’s Lakou NOU artist residency program provides artists of Haitian descent with the opportunity to create and present new work by connecting their skills and talents to historically underserved Brooklyn neighborhoods, home to generations of Haitians and Haitian-Americans: Crown Heights, Canarsie, East Flatbush, and Flatbush. Lakou NOU artists develop collaborative community engagement projects that address neighborhood issues and highlight community assets. Artists in residence received individualized mentorship from HCX staff and interacted with each other as a cohort through discussion and support around topics relevant to Lakou NOU projects. HCX-facilitated additional professional development workshops and exchanges with a consortium of community stakeholders and creative placekeeping professionals.
Join us for the Expo Showcase on Sunday, June 21, 2026 from 2-6pm.
Details here »
—
This program is made possible in part by the Jerome Foundation.

—
Artists Project Descriptions
Bo Dautruche, East Flatbush
Bo’s project “anvan ou bliye//before it’s too late…” moved freely between writing, critique, strategy, research, and embodied practices to explore death and grief as it pertains to Black life. Her project sought to (re)discover our relationships to and with transitions and endings. What does death and grief look like for us under the oppressive systems we wish to liberate ourselves from? Understanding the many reasons why this could be a tender subject, Bo and a myriad of creative workshop collaborators worked together to remind people what real community may feel like – where we could take off our masks, where we could hold each other, where we could really talk to each other, where we could process things in real time with each other, and build, learn, and exchange.
This culminates in her expo work focused on witnessing, not as judgement or exploitation or extraction or burdening, but as connection and ritual that honor both our life and death. Her altar installation welcomes the community to let go of what they may need in order to feel seen, either through physical objects they bring or reflecting on what is needed to let go of in order to show up for the community.

Georgie Exinord, Flatbush
Georgie’s “Good Daughter Project” sprang from one constant: her fervent belief that your stories are already within you. During her residency, Georgie hosted a series of writing exercises, memory work, drawing prompts, and collective dialogue workshops that sought to capture memory and language earned through the mosaic of one’s lived experience.
What does it mean to be a good daughter? What unfolded through these workshops were slippages of tenderness, unexpected intimacies, and moments of recognition between women who began as strangers. Together, participants explored the emotional interiority of Haitian and Caribbean diasporic daughters, particularly the invisible labor, parentification, responsibility, and survival embedded within first-generation daughterhood.
Her archive and final exhibition work serve as an offering: an account of our lives in our own words, preserved so those who come after us may know we were here and that we felt deeply.

Cici Osais, Crown Heights
Cici’s project “Nou kominike ak twal” (We communicate through cloth) is inspired by the communal art-making practices of the Black diaspora. It is rooted in an understanding of artmaking as something we are all capable of, and that’s best as a collective experience. Cici activated this idea to foster a space for individuals to create in unison, where works became parts of a whole.
Across the Diaspora cloth is used to hold stories. Within her textile practice, Cici uses techniques from her parents’ and grandparents’ motherlands: Haiti, Congo, Nigeria, and Black America. Because most of these places are out of reach and these traditions passed down orally, Osais have spent many years learning and researching these methods. I owe my craft to the archives and people who were willing to share this knowledge with me, and see it as my duty to continue passing along all that I have learned.
Through natural dyeing workshops in local community gardens focused on conversation and connection, neighbors learned new ways of communicating creatively and were able to contribute textiles to a selection of Cici’s culminating works that will live in the gardens where they were born.

Zarita Zevallos, Canarsie
Zarita’s residency was centered on introducing participants to both new material and new ways of creating. She used the novel Masters of the Dew by Jacques Roumain as a conceptual foundation while also introducing participants to beginner-friendly cameras and film photography as an accessible creative medium.
Using the immediate environment of Canarsie, Zevallos’ workshops explored themes of Haitian identity, community labor, displacement, and the importance of reconnecting with one’s roots by drawing parallels between the experiences in Masters of the Dew and contemporary Haitian realities.
What revealed itself were deeply personal and intergenerational ties to philosophical, timeless, and keenly relevant experiences that remain in play today. Creatively building alongside the work of her workshop participants, Zevallos will capture some of the powerful spaces for remembrance, dialogue, and cultural preservation through her installation work arriving at the culminating expo.

Lakou NOU Culminating Expo Showcase
2026-06-21 14:00 - 18:00 | kafou gallery, 1120 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11225, United States
Join us for an evening of conversation and celebration surrounding the culmination of work from the Lakou NOU 2025 Artists-In-Residence.

Expo Showcase
Sunday, June 21
2-6pm
Kafou Gallery
1120 Washington Ave 2nd floor
Brooklyn, NY 11225

Hosted & Curated by Haiti Cultural Exchange and Kafou Gallery
The 2025 Lakou NOU Culminating Expo highlights four expressive and collaborative projects that seek to empower, understand, and archive the Haitian experience. This cohort of artists explore core themes of care, familial connection, and the Haitian community’s relationship to their homeplaces and the natural world. Lakou NOU artists-in-residence Bo Dautruche, Georgie Exinord, Cici Osais, and Zarita Zevallos welcome us into a dynamic experience of oral history, creative storytelling, and visual art installations.
This free event and week-long exhibition presents the artists’ work in conversation with each other, highlighting their distinct approach to unpacking stories and approaches to cultural preservation in Brooklyn.
Unlike traditional artmaking, where an artistic creation amplifies a sole perspective, Lakou NOU residents generated their projects collaboratively with community members, providing creative outlets to convey inner experiences and share histories that are rarely shared or often under-presented.
Established in 2016, Haiti Cultural Exchange’s Lakou NOU artist residency program provides artists of Haitian descent with the opportunity to create and present new work by connecting their skills and talents to historically underserved Brooklyn neighborhoods, home to generations of Haitians and Haitian-Americans: Crown Heights, Canarsie, East Flatbush, and Flatbush. Lakou NOU artists develop collaborative community engagement projects that address neighborhood issues and highlight community assets. Artists in residence received individualized mentorship from HCX staff and interacted with each other as a cohort through discussion and support around topics relevant to Lakou NOU projects. HCX-facilitated additional professional development workshops and exchanges with a consortium of community stakeholders and creative placekeeping professionals.
Exhibition On View
Sunday, June 21 – Sunday, June 28, 2026
Gallery Hours
Thursday – Friday 6-9pm
Saturday 12-6pm
Sunday 12-6pm
—
This program is made possible in part by the Jerome Foundation.

—
Artists Project Descriptions
Bo Dautruche, East Flatbush
Bo’s project “anvan ou bliye//before it’s too late…” moved freely between writing, critique, strategy, research, and embodied practices to explore death and grief as it pertains to Black life. Her project sought to (re)discover our relationships to and with transitions and endings. What does death and grief look like for us under the oppressive systems we wish to liberate ourselves from? Understanding the many reasons why this could be a tender subject, Bo and a myriad of creative workshop collaborators worked together to remind people what real community may feel like – where we could take off our masks, where we could hold each other, where we could really talk to each other, where we could process things in real time with each other, and build, learn, and exchange.
This culminates in her expo work focused on witnessing, not as judgement or exploitation or extraction or burdening, but as connection and ritual that honor both our life and death. Her altar installation welcomes the community to let go of what they may need in order to feel seen, either through physical objects they bring or reflecting on what is needed to let go of in order to show up for the community.

Georgie Exinord, Flatbush
Georgie’s “Good Daughter Project” sprang from one constant: her fervent belief that your stories are already within you. During her residency, Georgie hosted a series of writing exercises, memory work, drawing prompts, and collective dialogue workshops that sought to capture memory and language earned through the mosaic of one’s lived experience.
What does it mean to be a good daughter? What unfolded through these workshops were slippages of tenderness, unexpected intimacies, and moments of recognition between women who began as strangers. Together, participants explored the emotional interiority of Haitian and Caribbean diasporic daughters, particularly the invisible labor, parentification, responsibility, and survival embedded within first-generation daughterhood.
Her archive and final exhibition work serve as an offering: an account of our lives in our own words, preserved so those who come after us may know we were here and that we felt deeply.

Cici Osais, Crown Heights
Cici’s project “Nou kominike ak twal” (We communicate through cloth) is inspired by the communal art-making practices of the Black diaspora. It is rooted in an understanding of artmaking as something we are all capable of, and that’s best as a collective experience. Cici activated this idea to foster a space for individuals to create in unison, where works became parts of a whole.
Across the Diaspora cloth is used to hold stories. Within her textile practice, Cici uses techniques from her parents’ and grandparents’ motherlands: Haiti, Congo, Nigeria, and Black America. Because most of these places are out of reach and these traditions passed down orally, Osais have spent many years learning and researching these methods. I owe my craft to the archives and people who were willing to share this knowledge with me, and see it as my duty to continue passing along all that I have learned.
Through natural dyeing workshops in local community gardens focused on conversation and connection, neighbors learned new ways of communicating creatively and were able to contribute textiles to a selection of Cici’s culminating works that will live in the gardens where they were born.

Zarita Zevallos, Canarsie
Zarita’s residency was centered on introducing participants to both new material and new ways of creating. She used the novel Masters of the Dew by Jacques Roumain as a conceptual foundation while also introducing participants to beginner-friendly cameras and film photography as an accessible creative medium.
Using the immediate environment of Canarsie, Zevallos’ workshops explored themes of Haitian identity, community labor, displacement, and the importance of reconnecting with one’s roots by drawing parallels between the experiences in Masters of the Dew and contemporary Haitian realities.
What revealed itself were deeply personal and intergenerational ties to philosophical, timeless, and keenly relevant experiences that remain in play today. Creatively building alongside the work of her workshop participants, Zevallos will capture some of the powerful spaces for remembrance, dialogue, and cultural preservation through her installation work arriving at the culminating expo.

Lakay Foutbòl | World Cup 2026 | Haiti vs. Morocco
2026-06-24 16:00 - 22:00 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
HCX is HQ to watch Haiti’s national team Les Grenadiers bring us to World Cup victory!

Hosted in collaboration with Maison Demar, this series of watch parties will feature summer evening kick-backs with cold drinks, great vibes, exclusive product releases by Haitian fashion designers and lifestyle brands.
Grenadye Alaso!

Wednesday, June 24: Haiti vs. Morocco
Doors open at 4pm | Kick off at 6pm
Location: HCX, 35 Lafayette Ave Brooklyn, NY 11217

RSVP on Eventbrite & grab exclusive add-ons while availability lasts! »

Join Us for More Watch Parties
—
Saturday, June 13: Haiti vs. Scotland
Doors open at 7pm | Kick off at 9pm
Location: HCX, 35 Lafayette Ave Brooklyn, NY 11217
Friday, June 19: Haiti vs. Brazil
Hosted in collaboration with Rooftop Films & Council Member Chi Ossé
Event start TBA | Kick off at 9pm | NO RSVP NEEDED
Location: Von King Park, 670 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11216

Records & Rhum Day Party with Patrice Espérant
2026-06-27 14:00 - 19:00 | Prospect Park Boat House, 101 East Dr., Brooklyn, New York, 11225
Join Patrice Espérant for an old school day party with vinyl sessions featuring Haitian vintage sounds and rhum. Ayiti cheri, vinyl is alive!
Haitian & French Caribbean Classics
70s · 80s · 90s
—
RSVP is required for entry!
Additional admission will be available at the door until capacity is reached.
—
Saturday, June 27, 2026
2–7pm
RSVP on Eventbrite while availability lasts! »

Mizik Ayiti! at Brooklyn Botanic Garden with Gashford Guillaume & Creole Fusion Ensemble
2026-07-09 19:00 - 20:00 | Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 990 Washington Avenue, Brookyln, NY, United States
Join Haiti Cultural Exchange at Brooklyn Botanic Garden on Thursday, July 9, 2026 for Mizik Ayiti! featuring Gashford Guillaume & Creole Fusion Ensemble.
Thursday, July 9, 2026
7–8pm
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
Plant Family Collection
990 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11225
Gashford Guillaume & Creole Fusion Ensemble blend Haitian culture with jazz, soul, R&B, and world music vibes live at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. This is a night truly not to be missed!
Gashford Guillaume is a Brooklyn-based Haitian American drummer and bandleader living in a legacy of music. Leading his Creole Fusion Ensemble, Gashford brings together a dynamic group of musicians fusing Haitian grooves with jazz and soul. The evening features vocalist Marla Roy, a Haitian American artist known for her powerful, heartfelt voice alongside special guest musicians.

Presented in collaboration with the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
Free with Garden admission.
Click here to purchase tickets for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden »

An n Pale with Paul Beaubrun | VERTIÈRES Album Listening Party
2026-08-01 18:00 - 21:00 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
Join us for the first listening party of the album release tour! Hosted by Haiti Cultural Exchange & Rhum Barbancourt. Paul Beaubrun brings his highly anticipated album VERTIÈRES to HCX for the first listening party of the album release tour!
Paul will treat us to an acoustic set of select songs from his newest album VERTIÈRES, share a special screening of the album’s trailer and join HCX Executive Director Régine M. Roumain in conversation about his work and latest project.
Savor the night with hors d’oeuvres and specialty cocktails provided by Rhum Barbancourt. Paul Beaubrun’s latest album VERTIÈRES is a transformational album and cultural movement inspired by Haiti’s revolutionary victory. Rooted in the Battle of Vertières–Haiti’s historic battle on November 18, 1803 against France, leading to Haiti’s independence–it brings together ancestral memory, spiritual awakening, and modern music to open a new chapter for Haitian art.
VERTIÈRES is a deeply personal journey from heartbreak to spiritual sovereignty. Through facing an inner war, the artist discovers self-mastery, discipline, and personal power. This is not a story about defeating others, but about taking full responsibility for one’s life, choices, and existence.
By merging the personal and the collective, VERTIÈRES reflects a central truth of Haitian history: true revolution begins within. VERTIÈRES goes beyond an album, it serves as a cultural platform grounded in legacy, presenting Haiti’s new sound to the world.
Sponsored by Rhum Barbancourt

—
Saturday, August 1, 2026
6–9pm
RSVP is required for entry.
$20 Suggested Donation
Entry based on capacity. Additional admission will be available at the door until capacity is reached. Your donation supports the mission of Haiti Cultural Exchange, the home for Haitian arts & culture in New York City.
RSVP on Eventbrite »
—
About Paul Beaubrun

Paul Beaubrun is a Haitian musician and songwriter known for his fusion of traditional Haitian music with elements of rock, blues, afrobeat, and reggae. Raised in Port-au-Prince and the son of the Grammy-nominated band Boukman Eksperyans, music has shaped his life from an early age. After moving to New York City as a youth, he expanded his musical influences while remaining deeply rooted in his Haitian heritage.
A gifted guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist, Paul blends Haitian Creole, French, and English into a distinctive sound that explores identity, resilience, and culture. His work has earned recognition both in Haiti and internationally.
Paul has collaborated and performed with artists including Ms. Lauryn Hill, Maxwell, Michael Brun, Arcade Fire, Jackson Browne, Sheryl Crow, and Bob Weir. He has appeared at renowned venues and festivals including Radio City Music Hall, The Beacon Theatre, Massey Hall, The Ryman Theatre, the Montreal Jazz Festival, Coachella, Festival International Nuits d’Afrique, Le Trianon in Paris, Paleo Festival, and Afropunk.
His career highlights include receiving the UNESCO-Aschberg Artist in Residency Scholarship, topping the iTunes World Music chart with Vilnerab, earning a Dora Award nomination for Espwa/Espoir, performing at the United Nations, receiving the Coup de Coeur award for his music video “Naissance,” being featured on the cover of The Haitian Times, and being named one of the Haitian Roundtable’s “100 Most Influential People in the Haitian Community.” He also contributed to Let The Rhythm Lead: Haiti Song Summit Vol. 1 alongside Jackson Browne, Habib Koité, Jenny Lewis, Raúl Rodríguez, Jonathan Russell, Jonathan Wilson, and members of Lakou Mizik.
Beyond his music, Paul is an advocate for social and environmental causes, partnering with organizations including the Lambi Fund of Haiti, Haiti Cultural Exchange, 350.org, Playing for Change, and Music Heals International. His work reflects a commitment to using music as a platform for cultural pride, resilience, and positive change.
Since 2022, Paul has been a touring member of Arcade Fire, joining the band’s WE tour and appearing on Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and stages around the world.
Website »
—
Main feature photos by Jean Oscar | Photo of Paul Beaubrun in bio by Vladim Vilain

ON VIEW | Vizyon Atistik | Rasin San Bout | Roots Without End
2026-09-19 - 2026-10-18 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
Haiti Cultural Exchange (HCX) is excited to announce our forthcoming exhibition in collaboration with the Archive of Alan Lomax (1915-2002), a pioneering ethnomusicologist for over six decades. From 1936-1937, at the urging of heralded African American anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston, Lomax traveled to Haiti to record the nation’s music and rituals on behalf of the US Library of Congress.
The Association for Cultural Equity, which stewards Lomax’s archive, selected 40 essential recordings from the nearly 50 hours of recorded sound from Haiti,
Building a conversation between the past and present, HCX invited visual artists of Haitian descent to respond and connect their own work through an Open Call.
From textiles to film, the artists selected evoke both personal and resonant responses to the recordings that most spoke to them — from lullabies to Rara, from the sacred to the Konbit. The exhibition will feature curated pairings of recordings and artwork, connecting their modes of communion and communication over time and place.
Curated by Régine M. Roumain and Micaela Walker
Featuring the work of:
Laïssa Alexis • Love Aritus • Marie Casimir • Megan Delianne • Stephanie “Philomen” Dorceant • Jennica Drice • Sydney Rose Maubert • Christopher Mitchell • Marie Guilloto Stuppard • Zarita Zevallos

—
Vizyon Atistik | Rasin San Bout | Roots Without End
Artists in Dialogue with Sounds of Haiti from the Alan Lomax Archive
On view from September 19 to October 18, 2026
Thursday – Sunday, Wednesday by appointment.
Haiti Cultural Exchange
35 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn, NY
—
Sat. Sep 19 | 6-9pm
Opening Reception and An n Pale with Artist and Gage Averill
RSVP Here »
Sun. Oct 18 | 6-9pm
Closing Reception
RSVP Here »
—
About the Artists
Laïssa Alexis
Laïssa Alexis (she/her) is a Haitian-born, Chicago-based artist, researcher, and filmmaker working across multiple mediums. She is currently making non-fiction films that broadly explore topics on Blackness, grief, death, and memory. Laïssa enjoys daydreaming about the future and hopes to use her practice to articulate these dreams.
Love Aritus
Love Aritus is a multimedia artist based in Denver, CO whose work examines memory and honors ancestry through figurative portraiture influenced by her Caribbean identity. Her work investigates how everyday rituals, domestic spaces, and cultural traditions shape identity across generations, transforming ordinary moments into visual archives of remembrance and resilience. Drawing from her familial connection to Aquin, Haiti, Love’s work explores the ways cultural traditions and family histories continue to shape contemporary identity.
Marie Casimir| Website
Marie Casimir is a Haitian-born interdisciplinary artist, producer, and curator based in Brooklyn, NY. She was raised in Spring Valley, NY following her family’s immigration from St. Michel de L’Attalaye, Haiti. Her artistic practice often blends improvisational movement, choreography, and text, exploring cultural memory and Black diasporic identity. Featured at venues across the country, including Constellation (Chicago), Oklahoma Contemporary, Contemporary Arts Center New Orleans, DANCE@30FPS, and the Austin Dance Festival, Casimir’s honors include a Ragdale Artist Fellowship, SixTwelve Residency Award, and a Heartland Regional Emmy nomination for her short film I Dream of Greenwood.
As the founder of Djaspora Productions, she creates interdisciplinary performances, cultural events, and global artistic exchanges that connect artists and communities across the Black diaspora. She co-founded the Instigation Festival, celebrating improvised music and dance in Chicago and New Orleans, and serves as Festival Co-Founder and producer of Juneteenth on The East (OKC). Casimir previously served as Associate Director of Links Hall, Curator of Public Programs and Performances at Oklahoma Contemporary, and taught in the Clara Luper African & African American Studies program at the University of Oklahoma. Her work can be explored at www.marie-casimir.com. Photo credit: Colin Danville
Megan Delianne | Website
Megan Delianne is a computer graphics generalist and multimedia artist based between New York and Berlin, working at the intersection of technology, history, and collective memory. Born in America to Haitian parents who emigrated in the 1990s, their practice is shaped by the experience of holding two worlds simultaneously.
Stephanie “Philomen” Dorceant | Website
Philomen is a Brooklyn, NY- and São Paulo, Brazil-based Haitian-American audiovisual artist, filmmaker, photojournalist, and cultural producer whose practice moves between both cities. Rooted in her family’s Haitian heritage and informed by a background in journalism and international media production, her work explores identity, memory, spirituality, migration, and cultural preservation through documentary film, visual storytelling, and cultural production. Her documentary Where We Walked, an intimate portrait of the Guarani people’s struggle to protect their ancestral lands in São Paulo, was officially selected for the 33rd Ecocine International Film Festival. Working across documentary, experimental film, photography, and visual arts, her practice draws from visual anthropology to examine the intersections of history, tradition, and contemporary culture.
Beyond filmmaking, Philomen co-produced Black: Cite; Sight-Site Black Arts Festival, a week-long festival presented alongside the 36th São Paulo Biennial that transformed Galeria do Reggae into a vibrant platform for contemporary Black artistic expression and public dialogue. Through her Black and Queer woman-owned production company, PhilOmen Media, she develops films and cultural initiatives that amplify the histories, traditions, and contemporary experiences of African diasporic and Indigenous communities, fostering cross-cultural dialogue and preserving cultural memory through storytelling.
Jennica Drice | Website
Jennica Drice is a Brooklyn-based textile artist and first generation Haitian American, raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her practice explores how identity is carried, altered, and reconstructed across displacement, informed by her own hyphenated experience between Haiti and the United States. Working primarily in blue through cyanotype and indigo, her work draws from personal and communal histories to explore memory, migration, and cultural inheritance.
She has exhibited across New York City and teaches workshops in cyanotype and natural dyeing.
Sydney Rose Maubert | Website
Sydney Rose Maubert (b. 1996) is a Haitian-Cuban artist and architect based in Miami. Her paternal grandparents emigrated from Haiti, and her maternal grandparents from Cuba respectively. She holds degrees in architecture from Yale University and the University of Miami, with double minors in writing and art.
Maubert is the founder of Sydney R. Maubert LLC., her art and mural practice, which has been awarded by the Graham Foundation, Oolite Arts, and Locust Projects. Maubert has been awarded residencies with Artist in Residence in the Everglades (June 2023), Bakehouse Art Complex (Summer 2025), Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Snowmass Village, CO (Spring 2026), DVCAI in Suriname (June 2026), and a residency African Heritage Center in Miami, FL (2025- ongoing). Most notably, her work is in the 21C Museum’s permanent collection.
Maubert was the Strauch Fellow at Cornell College of Architecture (2022- 2024). Maubert is the Rowe Fellow at the Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture (2024- ongoing). She has assisted in teaching courses at Yale University, Morgan State University, City College of New York, and the University of Miami. Maubert sits on the board of the Center for Architecture’s Scholarship Committee (2023- ).
Christopher Mitchell | Website
Christopher Mitchell (b. 1978, New York) is a Haitian-American photographer and filmmaker whose work explores memory, place, and cultural experience across Haiti and its diaspora. Raised in South Florida, Mitchell lived in Haiti for 15 years, where he developed long-term documentary projects rooted in research, preservation, and close collaboration with local communities. Working primarily with analog film, he uses photography as a means of documenting resilience, ritual, and everyday life, creating archives of cultural traditions that are increasingly vulnerable to erasure. His practice centers on Haitian cultural traditions, particularly Kanaval Jacmel and Vodou ceremonies, as well as the evolving landscape of Little Haiti in Miami, where he currently lives and works. His long-term fieldwork in Haiti also informs two ongoing documentary films examining the ceremonial traditions of Souvenance and Gonaïves and the cultural history of Jacmel Kanaval.
Mitchell is the recipient of the Knight Foundation Art + Tech Expansion Fund, a Wavemaker Grant supported by Locust Projects and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and a Miami Individual Artist Grant. He is currently a resident artist at the Bakehouse Art Complex in Miami. Recent exhibitions include Shattered Structures at FIU Miami Beach Urban Studios, commemorating the 15th anniversary of Haiti’s 2010 earthquake; Les Sirènes at MOCA North Miami; and a solo exhibition at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center. Across photography, film, and community-based archival projects, Mitchell’s practice is dedicated to preserving the cultural memory of Haiti and its diaspora.
Marie Guilloto Stuppard | Website
Marie Guilloto Stuppard is a Haitian artist raised in New York City, and living in Seattle. She paints from a place shaped by the play between islands and city blocks, between what was handed down and what had to be learned. Growing up, she adopted different ways of seeing, speaking, and belonging. That tension lives in her work.
Marie uses acrylic paint and materials that have already lived another life. Her process relies on an intuitive “pull” leading her to layer, remove, stain, and rebuild surfaces until they begin to hold weight. Marks are covered, edges blurred, objects are embedded or partially buried. What remains matters more than what is added. The work moves the way memory does—uneven, physical, resistant to comfortable narratives. She stays with uncertainty long enough for something honest to surface. Sometimes, figures appear faintly, as if resisting full visibility. They are not meant to explain themselves. They exist as traces of ancestry, of loss, of survival carried forward.
Marie’s practice holds space for what has been pushed aside or silenced. Her work acknowledges discomfort, allowing its presence to spark dialogue about heritage and the sometimes not so subtle rejection of traditions that are deemed “different”.
Zarita Zevallos | Website
Zarita Zevallos is a Haitian architect, photographer, and conceptual artist based in Brooklyn, NY. Raised in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, she comes from a Haitian family lineage rooted in Cap-Haïtien. She works as a Studio Lead in exterior façade restoration at a Manhattan consulting firm and spends her creative time developing conceptual artwork.
Her practice combines hand-edited photography with materials such as thread, glass, bullets, and barbed wire to create textured, layered images, and more recently she has experimented with sculptures. Through these elements, she explores themes of identity, gender, and the influence of socio-political structures. Her work uses symbolism and materiality to spark reflection, encouraging viewers to engage with both the beauty and the tension present in each piece.
Zevallos holds a bachelor’s degree in architecture from CUNY and an Associate degree in Engineering from the Universidad Interamericana in San Germán, Puerto Rico. Her work has been featured in Ocean’s 8 set design and exhibited at the Steven Kasher Gallery, Chashama Galleries, Haiti Cultural Exchange, Photoville, the ICP Museum, and the University of Illinois Chicago, among other venues.

Vizyon Atistik | OPENING RECEPTION and An n Pale with Gage Averill | Rasin San Bout | Roots Without End
2026-09-19 18:00 - 21:00 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
Join us for the opening night of Rasin San Bout | Roots Without End: Artists in Dialogue with Sounds of Haiti from the Alan Lomax Archive.
This opening night reception will feature a dynamic An n Pale between several exhibition artists and Dr. Gage Averill, a renowned ethnomusicologist and curator of Alan Lomax in Haiti, 1936-37, a Grammy Nominated box set of Lomax’s recordings, films, and writings from his time in Haiti.
Saturday, September 19, 2026
6–9pm
Haiti Cultural Exchange
35 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn, NY
—
About Gage Averill
Gage Averill (Ph.D. University of Washington, 1989) is the Provost and Vice President Academic at the University of British Columbia and was formerly UBC’s Dean of Arts. He was Vice-Principal Academic University of Toronto Mississauga) and formerly Dean of Music at the University of Toronto, and before that Chair of Music at NYU.
He is an ethnomusicologist specializing in popular music of the Caribbean and North American vernacular music. Prof. Averill served as President of the Society for Ethnomusicology between 2009-2011. His book on barbershop singing (Four Parts, No Waiting: A Social History of American Barbershop Harmony, Oxford 2003) won best book prizes from the Society for Ethnomusicology (Merriam Prize) and the Society for American Music; his book on Haitian popular music and power (A Day for the Hunter: A Day for the Prey: Popular Music and Power in Haiti, Chicago 1997) was awarded the best book prize in ethnic and folk research by the Association for Recorded Sound Collections; and the 10-CD boxed set of music and film he curated, along with an accompanying book, called Alan Lomax in Haiti, 1936-37, received two Grammy Nominations.
He has consulted for the Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Smithsonian, OAS, Fulbright, and for films, festivals, and copyright cases. For fun he kayaks, bikes, writes/performs music, and works on construction projects.
—
About the Exhibition
We are excited to announce our forthcoming exhibition in collaboration with the Archive of Alan Lomax (1915-2002), a pioneering ethnomusicologist for over six decades. From 1936-1937, at the urging of heralded African American anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston, Lomax traveled to Haiti to record the nation’s music and rituals on behalf of the US Library of Congress.
The Association for Cultural Equity, which stewards Lomax’s archive, selected 40 essential recordings from the nearly 50 hours of recorded sound from Haiti, Building a conversation between the past and present, HCX invited visual artists of Haitian descent to respond and connect their own work through an Open Call.
From textiles to film, the artists selected evoke both personal and resonant responses to the recordings that most spoke to them — from lullabies to Rara, from the sacred to the Konbit. The exhibition will feature curated pairings of recordings and artwork, connecting their modes of communion and communication over time and place.
Curated by Régine M. Roumain and Micaela Walker
On view from September 19 through October 18.

—
Featured Artists
Laïssa Alexis
Love Aritus
Marie Casimir
Megan Delianne
Stephanie “Philomen” Dorceant
Jennica Drice
Sydney Rose Maubert
Christopher Mitchell
Marie Guilloto Stuppard
Zarita Zevallos
—
Learn more about the exhibition and artists here »
Join the artists & curators for other activations taking place as part of this exhibition »

Vizyon Atistik | CLOSING RECEPTION | Rasin San Bout | Roots Without End
2026-10-18 18:00 - 21:00 | Haiti Cultural Exchange, 35 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY, 11217, United States
Join us for the closing night of Rasin San Bout | Roots Without End: Artists in Dialogue with Sounds of Haiti from the Alan Lomax Archive.
Closing Night Reception
Saturday, October 18, 2026
6–9pm
Haiti Cultural Exchange
35 Lafayette Ave. Brooklyn, NY
On view from September 19 through October 18.
—
About the Exhibition
We are excited to announce our forthcoming exhibition in collaboration with the Archive of Alan Lomax (1915-2002), a pioneering ethnomusicologist for over six decades. From 1936-1937, at the urging of heralded African American anthropologist and author Zora Neale Hurston, Lomax traveled to Haiti to record the nation’s music and rituals on behalf of the US Library of Congress.
The Association for Cultural Equity, which stewards Lomax’s archive, selected 40 essential recordings from the nearly 50 hours of recorded sound from Haiti, Building a conversation between the past and present, HCX invited visual artists of Haitian descent to respond and connect their own work through an Open Call.
From textiles to film, the artists selected evoke both personal and resonant responses to the recordings that most spoke to them — from lullabies to Rara, from the sacred to the Konbit. The exhibition will feature curated pairings of recordings and artwork, connecting their modes of communion and communication over time and place.
Curated by Régine M. Roumain and Micaela Walker
—
Featured Artists
Laïssa Alexis
Love Aritus
Marie Casimir
Megan Delianne
Stephanie “Philomen” Dorceant
Jennica Drice
Sydney Rose Maubert
Christopher Mitchell
Marie Guilloto Stuppard
Zarita Zevallos
—
Learn more about the exhibition and artists here »
Join the artists & curators for other activations taking place as part of this exhibition »
