J. Elliott Reviews “Mangoes & Roosters: Stories and Tales of Haiti”

  Cynthia and I were booth buddies at the recent Sunshine State Book Festival. When she said she was giving away a few copies of her latest book, I snatched one up and begged her to sign it. When Cynthia said she was writing stories about Haiti, I really didn’t know what to expect, though … More J. Elliott Reviews “Mangoes & Roosters: Stories and Tales of Haiti”

Announcing “Mangoes & Roosters: Stories and Tales from Haiti” – and Other News

  Ever since colonial days, when France claimed it as her own, Haiti carried within it an aura of the unknown and the mysterious. Once called the “Pearl of the Antilles,” Haiti became for a time the largest sugar producing region in the world, thanks to plantations populated by thousands of enslaved Africans, who rose … More Announcing “Mangoes & Roosters: Stories and Tales from Haiti” – and Other News

Flying Kites, Rara Bands, and Poisson Gros Sel: Easter Season in Haiti

Easter traditions in Haiti include kite flying, rara bands, and food. Soaring in the wind, simple, colorful kites express the longing to transcend the quotidian. And rara brings music, tapped out on metal instruments, many rough and angular, hewn from scraps of metal and old oil drums. As for food, Haitian Poisson gros sel (Rock … More Flying Kites, Rara Bands, and Poisson Gros Sel: Easter Season in Haiti

On the Borderlands

Uniformed men on horseback, lassos at the ready, chase brown and black people stumbling in the surging water of the Rio Grande near Del Rio, Texas. The photographs shock. They call up long-buried images. Of the Ku Klux Klan night riding. Of patrollers chasing runaway slaves. Of Native Americans and the U.S. Cavalry at Wounded … More On the Borderlands