Harvard students plan concert for Friday, Feb. 12

February 6, 2010 by Reporter Staff

Students at Harvard University have organized a Friday, Feb. 12 concert that will raise funds for Partners in Health. The event will be staged from 7-8:30 p.m. at Harvard's Sanders Theatre. Tickets: $10 student, $25 regular admission (buy here or at the Harvard Box Office in Holyoke Center; all proceeds go to Partners In Health (PIH). Read more

Crisis center hours extended for two more weeks

January 15, 2010 by Bill Forry

Updated: Thurs., Jan. 28 — An emergency resource center set up to assist the families of earthquake victims and survivors will continue to offer assistance for two more weeks, according to officials who run the operation. It is now located at the Mattapan branch library on Blue Hill Avenue. The center, coordinated by staff from the union and the Boston Public Health Commission, has been helping Haitian Americans connect to relatives and other services. The new number for the center is 617-593-0363.
Beginning next week, the City of Boston's Referral and Support Center will continue to operate out of the Mattapan Public Library at the following times:
Tuesdays: 2:00-7:00 pm
Thursdays: 2:00-6:00 pm
Saturdays 12:00-5:00 pm
Attorneys and mental health counselors will continue to be available during these hours.
Call (617) 593-0363 for more information. Read more

New website pools tech resources to discuss rebuilding Haiti

January 29, 2010 by Bill Forry

The editors at Wired Online have created a new website — ReWiring Haiti — in which experts in tech and innovation are already discussing ways to re-build Haiti. Please pass the word to Haitian-Americans and allies in the appropriate fields. The site also includes articles related to the EQ and its aftermath — including a fascinating interview with Pierre Fouche, one of the few Haitian earthquake specialists who had long warned of the catastrophic consequences that could come with a large EQ in Haiti. Read more

Special print edition of BHR now available

January 20, 2010 by Bill Forry

Earthquake edition: Will be published on Jan. 21The Boston Haitian Reporter has published a special print edition of our newspaper that is now being circulated throughout Greater Boston's Haitian-American community. It is also available as a PDF version for online readers.

This special edition includes news articles and photographs documenting the Jan. 12th earthquake and the week-long struggle for survival that followed. It also includes a section "Voices from Boston" devoted to the reaction of Boston's Haitian community with more than 20 contributors, including Steve Desrosiers, Yolette Ibokette, Elizabeth St. Victor, Riché Zamor, Sr., Joseph Chery, State Rep. Marie St. Fleur and State Rep. Linda Dorcena Forry, Max Clermont, Michaelle Raphael, Belinda Ancion, Nancy Rousseau, Joelle Jean-Fontaine, NECN's Scot Yount, Jacques Jean, Fafa Girault, and Bill Forry.

The edition features an exclusive diary of Richardson Innocent, a former BHR staffer who survived last Tuesday's devastating earthquake while visiting friends in Delmas, Port-au-Prince. Innocent has been relaying daily accounts of his experiences in Haiti's capitol and the outskirts to the Reporter's newsroom.

The Boston Haitian Reporter, founded in 2001, is published monthly and circulated in Greater Boston. It is a publication of Boston Neighborhood News, Inc., which also publishes the Dorchester Reporter, Mattapan Reporter and Boston Irish Reporter newspapers.

For another vantage point on the last week's response in Boston's Haitian community, see this article in the Boston Phoenix. Read more

Update: BHR's Rich Innocent now in Cabaret, north of Port-au-Prince

January 17, 2010 by Bill Forry

The Boston Haitian Reporter's Richardson Innocent has left the Delmas section of Port-au-Prince and is now in Cabaret, a town north of Haiti's capitol where the situation is considerably less dire. The Reporter spoke to Innocent on Sunday afternoon just before 3 p.m. We had last talked with him on Thursday when he was still in Delmas. Read more

Morse code: The man behind the amazing Twitter updates from Haiti

January 20, 2010 by Steve Desrosiers, Contributing Editor

After coming to some terms with the human scale of the current disaster in Haiti it dawned on me that some, all or most of our artistic treasures might be destroyed right now. The Centre D’Art, the murals of Bigaud in St. Trinite, the Presidential Palace itself (a gift from the US) and many other places. And what of the famous Hotel Oloffson? The place around which Graham Greene’s famous novel on Haiti “The Comedians” took shape and which also served as the center piece for the Hollywood film by the same name. Amazingly, the sturdy wood-frame Hotel, stood its ground during the 38 seconds it took for most of Port-au-Prince’s brick structures to collapse.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Oloffson’s manager lo these past 25 years, Richard A. Morse was among Haiti’s few links to the outside world. He moved his guests from their rooms to the hotel driveway for the night and kept busy documenting the developing situation on Twitter (@RAMHaiti). The world’s news organizations immediately locked into his accounts and pestered him for more information and the permission to share his growing narrative with their publications. Read more

In Cabaret, Haiti: Another day, another earthquake

January 20, 2010 by Bill Forry

Richardson Innocent: Former Reporter staffer relays the latest news from Haiti.Wednesday, Jan. 20 — This morning, at roughly 6 a.m., Haiti was jolted for ten seconds by another earthquake measuring 6.1. Richardson Innocent, in Cabaret, tells me that he is fine. A wall just collapsed behind the house where he is staying with relatives. No one in the village seems to be hurt.
“We were on the porch. Everyone was up anyway so we all just went out to the street,” he said. “We’re up with the sunrise here at 4, 5 o’clock. No one sleeps inside right now, so when the sun comes up, everyone’s awake and going to work.”
“I’m going to try and see if I can help somehow,” Rich says.

Earlier coverage of the BHR's Richardson Innocent's experiences in Haiti since Jan. 12:
Rich Innocent, now safely in Cabaret, re-visits Port-au-Prince
In Delmas, it's Haitians helping Haitians with no sign yet of outside help Read more

‘Mother Nature has risen up against us’

January 23, 2010 by Nicolas André (translated by Emmanuel W. Vedrine)

Haitian linguist and journalist Nicolas André sent this account of the hours and days after the Jan. 12 earthquake to BHR contributor Emmanuel W. Vedrine in Boston. Vedrine has translated his report from French to English.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 — Waking up with a bitter taste in my mouth, I was far from imagine the horror that I was going to see, refusing to believe at first glance what happened Tuesday night (between 4:00 and 5:00 p.m.) wasn’t a night-marish vision, a simple thing. Feeling the ground trembling under my feet and seeing the back of my house (under construction) pitching like a boat on a stormy sea, I said to myself that was only a slight quake and I thought I was right when, thirty seconds later, I didn’t feel anything. Then... came the information and, little by little as they progressed, I thought it was maybe an exaggeration of the situation. Read more

New Yorker: Edwidge Danticat on the loss of her cousin

January 25, 2010 by Bill Forry

Don't miss Edwidge Danticat's article in the new edition of the New Yorker magazine entitled "A Little While." The award-winning Haitian-American author recounts the life and death of her cousin Maxo.

Farmer, PIH: Aide for Haiti must be rooted in respect for 'what Haitian people want for themselves'

January 25, 2010 by Bill Forry

Dr. Paul Farmer, along with colleagues from Partners in Health, authored an op-ed in today's Miami Herald that is a must-read. He says, in part:
"Prescriptions for Haiti will be bountiful from outside, but we must ensure that the prescriptions are correct. Haiti needs a different kind of assistance, one built on solidarity and respect and rooted in what the Haitian people want for themselves. Assistance offered now must develop food sovereignty for Haiti and investment in the rural area, now seeing an influx of those displaced from the capital." Read more

Activists, academics urge Congress to shift focus to relief aid, away from military

January 28, 2010 by Reporter Staff

In a letter organized by the TransAfrica Forum and sent to members of Congress today, activists and academic leaders are urging the U.S. to de-emphasize the military's role in the response to the Jan. 12 earthquake and to shift focus to improving the relief efforts on the ground. The letter notes that "an over-emphasis on security has meant costly delays in distributing aid that have cost lives and led to otherwise unnecessary amputations in some cases."
The letter was signed by TransAfrica Forum's Harry Belafonte, actor Danny Glover, Jesse Jackson and BHR columnist Brian Concannon, Jr., who leads the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti — along with many other signatories from colleges and NGOs.
The full text of the letter follows: Read more

Boston Phoenix: Local girl "stranded" in Haiti after quake

January 28, 2010 by Reporter Staff

Chris Faraone of the Boston Phoenix tells the compelling story of Jenny Ulysee, who has been stuck in Haiti due to immigration issues since being injured in the Jan. 12 quake. Read more