10641: BHM 2023—Google.

 

Google scored a BHM diversity trifecta with its doodle on February 8—Haitian Artist Lyne Lucien depicted the late Mama Cax, Haitian American model and advocate for people with disabilities.

10925: Helping Haiti With Heart.

From The New York Times…

Manhattan Concierge Runs a Foundation to Help Haiti

By Celia McGee

Except for its location across from Carnegie Hall, the lobby of 200 West 57th Street seemingly has no reason be filled with the sound of music early every morning. But the grand Rodin Studio Building, long ago converted into offices for medical and dental practices, law firms, talent agencies and production companies, employs as its concierge Yves Deshommes. Trained as a classical violinist, the Haitian-born Mr. Deshommes, 45, has worked there for 16 years, and the interval between 6:30 a.m., when his shift starts, and 7:30 a.m., when the first tenants and visitors trickle in, is a good time to practice.

“I’ll walk by and say, ‘How’s that Bach Partita going?’” said Dr. Jamie Koufman, who heads the Voice Institute of New York on the 12th floor.

Mr. Deshommes remains dedicated to his music; he serves as violinist-in-residence, men’s choir director, assistant director of the music department and cantor of the Creole French Gethsemane Seventh Day Adventist Church in Brooklyn. But since 2010, a passion at least equal to his violin playing, his family and his church has taken over. In the aftermath of the earthquake that devastated Haiti three years ago, Mr. Deshommes has made himself a philanthropist, starting a foundation to support Leogane, the town near the capital, Port-au-Prince, which was at the quake’s epicenter. The foundation is called Haiti Bas-Citronniers Foundation, after the rural section of the Leogane area where he is focusing his efforts.

Using his knowledge of Haitian art, Mr. Deshommes has mounted several exhibitions in offices at his workplace, where paintings have been sold. Next month, from Feb. 7 through 10, he will show more paintings at the Harlem Fine Arts Show at Riverside Church.

“I grew up on the Rue Romain in Port-au-Prince, a block away from the Centre d’Art,” he said, referring to a museum and art school founded in 1944 to nourish Haitian art. “I went there all the time to look at the art. I spoke to many painters. I learned about it.”

Recently, standing in the conference room of Dr. Koufman’s office suite, surrounded by eight pieces he had selected for the Harlem show, Mr. Deshommes motioned to works like the Voodoo-symbol-laden “Testament,” by Roi David Annisey; “The Healer,” by Pierrot Clerissont, a modernist painter of Haitian subjects; a fishing scene by Nicolas Dreux, who incises his oils with a razor blade; and an intricate village wedding scene by Hector St. Jean.

During the earthquake, the three-story house where Mr. Deshommes was raised before coming to New York at 17 “collapsed like a house of cards,” he said. His mother escaped with a bad leg injury, but he lost five of his young nieces and nephews.

His response, after tending to his mother, was to seek out a place “where help was needed most,” he said, and he settled on the hard-hit and isolated Bas-Citronniers, which is reached only by fording the La Rouyonne river five times, Mr. Deshommes said.

By his first visit that March, and thanks in part to contributions from some of the tenants and the management at 200 West 57th, he was able to supply several large tents for those without shelter, as well as soap and medicines. He vowed to return to establish a continuing presence and has since made 16 trips, spending a great deal of his own money.

“The earthquake is like the AIDS situation,” he said, referring to the initial outpouring of financial and other support from nongovernmental organizations and charitable groups. “Honestly, going once but not returning doesn’t do anything. There is so much corruption, and the need is so great. It hasn’t gotten better. You go to Port-au-Prince and people are still living in tents; the water situation hasn’t been solved; people are hungry. That’s why I wanted to make a statement that the foundation was there to stay, and that they could trust my integrity.”

Because “the children are most in need, and they are the future,” Mr. Deshommes said, the initial step has been a school — the locale’s first — currently in temporary quarters but with three kindergarten classes and one prekindergarten class. Like the foundation, it is staffed by Haitians. The total fund-raising goal is $200,000, of which Mr. Deshommes has raised $40,000. On a trip this weekend, Mr. Deshommes was to meet with the architect for the school building. Planned next are a community center and kitchen, a vegetable garden and a clinic.

Read the full story here.

10195: Classic Coverage Of Garcelle Beauvais.

9008: Living The Vodou LIFE.

LIFE.com presents Inside Haitian Vodou by Anthony Karen.

8635: Weekend Shots.

Hit by the news in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Wyclef Jean insists he was shot in the hand while campaigning in Haiti for presidential candidate Michel Martelly. But local police claim he was injured by glass. In addition to being denied the opportunity to run for president of Haiti, the recording artist is ineligible to be a gunshot victim as well.

• Snoop Dogg will team up with Colt 45 to launch a new label called Blast by Colt 45, containing fruit flavors and twice the alcohol level of original Colt 45. It works every time—in half the time.

8583: Unacceptable Acceptance Speeches.

Not exactly Oscar-worthy performances in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Actor Matt Damon has turned on President Barack Obama. “I really think he misinterpreted his mandate,” said Damon during an interview with CNN. “A friend of mine said it the other day and I thought it was a great line: ‘I no longer hope for audacity.’” Damon also ripped Obama’s education policy and foreign policies. President Obama probably wishes he could sic The Adjustment Bureau on Damon’s ass.

• Sean Penn believes Charlie Sheen would be a great help in Haiti. “I think his energies, intelligence and passion could be both of service and servicing to him, as it is to all who are touched by the struggle of the Haitian people,” said Penn. “Charlie is one of the very few public people who cannot be accused of using the media to his own benefit. I would very much like to show my old friend the world of needs on the ground in Haiti, and introduce him and his tremendous wit to our hard-working Haitian staff.” No word if Penn’s invitation is also extended to Sheen’s goddesses.

8304: Riding The Insensitivity Train.

Talking out loud with a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Hot 97 DJ Cipha Sounds was indefinitely suspended for making on-air remarks that especially offended the Haitian community in New York. Station officials declared Cipha Sounds “will immediately undertake sensitivity training focused on the Haitian community and specifically, the challenges the Haitian community has faced in terms of the HIV epidemic.” Gee, sensitivity training is growing increasingly specialized.

• Christine O’Donnell argued she did not engage in any financial wrongdoings connected to her failed U.S. Senate campaign. “There’s been no impermissible use of campaign funds whatsoever,” insisted O’Donnell during an interview. “You have to look at this whole thug-politic tactic for what it is.” O’Donnell should immediately undertake sensitivity training focused on Thug Life and specifically, the challenges people in the community have faced in regards to Thug Life.

7890: Wyclef Jean Not In The Running.

From The Chicago Tribune…

Wyclef Jean reportedly excluded from list of Haiti presidential candidates
An electoral official says the hip-hop artist fails to meet several legal requirements for candidacy, but does not elaborate.

From Reuters

Port-au-Prince, Haiti — Haitian American hip-hop star Wyclef Jean is not on the list of approved candidates who satisfy legal requirements to run in Haiti’s Nov. 28 presidential election, an electoral official said Thursday.

The presidential bid by the 39-year-old singer-songwriter and international celebrity had triggered widespread enthusiasm in his poor, earthquake-ravaged Caribbean homeland. But it had been challenged on the grounds that Jean, whose primary residence is in New Jersey, did not fully meet the requirements, including a key one on Haitian residency.

“He is not on the list as I speak,” said the member of the country’s provisional electoral council, who asked not to be identified.

He said the electoral disputes bureau entrusted with settling challenges to candidacies had ruled that Jean did not meet several legal requirements, but he gave no details.

Jean, who left Haiti with his family to live in Brooklyn, N.Y., at the age of 9 and launched his music career in the United States, was among 34 contenders for the Haitian presidency who filed their documents with the council this month.

There was no immediate comment from Jean, who earlier Thursday met President Rene Preval in Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital.

The provisional electoral council was expected Friday to formally publish the list of approved candidates to succeed Preval, who cannot seek reelection, having served two terms in office.

Haiti is still struggling to recover from the Jan. 12 earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people and dealt a crippling blow to a country that was already the poorest in the Western Hemisphere.

7845: No ThankYou® Citibank.

Don’t mean to make presumptions based on appearances, but no way did this douche bag pass on a trip in order to help Haiti rebuild.

7823: Driven To Excess And Success.

Quick hits in a MultiCultClassics Monologue…

• Rapper DMX surrendered to a judge, prepared to start serving a 90-day prison sentence for reckless driving. Going from zero to 90 has never been a problem for the man.

• Wyclef Jean is thinking about running for president of Haiti. Well, he’s already got his theme song in place.