FAU Libraries Exhibits A Little Window into Haiti May-July 2001

"Yon ti Koudčy sou Ayiti" "Une Petite Fenętre sur Haďti" "Little Window into Haiti"

The FAU Wimberly Library is presenting an exhibit that serves as "a little window into Haiti" from May through July in the library’s lobby. The exhibit aims to enchant, instruct and invite patrons to more earnestly seek out the riches of this second-oldest republic in the Western Hemisphere.

"Many see them only as ‘boat people’ — illiterate, uncultured, illegal outsiders, sweating in kitchens and gardens, speaking a language only they know, living invisible lives." Thus opened a recent news article describing Palm Beach County’s Haitian population, the largest outside of Haiti.

The image is as negative as it is real. The extreme poverty of the people who inhabit the western reaches of Hispaniola, "the pearl of the Antilles", has long been documented. But little is known of the very real gold embedded in the hearts of a people who, in the field of battle, dared to raise a hand against the assembled hosts of Napoleon only to emerge a victorious nation.

The same passion infuses Haiti’s art, music and dance with an effect that quite magnificently mesmerizes the imagination. It is hoped that the exhibit will lead people to unearth the riches of the history and literature of a nation that is not only on our doorstep, but is as close as the FAU Wimberly Library.