The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States

In five sections—Childhood, Migration, Half/First Generation, Return, and Future—the thirty-three contributors to this anthology write movingly, often hauntingly, of their lives in Haiti and the United States. Their dyaspora, much like a butterfly's fluctuating path, is a shifting landscape in which there is much travel between two worlds, between their place of origin and their adopted land.

This compilation of essays and poetry brings together Haitian-Americans of different generations and backgrounds, linking the voices for whom English is a first language and others whose dreams will always be in French and Kreyòl. Community activists, scholars, visual artists and filmmakers join renowned journalists, poets, novelists and memoirists to produce a poignant portrayal of lives in transition.

Edwidge Danticat, in her powerful introduction, pays tribute to Jean Dominique, a sometime participant in the Haitian dyaspora and a recent martyr to Haiti's troubled politics, and the many members of the dyaspora who refused to be silenced. Their stories confidently and passionately illustrate the joys and heartaches, hopes and aspirations of a relatively new group of immigrants belonging to two countries that have each at times maligned and embraced them.

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The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States

In five sections—Childhood, Migration, Half/First Generation, Return, and Future—the thirty-three contributors to this anthology write movingly, often hauntingly, of their lives in Haiti and the United States. Their dyaspora, much like a butterfly's fluctuating path, is a shifting landscape in which there is much travel between two worlds, between their place of origin and their adopted land.

This compilation of essays and poetry brings together Haitian-Americans of different generations and backgrounds, linking the voices for whom English is a first language and others whose dreams will always be in French and Kreyòl. Community activists, scholars, visual artists and filmmakers join renowned journalists, poets, novelists and memoirists to produce a poignant portrayal of lives in transition.

Edwidge Danticat, in her powerful introduction, pays tribute to Jean Dominique, a sometime participant in the Haitian dyaspora and a recent martyr to Haiti's troubled politics, and the many members of the dyaspora who refused to be silenced. Their stories confidently and passionately illustrate the joys and heartaches, hopes and aspirations of a relatively new group of immigrants belonging to two countries that have each at times maligned and embraced them.

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The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States

The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States

by Edwidge Danticat
The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States

The Butterfly's Way: Voices from the Haitian Dyaspora in the United States

by Edwidge Danticat

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Overview

In five sections—Childhood, Migration, Half/First Generation, Return, and Future—the thirty-three contributors to this anthology write movingly, often hauntingly, of their lives in Haiti and the United States. Their dyaspora, much like a butterfly's fluctuating path, is a shifting landscape in which there is much travel between two worlds, between their place of origin and their adopted land.

This compilation of essays and poetry brings together Haitian-Americans of different generations and backgrounds, linking the voices for whom English is a first language and others whose dreams will always be in French and Kreyòl. Community activists, scholars, visual artists and filmmakers join renowned journalists, poets, novelists and memoirists to produce a poignant portrayal of lives in transition.

Edwidge Danticat, in her powerful introduction, pays tribute to Jean Dominique, a sometime participant in the Haitian dyaspora and a recent martyr to Haiti's troubled politics, and the many members of the dyaspora who refused to be silenced. Their stories confidently and passionately illustrate the joys and heartaches, hopes and aspirations of a relatively new group of immigrants belonging to two countries that have each at times maligned and embraced them.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781569472187
Publisher: Soho Press, Incorporated
Publication date: 07/01/2003
Pages: 280
Product dimensions: 5.48(w) x 8.19(h) x 0.78(d)

About the Author

About The Author

Edwidge Danticat is the author of numerous books, including Brother, I’m Dying, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and was a National Book Award finalist; Breath, Eyes, Memory, an Oprah Book Club selection; Krik? Krak!, a National Book Award finalist; The Dew Breaker, winner of the inaugural Story Prize; and The Farming of Bones, which won an American Book Award for fiction in 1999. The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she has been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and elsewhere.

Read an Excerpt


Chapter One


    Present Past Future


    Marc Christophe


What will I tell you, my son?
What will I say to you, my daughter?
You for whom the tropics
Are a marvelous paradise
A blooming garden of islands floating
In the blue box
Of the Caribbean sea
What will I tell you
When you ask me
Father, speak to us of Haiti?
Then my eyes sparkling with pride
I would love to tell you
Of the blue mornings of my country
When the mountains stretch out
Lazily
In the predawn light
The waterfalls flowing
With freshness
The fragrance of molasses-filled coffee
In the courtyards

The fields of sugar cane
Racing
In cloudy waves
Towards the horizon
The heated voices of peasant men
Who caress the earth
With their fertile hands
The supple steps of peasant women
On top of the dew
The morning clamor
In the plains the small valleys
And the lost hamlets
Which cloak the true heart
Of Haiti.
I would also tell you
Of the tin huts
Slumbering beneath the moon
In the milky warmth
Of spirit-filled
Summer nights
And the countryside cemeteries
Where the ancestors rest
In graves ornate
With purple seashells
And the sweet and heady perfumes
Of basilique lemongrass
I would love to tell you
Of the colonial elegance of the villas
Hidden in the bougainvilleas
And the beds of azaleas
And the vastpaved trails

Behind dense walls
The verandahs with princely mosaics
Embellished
With large vases of clay
Covered
With sheets of ferns
Pink cretonnes
Verandahs where one catches
A breath of fresh air
During nights
Of staggering heat
By listening to
The sounds of the city
Rising up to the foothills
I would love to recite for you
The great history
Of the peoples of my country
Their daily struggles
For food and drink
Tireless people
Hardworking people
Whose lives are a struggle
With no end
Against misery
Fatigue
Dust
In the open markets
Under the sun's blazing breath
I would want to make you see
The clean unbroken streets
Straight as arrows

Bordered by the green
Of royal palms and date palms in bloom
I would love to make you admire
The shadowed dwellings
The oasis of green
Of my Eden
I would carry you
On my shivering wings
To the top of Croix D'Haiti
And from there
Your gaze would travel over
These mountains
These plains
These valleys
These towns
These schools
These orphanages
These studios
These churches
These factories
These hounforts
These prayer houses
These universities
These art houses
Conceived by our genius
Where hope never dies.

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