Edwidge Danticat: evaluation

Transcript context

…If you think of Haitian culture today, is it correct to think that the Haitian diaspora is now Haitian culture? If you think of Haitian painting, there’s Duval-Carrié, but he’s lived in Puerto Rico and France and Florida. You are the leading Haitian writer, if one were going to call you that. Wyclef Jean — from Haiti, but now mostly in North America. Leyla McCalla. Some would even call Basquiat a Haitian artist. Is that now outside of Haiti, what Haitian culture is? No, I think that would be incorrect to say because there is still a great vibrant culture inside Haiti. There are wonderful writers inside Haiti, as well. There’re wonderful visual artists, musicians. If you think of it like any other diaspora, we’re going to be like . . . If you’re in North America or if you’re out in Europe, there are some mechanisms that make our work more visible. My work is in English, so naturally, people have more access to it more easily. But there’s a really strong and vibrant culture inside Haiti as well that people like us — we feel fed by, that we feel is still important to us as readers. I’m a writer, but I’m also a reader. I appreciate art. I’m on the council of Centre d’Art d’Haiti, an esteemed institution that goes back several decades now, so there’s still that culture. It’s really a powerful statement, I think, to Haitians and Haitian culture because there’s so many obstacles all the time in the way of artists in Haiti, but they still are thriving and are very . . . been wonderful expressing what’s happening very powerfully through their work. Do you think the Haitian diaspora is culturally stable? Or do you think it will, in essence, be absorbed and assimilated into a more narrowly Afro-American culture?…

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