12243: June 6/NYC Voodoo Roots: Special Tribute to a Great Haitian Singer (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "tminsky@ix.netcom.com" <tminsky@ix.netcom.com>


Subject: Fwd: Voodoo Roots: Special Tribute to a Great Haitian Singer June 6
 June 6
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Thursday, June 6, 2002 at 7:30 pm

Voodoo Roots: A Tribute to Martha Jean-Claude, the Grand Lady of Haitian
Song
Featuring a video screening of "A Woman of Two Islands", a documentary about
>the life of Martha Jean-Claude, co-directed by Richard Mirabal Jean-Claude
>and Katherine Kean
And featuring speakers:
>* Katherine Kean, filmmaker and director of Crowing Rooster Arts, who was a
>close friend of and collaborator with Martha Jean-Claude;
>* Richard Mirabal Jean-Claude, Martha's son, musician, and currently
>director of the Martha Jean-Claude Cultural Foundation in Port au Prince,
Haiti; he will also sing;

>* Emerante de Pradines, Haitian roots singer who "discovered" Martha
>Jean-Claude and performed with her since the 1940s.


Although Afro-Caribbean music from the English- and Spanish-speaking islands
is well-known in North America, the musical traditions from Haiti are less
<DIV></DIV>often heard in this country.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>On June 6, we will honor Haitian singer and actress Martha Jean-Claude, the
<DIV></DIV>Grand Lady of Haitian Song, who died last November in Havana. Known as "the
<DIV></DIV>daughter of two islands," she was a symbol of the fraternity between Haiti and Cuba, where she lived most of her life and raised four children. Her engaged music inspired Haitians struggling against dictatorship for years.
Martha Jean-Claude came to fame in Haiti during the 1940s as an actress and
>singer, and in 1952 she was imprisoned for publishing a play, "Avrinette,"
which the regime of Paul Magloire found subversive. She fled to Cuba that
year. After the victory of the Cuban Revolution, she stayed in Havana,
becoming an ambassador for the Cuban Revolution, Haitian culture, and the
anti-Duvalierist struggle, bringing her concerts to many socialist countries
as well as playing at schools, Army bases, and official receptions in Cuba.

In Haiti and Cuba, her name is a household word, but few in the US have
heard of her. Beginning her career in the 1940s, Martha, along with

Emeranthe de Pradines, was the first to explore and popularize the
traditional melodies and voodoo rhythms of Haiti, thus creating the original
Haitian "roots" music.


Sliding scale admission: $6, $8, $10
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>*****
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Haïti Progrès, November 21, 2001
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Singer Martha Jean-Claude Dead at 82
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Haitian singer and actress Martha Jean-Claude, whose engaged music inspired
<DIV></DIV>Haitians struggling against dictatorship for decades, died at age 82 on
<DIV></DIV>November 14 in Havana.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Known as "the daughter of two islands," she was a symbol of the fraternity
<DIV></DIV>between Haiti and Cuba, where she lived most of her life and raised four
<DIV></DIV>children.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Martha Jean-Claude, known affectionately as Mamita, came to fame in Haiti
<DIV></DIV>during the 1940s, most notably during Port-au-Prince's bicentennial
<DIV></DIV>festivities in 1949. As a child, she sang at the Port-au-Prince Cathedral
<DIV></DIV>and, in 1942, began her professional career with folkloric concerts at the
<DIV></DIV>Rex Theatre, where she was often accompanied by fellow singer-dancer
<DIV></DIV>Emérantes Despradines.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>In 1952, she was imprisoned for publishing a play, "Avrinette," which the
<DIV></DIV>regime of President Paul Magloire found subversive. She fled to Cuba on
<DIV></DIV>December 20, 1952.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>"I left Haiti after spending several months in prison while pregnant," she
<DIV></DIV>recalled in an interview. "I gave birth two days after getting out. One
<DIV></DIV>month after leaving prison--my husband was in Cuba--I left to join him." She
<DIV></DIV>had married Cuban journalist Victor Mirabal, whom she met after one of her
<DIV></DIV>shows. A few months later, they married in Venezuela.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Together they had four children: Linda, an opera singer in Madrid; Sandra, a
<DIV></DIV>musician living in Amsterdam; Magdalena, a doctor living in Cuba; and
<DIV></DIV>Richard Mirabal, a musician and director of the Martha Jean-Claude
<DIV></DIV>Foundation, based in Pétionville, Haïti.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>In Cuba, she quickly became a star on the stage, radio, and television,
<DIV></DIV>playing with different orchestras and in many clubs, including the famous
<DIV></DIV>"Tropicana." In 1957, she spent a year working in Mexico, where her "Afro
<DIV></DIV>Cabaret" was very popular on television.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>When she returned to Cuba in 1958, the country was in upheaval and she sided
<DIV></DIV>with the revolutionaries. After the Batista dictatorship fell in 1959, she
<DIV></DIV>became something of an ambassador for the Cuban Revolution, Haitian culture,
<DIV></DIV>and the anti-Duvalierist struggle, bringing her concerts to many socialist
<DIV></DIV>countries as well as playing at schools, Army bases, and official receptions
<DIV></DIV>in Cuba. She even travelled with the Cuban Army to Angola in the 1970s. She
<DIV></DIV>also toured Paris, Montreal, New York, Panama, Mexico, and Spain.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>In 1971, she starred in the anti-Duvalierist film Simparele, produced in
<DIV></DIV>Cuba.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>"It's natural that I struggle for social justice," Martha said in an
<DIV></DIV>interview explaining the political character of many of her 50 songs and 8
<DIV></DIV>albums. "To sing the song of the peasants, that's what is in my heart. I
<DIV></DIV>lean toward these people. My songs are what one calls protest ballads."
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>After 34 years in exile, she returned to Haiti in 1986, after the fall of
<DIV></DIV>Jean-Claude Duvalier, and held a triumphant concert. She performed again in
<DIV></DIV>Port-au-Prince in 1991 with Mackandal, a musical group she formed in 1978
<DIV></DIV>with her children Richard and Sandra.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Several of Martha's grandchildren accompanied her to a concert in her honor
<DIV></DIV>with Despradines and Cuban singer Celia Cruz at the Sylvio Cator stadium in
<DIV></DIV>Port-au-Prince in July 1996.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>The same year, President René Préval honored her with Haiti's highest medal
<DIV></DIV>of honor. "With her children born in Cuba, she created the Martha
<DIV></DIV>Jean-Claude Foundation with the goal of perfecting the artistic formation of
<DIV></DIV>youth and to allow better cultural relations between Haiti and Cuba," a
<DIV></DIV>Haitian government press release explained after her death.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Last year, Richard Mirabal, working with Cuban television, produced a
<DIV></DIV>one-hour documentary on her life and music entitled "Fanm De Zil" (Woman of
<DIV></DIV>Two Islands).
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Her last public appearance was at a reception in the Palace of the
<DIV></DIV>Revolution in Havana on July 17 on the occasion of President Jean-Bertrand
<DIV></DIV>Aristide's state visit to Cuba. Although in a wheel-chair, Martha bantered
<DIV></DIV>cheerfully with Fidel Castro and Aristide.
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>Born in Port-au-Prince on March 21, 1919, Martha suffered in recent years
<DIV></DIV>from diabetes and other ailments and spent her final month in a Cuban
<DIV></DIV>hospital. Her family was all on hand for her death. Her funeral, attended by
<DIV></DIV>former Haitian president René Préval, was held in Havana on November 15.
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