Month: August 2019

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“Haitians May Leave Their Country, but It Never Leaves Them” (NYT)

“Haitians May Leave Their Country, but It Never Leaves Them” (NYT) by Aminatta Forna (August 27, 2019)

“Throughout the stories in “Everything Inside,” Edwidge Danticat’s birthplace, Haiti, emerges in an almost mythic fashion. It is a land where a life can be changed, a land that exists both in the past and the present, whose essence may be carried as far as Miami or Brooklyn. Perhaps most of all, it is a land that is rarely visible, for despite its overwhelming presence in these stories, Danticat sets only two of them there. In and from this unseen Haiti a woman’s ex-husband’s new lover will be kidnapped; a woman’s father will return to be part of a bright post-dictatorship future; a faithless husband will try to reconcile with his wife, only to lose her and his daughter in the earthquake of 2010; a desperate man, ditched from a raft, will crawl onshore and into the arms of the woman who will become his wife.”

For more, click through the New York Times link.

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“Arcade Fire Members Talk Haitian Rum and Keeping It Loud at Their Restaurant Agrikol” (Eater)

“Arcade Fire Members Talk Haitian Rum and Keeping It Loud at Their Restaurant Agrikol,” by Tim Forster. July 29, 2019. (Eater).

“It’s been over three years since two members of famed band Arcade Fire — Régine Chassagne and Win Butler — opened a restaurant in Montreal’s Village. Working with Toronto restaurateur Jen Agg and her partner Roland Jean, Agrikol quickly became a go-to for Haitian food and rum-laden cocktails, and then even more of a hub when next-door bar Ti-Agrikol opened.

Agg and Jean left the restaurant in 2018 to focus on their Toronto businesses (perhaps the most amicable split ever, notes Butler), but the restaurant is still going strong. Butler, Chassagne, and Agrikol chef Paul Toussaint sat down with Eater to talk about it.”

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“Where to Start if You Haven’t Read Enough Toni Morrison” (TIME)

“Where to Start if You Haven’t Read Enough Toni Morrison,” by Annabel Gutterman (August 6, 2019)

“Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison died Monday night at 88. Powerfully interrogating some of the most pressing issues in American society, Morrison’s books cover themes including the psychological impacts of slavery and the destructive nature of oppression. Morrison wrote 11 novels during her career, beginning with her debut The Bluest Eye in 1970, in addition to children’s books, plays and an opera. She was also working on a 12th novel at the time of her death, her publisher confirmed to TIME. As the loss of one of America’s most accomplished writers prompts many to feel they haven’t read enough of Morrison’s books, here are some suggestions for where to begin if you find yourself among that category.”