10 years since the earthquake hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art invites you to a gathering bearing witness to selected works by Haitian artists. SBC will present a screening of Fatal Assistance by Raoul Peck, a talk by novelist and poet Lyonel Trouillot, followed by a poetry reading by nènè myriam konaté. Please join us this Friday, January 10, 2020, from 6 to 9 p.m., for an evening of remembrance and reflection. 

 

Haiti has been experiencing an ongoing crisis for the past several years, which has intensified in recent months—this escalation has impeded the organization of commemorative gatherings in Haiti. As the immeasurable losses from the earthquake will continue to be a resounding trauma, January 12 marks a day where those affected take time to tend to their extensive grief. The current political climate in Haiti has made such a moment one people can not afford to take. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the quasi-insurgent resistance that Haitian citizens are upholding is a direct response to a complete failure of governance to reconfigure the country’s economic and sociopolitical system, worsened by the devastation. A devastation that would demand actions of radical transformation beyond urban reconstruction. 

 

There is a constant urgency to break from situating a place through the lens of its tragedy. For those bound to Haiti, their embodied reality is rooted in the power of their collective action. Today, 10 years later, the act of commemorating, when the Haitian people in the midst of uprising are unable to do so, is a gesture of solidarity. We would be thankful to have you amongst us for this commemoration.