MEDIA STRATEGIES . EVENT COORDINATIONS . CREATIVE PERFORMANCES
(305) 879 2902
March 08th 2008
Dear school representative,
We are pleased to invite Haitian vendors, craftsmen, dancers, artists and musician to become part of the City of North Miami’s exclusive annual event, ZAKAFEST™ at the Museum of Contemporary Art Plaza, scheduled for Sunday, May 4th 2008.
The event will run from 2:00pm to 10:00pm, and we expect families from all over the neighborhood to be there to experience Haitian culture, buy native goods, and dance the night away to the beat of the Rara. This experience will also include an organic food sale, face painting, theatre skits, and a long-awaited South Florida presentation by special invited guest: Haitian Roots Music pioneer, Sanba Zao. We expect this free event to draw over 3,000 people in all, not to mention passersby on busy 125th street.
In our efforts to promote education through the art and science of Haitian culture, we plan on having an art exhibit attached to conferences and symposiums at the North Miami Public Library starting on the evening of Thursday,May 1st2008 where notable figures of anthropology, ethnology, visual and performing arts will share their unique craft techniques with other art gurus of Miami. This location will also be used for our press conference, which will be held one week prior to the event.
Putting together a line-up of upscale advocates who stand firm for the development of a better Haiti is not an easy task. We are looking for your support to make this a success by permitting the participating performers to work with your students and deliver a never before seen presentation where the new generation and old unite. All talents in the visual and performing arts are welcome to take part in this exciting show by submitting their work for the exhibit or rehearsing for a couple of short pieces with the invited musicians. Their commitment would not interfere with their school schedules as we will be in communication with their direct teachers. Your student body is the key audience for ZAKAFEST™ as the South Florida youth is often neglected and rarely gets a chance to interact withprofessional performers. After their exchange with our artists/musicians, they will be more grounded to their diverse roots and be more motivated to express themselves with pride.
We hope you will be able to endorse this effort to improve one of South Florida’s growing immigrant populations and celebrate your neighborhood’s most valuable assets with fun filled activities that have a transcending meaning. We look forward to answering any questions you may have to further your understanding on this venture at your earliest convenience.
Please review the attached student intake form and summarized event description for a slightly more detailed idea of our vision with the City of North Miami.
Sincerely,
Nathalie Guillaume Richard Pierre-Louis
Producer Executive Producer
The City of North Miami and The Backyard Movement, Inc. presentZakafest™
“Celebrating The Spirit of Agriculture and Labor with Haitian Culture”
Why celebrate The Spirit of Agriculture and Labor with Haitian Culture?
The international meaning of May 1st.-
May 1st, International Workers' Day, commemorates the historic struggle of working people throughout the world, and is recognized in every country except the United States, Canada, and South Africa. This despite the fact that the holiday began in the 1880s in the United States, with the fight for an eight-hour work day. It is also associated with what is traditionally called May Day, which is about the gift of sharing, community togetherness and spring beauty.
The traditions and stories surrounding this day vary from place to place. There is, however, one thing that is similar in most celebrations - the celevration of agriculture!
One of the most popularly known traditions is to hang a basket full of spring flowers and/or other small gifts from the abundant soil on a neighbor's doorknob.
In London, May Day is celebrated with the children going from house to house. They bring flowers and get pennies in return. The pennies are then thrown into a wishing well. The pennies are then donated to charity.
In France, cows play an important role in May Day. The cows are led in parades with many flowers attached to their tails. The people watching the parade try to touch the cows; it is believed to be good luck.
In Germany, one tradition is for boys to secretly plant a May tree in front of the window of the girl they love.
On May 1st, people in Hawaii celebrate their own version of May Day; they call it Lei Day. People give Hawaiian leis to each other. They put them around each other's necks and sometimes give a traditional kiss.
Role of Agriculture in Haitian Culture.-
The Culture of Haiti encompasses a variety of Haitian traditions, from native Taino customs to practices imported during French colonisation and Spanish imperialism. As in the cases of Cuba and the Dominican Republic (but to a much larger degree), Haiti is a Afro-Latin nation with strong African contributions to the culture as well as its language, music and religion. French, Spanish, and to a lesser extent Taino and Arab customs are present in society, which are all embedded in the food, art, and folk religion of this mysterious land.
With 66% of the laboring population deriving its living exclusively from the soil, farming is the mainstay of the Haitian economy. Production of coffee, sugarcane, bananas, corn, rice, sorghum, dry beans, and cocoa beans still remain most of the population’s volatile source of income, which has immensely declined since the 1980’s.
From Haitian traditional living to working in the United States.-
Haitians, like most immigrants who reside the United States, are hard workers who rarely take the time to relax with their families in a positive environment filled with activities that remind them of their homeland rituals.
North Miami is the Mecca of Haitian immigrants who are seeking for activities with a culture-oriented nature to bring a sense of identity to their mechanical lives. Haitians started immigrating to the United States in the early 1800s, but did not receive much attention until the 1950s and early 1960s when Haitian immigration to the U.S. began to increase visibly. For example, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service reported that between 1931 and 1940, there were only 191 legal Haitian immigrants. In contrast, between 1961 and 1970, there were 34,499 legal Haitian immigrants (it is important to note that there are no numbers of Haitian immigrants before 1932 because Haitians were classified as Caribbean immigrants). According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 4.2% of the Miami-Dade County population was Haitian in 2000, making them the second largest immigrant group (after Cubans) in the county.
With this uplifting annual event, residents of the Miami-Dade area will be able to soak with pride in the sounds of Haiti while purchasing goods from the land such as crafts, foods, jewels, plants, books, medicinal products, art, music and more, giving value to those who still hand manufacture these products and deserve rightfully this ancient holiday.
The Haitian youth of North Miami will benefit immensely from this effort to bring cultural awareness in such a fast moving city. The more occasions they are presented with to experience the beauty of their culture and to expand their knowledge of it is crucial for their understanding of other nations and the important role of the 1st black republic in their freedom.
Mimicking what usually happens in Port-au-Prince on May 1st better known as “Work and Agriculture Day”, Zakafest™ celebrates the people of Haiti, of whom most are farmers, hence the name of this event, which is dedicated to the spirit of Agriculture: ZAKA.
In Haitian culture, the spirit of Zaka is associated with a gentle simple farmer, and greatly respected by the peasants since he is, like them, a hard worker. He is usually barefoot, carries a “macoute” sack and wears a straw hat. He is addressed as "cousin" and by nature is suspicious, out for profit, fond of quibbling, and has a fear and hatred of town folk. His vocal stylization consists of the almost unintelligible sounds of a goat. He is known for the gossip he spreads and for his girl chasing. He is young and likes to play when not working.
About Zakafest ™
The Academia Aspect.-
Emerging and established artists embrace a history of appropriating imagery and incorporating found objects into art, a practice born from necessity and great invention. Haitian art absorbs and interprets visual culture so masterfully because of its strong foundation. As artists embrace new artistic movements, methods and media within the Haitian art, their work grows increasingly vital in the contemporary art world. In Haiti and the Diaspora, artwork spans from artist collectives who reclaim urban spaces to create monumental sculpture to established artists who innovate traditional genres like the colorful flags to illustrate contemporary issues.
To celebrate the “Work and Agriculture Day”, a month long art exhibit is scheduled to kick off on the evening of Thursday May 1st at the North Miami Public Library featuring both local and foreign curators putting a moving display of mixed media, assemblages, sculptures, crafts, costumes, textiles, acrylics, oils, pastels, photographs, instillations and videos celebrating the goodness of the land and the beauty of Haitian art. The pieces will be showing in sync with talented High School students sharing similar positive visions of Haitian life.
Lectures, workshops, symposiums and conferences led by well-published scholars will also be scheduled for the remainder of the month to assure the long-term educational value of this event within students, amateurs or professionals who want to participate in the philosophical expansion of Haiti.
The Entertainment Aspect.-
Starting in the late 1970s, youth from Port-au-Prince began experimenting with new types of life. To question the notion of "the Haitian nation", several men led by Louis Lesly Marcelin, also known as Sanba Zao began trying a new way of living, embodied in the Sanba Movement. They drew upon global trends in black power, Bob Marley, "Hippie"-dom, as well as prominently from rural life in Haiti. They dressed in the traditional blue denim (karoko) of peasants, eschewed the commercialized and processed life offered by global capitalism, and celebrated the values in communal living.
An outdoor family event with this similar collective approach, Zakafest ™ will be held on Sunday May 4th 2007, starting at 2pm and ending at 10pm. Since we are aiming to have guests of all age, celebrating the actual holiday on the nearest Sunday is the most effective way to guarantee the highest attendance by our target population.
The program will consist of an open market of agricultural products with the main intention of passing on helpful tips to maintain a greener environment. Haiti employs an unusual form of farming called arboriculture. Combinations of fruit trees and various roots, particularly the manioc plant, the traditional Haitian bread staple, replace the grain culture of the usual subsistence-economy farming. Crops are cultivated with simple hand tools; the plow or animal power is only rarely employed, except on sugarcane plantations. With these facts in hand, it is our duty as a community to teach the children the importance of trees in our daily lives from the oxygen and food they bring us to the shade and safety net they create for us.
Other vendors will be selling books, CDs, DVDs, jewels, clothing, oils, incenses, arts, crafts and many more amazing products, suiting all our attendees’ needs and tastes, as they indulge in this exclusive Haitian experience.
Local performers will be entertaining the crowd throughout the day as we will feature incredible new musical talent, high school marching bands and step teems, poets, dancers, theatre troops and more. Artists will be doing flower baskets, face paint, beaded necklaces and masques with kids to ensure that they will nurture the memories of attending this fun filled day. Featuring musical legend Sanba Zao, other special invited musicians from New-York, Canada and Haiti will wrap up the evening with exotic sounds of rhythm and harmony as they perform traditional Haitian songs.
For Additional information.-
For a more comprehensive idea of The Backyard Movement, Inc. and how we empower the Haitian community through educational programs and community events such as the project described above, please visit our website at
We are highly committed to bringing a positive outlook to the Haitian Culture through a display of its multidimensional aspects. For years we have been depicted as a negative people, practicing black magic and unconcerned of our youth’s education. This is a chance to make a difference and bring a bright future to the Haitian Diaspora generations to come. Your immeasurable support proves that we stand united as a people able to bring the best out of this flamboyant immigrant population.
IF YOU ARE A MIAMI DADE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM STUDENT AND PARTICIPATING IN ZAKAFEST 2008, PLEASE FILL OUT THE FORM BELOW
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STUDENT PARTICIPANT INTAKE FORM
1.NAME
2.ADDRESS
3.PHONE NUMBER
4.PARENT’S INFO (NAME AND CELL PHONE NUMBER)
5. INSTITUTION’S NAME
6.GRADE LEVEL
7.MEDIUM WILL YOU BE SHOWING FOR THE EVENT? (DANCE, MUSIC, SKIT, POEM, ART PIECE)
8.NAME AND LENGTH (SIZE) OF YOUR PIECE
SIGN: ______DATE:______
PARENT SIGN (IF UNDER 18) ______