universal literacy for haiti
universal literacy for haiti
Helping Young People Create New Worlds
and Partners' Power of Good
Lèkol Toupatou! (School Everywhere!)
for Universal Literacy in Haiti.
Feeding Education.
Educators in Music
JAMBAR helps SUFC and 18 other Partners in Music and Education.
Madame Franck Paul with
her 243-page textbook, Mon Livre Unique.
SUFC and Partners held a
Concert for Kidd Jordan in 2019.
SEPTEMBER TO novemBER 2021: Partners in haitI PROGRESS,
WHILE musicians ADD TO THEIR SUPPORt!
LISTEN ON BANDCAMP
TO THE 22 TRACKS!
Into september, teams in haiti
continue their great work, WHILE ALLIES ADD TO THEIR SUPPORT
•1 Video of one of the 200 OPADEL houses in Jeremie, southwest Haiti, that successfully withstood the 7.2 earthquake of August 14, 2021. OPADEL in Haitian Kréyol stands for Organization of Peasants for Development in the Mountains. You also see specifactions for the 35-square-meter 'stone gabion wall' houses built in La Montagne and Jeremie. Here also find an Interview with OPADEL co-founder Dominique Romuald.
•2 Lupson Pasteur and his Team of six builders bring supplies
and reconstruction to mountains in the Department of Nippes.
•3 Students from EFE and FEPE in Port-au-Prince return to the South with more food, medicine, and other supplies.
•4 The STACK of great tracks by SUFC Supporters (David Amram, Boukman Eksperyans, Alex de Grassi, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Jonathan Richman) increases with contributions from devorah major, Opal Palmer Adisa, Nilak Butler, Gina Pacaldo, and a Rivers of Dreams band of Roger Lewis, Kirk Joseph, Herlin Riley, and Don Paul. The Stack is more loaded!
•1 OPADEL and Dominique Romudal sent SUFC this impressive walk-around of one of the 200 houses built by OPADEL in the 'City of Poets', Jeremie, in southwest Haiti. All 200 houses survived the August 14 7.2 earthquake intact.
•1 A second video from OPADEL lets us see particulars of construction of 'stone wall gabion' housing. The stability and
economy and do-ability of this housing are together perfect for Haiti and much else of the developing world that's subject to
earthquakes and/or hurricanes. As you can see in the PDF from 'Architecture and Development' and 'Planete Urgence' that follows below, a 35-square-meter house can be built by a Team of three technicians and two family-members within five weeks. Haitians and allies have proved this model's soundness for everyday living and against storms, year after year, over the past decade.
•1 This summary from the European partners 'Architecture & Development' details how 'stone-wall gabion' construction combines elements ancient and indigenous with modern. See the entire PDF HERE.
An anti-seismic device
Stone-gabion wall technology utilizes the rigidity of a mass of stones and the flexibility of metal cages to create a structure whose natural frequency sits within the optimum 0.3s-1s range. The Laboratory of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at INSA, Rennes, used the computer code, Cast-3M – created by the CEA (Centre of Atomic Energy) - to numerically model and understand the behaviour of stone-gabion walls. Under Eurocode 8, stone-gabion wall buildings can resist earthquakes of magnitudes greater than 5.5 and a maximum ground acceleration of 3m/s2 (Seismic Zone 4).
Using Local Resources
The most interesting aspect of this technology is the use of stones collected on site, thus benefitting from local materials and limiting the need for imported materials (and their associated transport costs and environmental impact). The site is dry, masonry is not required. Consequently, cement and its associated problems are avoided.
Self-help construction
Investment in the project by the beneficiary families is fundamental. Each family must collect 35-38m3 of stones that can be placed in the woven metal cages, which form the bedrock of the house. Construction of the walls (with no foundations) is very easy and requires 1 mason, 1 skilled worker and 3 beneficiaries. This technology is reproducible due to the simplicity of construction. It can therefore be appropriated by unskilled workers (self-help builders). The beneficiaries’ financial contribution also guarantees their ‘ownership’ of the project. Due to their involvement from the start of construction, they know how to maintain the building into the future.
Development of a new supply chain
At the same time, the project aims to develop a local supply-chain by training craftsmen and teaching them
alternative building techniques. The creation of building material workshops and a construction school ensures this training and knowledge transfer. This is the most delicate but also the most crucial aspect of the projects’ long-term success.
•3 Students from the EFE School (Ecole Foyer Espoir) and FEPE Orphanage (Foyer Espoir Pour les Enfants) returned to the South and the town of Corail.
Teacher Claudine Aimé of the EFE School and students
arrive in their truck back in the town of Corail.
Unloading supplies from the truck.
Planning distribution of supplies with the community.
Students feeding chlldren.
Two who are happier with a little.
•2 Working on the ground, in mountains of the Department of Nippes, the Team headed by Lupson Pasteur
•4 Musicians and Poets who support Sticking Up For Children and our Partners have ADDED TRACKS. To the mix we welcome devorah major and Opal Palmer Adisa, Nilak Butler and Gina Pacaldo--as well as musicians from the Rivers of Dreams (Kirk Joseph, Roger Lewis, Herlin Riley) and Suspect Many bands (John Baker, George Cremaschi, Dhyani Dharma, ...) bands--along with long-time supporters David Amram, Boukman Eksperyans, William Parker, Hamid Drake, Alex de Grassi, and Cyril and Gaynielle Neville.
William Parker
Alex de Grassi
Jonathan Richman
devorah major
Opal Palmer Adisa
Another great innovator.
Manzè and Lòlò of Boukman Eksperyans
Jean Remy
Madame Marie-Marthe Balin Franck Paul
Hamid Drake
Nilak Butler
David Amram's This Land with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra provides
four tracks for the Autumn 2021 STACK.
That Ti RoRo, admired by Henery Cowell and Max Roach, drumming up complex
music and fun.
Gina Pacaldo and friend
Credits for tracks on the 1957 LP Haiti Songs • Dances • Drums.
Close of a happy session--Rick G. Nelson, Roger Lewis, Don Paul, Herlin Riley, Kirk Joseph--
performers on Tracks 2 and 10 of this STACK--August 3, 2021, Marigny Studio, New Orleans.
Photo by Maryse Philippe Déjean.
The STACK for SUFC'S Partners, Autumn 2021
1.
"Damballah" 03:23
Choral Group of Haiti
2.
"Bobè (What A Spirit Walks That Way" 05:05
Don Paul & Rivers of Dreams
(Kirk Joseph, Roger Lewis, Herlin Riley)
3.
'Many People, One Nation' 02:42
4.
Ti RoRo et Jean Remy 01:01
5.
"Cosmic Funk" 04:24
6.
"Kan'w Pran'w Konen" 05:29
7.
"Ayiti" 04:21
8.
"I Can't Shift (Oh Yes You Can)" 04:28
Jonathan Richman
9.
"This Land--Variation VI Street Sounds of New York's Neighborhoods
Variation V! #6 Caribbean Street Festival 02:37
David Amram
and the Colorado
Symphony Orchestra
10.
"Stout, ..." A Sample of "The Dog Whose Heart Was As Big As His Head" 04:42
Don Paul & Rivers of Dreams
(Kirk Joseph, Roger Lewis, Herlin Riley)
11.
Ti RoRo et Jean Remy #1 00:25
12.
'kapow!' 07:31
devorah major with six of The Suspect Many (John Baker, George Cremaschi,
Dhyani Dharma, Steve Fundy, Richard Howell, Marcos Santos), live at the
Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA, July 1991.
13.
7. Klezmer Wedding Celebrationand Middle Eastern Bazaar 02:56
14.
"This Land--Variation VI 8 Salvation Army Hymn"" 01:09
15.
"This Land--Variation VI 9 Block Party Jam and Finale"" 03:13
16.
"Mourning Song" 02:19
Nilak Butler on Rebel Poets' #2, America Fears The Drum
17.
"Kachina Song" 03:18
William Parker
18.
'Humanizarte' 01:49
Gina Pacaldo
19.
"Chaung Tzu's Dream" 08:44
Hamid Drake and William Parker
on Piercing The Veil
20.
"Mr. B Takes A Walk In The Rain"
Alex de Grassi
The Bridge
21. "No Woman, No Cry"
Opal Palmer Adisa and devorah major
with Anthony Brown, Dewayne Oakley
and John Purcell
on America Fears The Drum
22. "Ay'i Bobo" 01:56
Ti RoRo
SUFC's good friend DAVID AMRAM tipped Maryse and me to MAX Roach's encounter with TI RORO in the early 1980s. The story was part of David's great imparting to students some of the glories of Haitian culture and history, September 2020. You can catch excerpts of his playing-and-commentary in French HERE. Included on this SUFC October 2020 web-page is the Max/ Ti Ro Ro story and an appreciation of the Haitian musician by formidable, generous
composer and musicologist HENRY COWELL.
Henry Cowell and his wife, Sidney Robertson Cowell, are fruitful subjects
themselves, for their courage and industry. Virgil Thompson, who succeeded me as guest in 'Katrina's Bedroom' at Yaddo, June 1974, wrote: 'Henry Cowell's music covers a wider range in both expression and technique than that of any other living composer. His experiments begun three decades ago in rhythm, in harmony, and in instrumental sonorities were considered then by many to be wild. Today they are the Bible of the young and still, to the conservatives, "advanced."... No other composer of our time has produced a body of works so radical and so normal, so penetrating and so comprehensive. Add to this massive production his long and influential career as a pedagogue, and Henry Cowell's achievement becomes impressive indeed. There is no other quite like it. To be both fecund and right is given to few.[33]
