Conecta: Miami Arts will be programming and coordinating all of the children’s activities for the Little Haiti Book Festival taking place at the iconic Little Haiti Cultural Center. Sosyete Koukouy of Miami Inc and Miami Book Fair have partnered up to present this year’s edition of the Little Haiti Book Festival, a two-day book festival that features authors from Haiti and the Haitian diaspora, literary panels and craft talks, workshops for writers and more. The idea behind this year’s children’s program is to present interactive cultural activities where children have direct participation as protagonists of their own experience. It is a multi-disciplinary program that includes storytelling, dance, music, visual arts and a musical petting zoo that will expose and promote Haitian culture to our local Haitian-American diaspora. Through stories, movement and sound, we will explore traditional Haitian customs and expose the younger generation to their past traditions in a fun and interactive way. There will be one element prevalent throughout all the activities that will highlight what is arguably the most significant cultural and musical instrument within Haitian culture and its African roots, the drum. The drum is a musical instrument with great power and presence that not only gives the pulse or backbone to the music it is incorporated with, but also acts as a culturally significant tool for communication. Deeply rooted in its African origins, the drum is used for both performative and symbolic dimensions of cultural communication within music and dance. An important goal of this year’s artistic program is to attract non-Haitian audiences by developing an inclusive program that features a mix of Haitian and other Caribbean artists who share a strong African cultural influence. Again, the drum becomes the focal element that allows us to create this cultural bridge between Haiti and its Caribbean neighbors.
Featured Artists: Inez Barlatier, Michael Gil, GOGO MOAD, DJ Nickymix, Sosyete Koukouy Dancers, Lucrece Louisdhon, Tom Virgin, Aroze Twoubadou, Venus Rising Women’s Drum & Dance Ensemble, Marleine Bastien, Yanui Cesar and Jean Sebon.
ABOUT SOSYETE KOUKOUY OF MIAMI
Established in 1985, Sosyete Koukouy of Miami, Inc. (Sos*ye*te Koo*Kouy), is dedicated to preserving Haitian culture in the United States through education and arts and cultural presentations. Its mission is to preserve, perpetuate and present Haitian cultural performances and exhibitions to Creole and non-Creole speaking audiences.In support of that mission, Sosyete Koukouy presents and produces cultural programs that increase awareness of Haitian people, their language, rituals and traditions, and their deep roots in the African continent. It also produces programs that foster greater understanding between Haitian people and people of other diverse ethnicities, cultures and heritage; and foster respect for the arts and artists of Haiti, African and Caribbean by raising awareness of their historical and artistic contributions to the national and international cultural landscape.
ABOUT THE MIAMI BOOK FAIR
The Miami Book Fair will open Sunday November 12 with the popular Evenings With… series, featuring six nights of readings and discussions with noted authors from the United States and around the world. On Friday, the Street Fair gets under way. The highlight of the Street Fair is the Festival of Authors, with more than 500 authors reading and discussing their work, including a robust IberoAmerican & ReadCarribean Authors Program. Thousands of South Florida schoolchildren will help kick off the Street Fair, making the trip downtown Friday to hear authors and participate in Children’s Alley activities, including musical acts, arts-and-crafts, storytelling and readings by children’s book authors. Comics and graphic novels are once again featured, and a new section just for kids and teens, as well as presentations over the weekend by renowned graphic novelists and illustrators.During Street Fair weekend, November 17-19, more than 250 publishers and booksellers exhibit and sell books, with special features like the antiquarians, who showcase signed first editions, original manuscripts and other collectibles. The first Miami Book Fair, founded by Miami Dade College and community partners, took place in 1984. Since then, it has been recognized as the nation’s finest literary festival.
