PRODG Entertainment Promotions

PROFILES

Louis Elneus
Founder of HLD

Richard Jeanty
Author & Entrepreneur

Leslie Demangles
Author & College Professor

Danielle Legros-George
Haitian Poet & Autor

Margaret Papillon
Haitian Author

Myrtelle Cherry
Haitian Artist & Painter

Carole B. Joseph
Mass Bay Community College President

Gashford Guillaume
Mozayik Drummer

Pascale Auguste
Haitian Association Against Cancer

Andy Jacques
Haitian Fashion Designer

Phillip J. Brutus
State Representative

Yvecar Momperousse
Haitian Student Alliance

The Maroons
Haitian Writers & Poets

Evans Thesee
Founder HaitianConnection.com

Abdias Charles
Founder of Repair Haiti.org

Mecca AKA Grimo
Haitian Hip Hop Artist & Activist

Fania Simon
Writer, Lecturer & Activist

Nadege Fleurimond
Owner of Fleurimond Catering

Interview: The Maroons

		The Maroons are a group of Haitian poets/writers who hail from Port-Au-Prince, and New York. Some of them have been in the States since childhood or grade school, but have traveled and lived in Haiti in some capacity. The Maroons are all graduates with degrees in Law, Engineering and English Literature. The group is consists of Underscore, Eros, Makendal. The Maroons have been one of the catalysts in bringing Haitian literature, poetry and pride back to the community as well as raise awareness of various issues. Underscore, one of the Maroons, is slowly becoming an accomplished playwright and Makendal has headed up a school supplies drive for children in Haiti.
As a group, these endeavors continue to promote the Haitian culture and also excite an interest and an option to Haitian youth. Makendal recently returned from a spectacular performance of in Cambridge, Massachusetts alongside Kreyol Jazz artists Reginald Policard, Joel Widmaier, Richard Barbot, Phillipe Guillaume, not to mention Nathalie Guillaume, grand-daughter of Raoul Guillaume and daughter of Phillipe Guillaume. Prodg president, Blake Seide, recently sat down with the Maroons:

Continued...

BS: What is the motivation behind your writing?

TM: Life...and everything around us. People, events and the commitment to being the "voice of the voiceless", struggle, pain, love, happiness, current international events, spirituality.

BS: Who is your audience? And do you think you've reached them?

TM: Our audience is multi-faceted. A young crowd, as well as 25-45 upwardly mobile Haitian and Haitian American professionals/entrepreneurs, and the disenfranchised, as well as those older than us have received us with open arms. Professionals, and the underdog, the elite and the political infrastructures, students and everyone from all walks of life who have heard their voices, emotions and feelings in our poems and performances have embraced us. We've reached our audience and we can tell from the feedback that we get at our performances as well as through emails.

BS: Being in the public's eye, there are certain expectations, wants and needs, how have the Maroons embraced the spotlight and the constant demand for perfection?

TM: We are constantly striving for perfection. The expectations from the public's are that once we hit the microphone and the stage, "kay kraze, nimewo efase", meaning that we will bring nothing but the best for their mind, body and soul. The public keeps a close eye on those who are in their line of vision and they expect for you to "walk the walk" and not just talk the talk. That is why we prove through our actions by actually putting our hands and feet in the water to help our community as opposed to just performing and talking about what should be done or could be done.

BS: What is the main mission of the group?

TM: We set out to elevate minds, bring social and cultural consciousness as well as bring pride through our spoken word performances. Our mission is to use poetry and the arts to "edutain" (“educate and entertain". We are geared towards bringing the unknown aspects of our culture and history to the world community, promoting poetry and our stylized form as well as giving back to the community through literacy projects for children and school supplies for schools in Haiti.

BS: What, in a perfect world, would constitute "mission accomplished"?

TM: In a perfect world, if Haiti and Haitians were seen by others and themselves as a nation of pride working side by side for the ideal betterment and upliftment of Haiti and Haitian communities around the world, our mission would be accomplished. If every hungry stomach is filled and if every gun and drug in our community is replaced by a poet's pen and a love of the arts, then our mission would be accomplished. In a perfect world, wherever we might leave off, if there were another group to continue what we have begun, and each one were to continue to teach one, our mission would have been accomplished.

BS: What piece of advice would you give to aspiring writers?

TM: Don't listen to the negative, take the negative and the positive with a grain of salt and never lose sight of your dream or your convictions. A writer writes...always.

BS: How would the Maroons one-line epitaph read?

TM: Hopefully we will never have an epitaph because our movement will continue to live even after each individual is gone. If we had to have an epitaph, it might read, "We did...did you?" or "Here lie The Maroons’ bodies...but their spirit and that of the original Maroons lives on." One thing that we also believe that might also be used as our epitaph is the quote made famous by one of our Maroon brothers, Makendal, which is "I am Haitian not only because I was born in Haiti, but because Haiti was born in me." This quote has many meanings, and is intended for those who believe that to be Haitian you do not have to have been born in Haiti as well as for those who have a genuine love for Haiti deep within their hearts. We believe that wholeheartedly.

BS: Fellaz, Thanks for this piece; stay blessed and we will continue to support you in anyway possible

TM: Thank you for your support, the interview the time that you have given us to get our message across. We’d like to remind everyone that we have an ongoing school supplies drive for children and schools in Haiti and that for more information they can contact makendal30@yahoo.com or log on to our websites, www.themaroons.net or www.islandfaith.com. Underscore’s CD, featuring The Maroons, “The Base, The Chase The Place” can be purchased from there also or listened to on www.cdbaby.com/cd/underscore. Many thanks and blessings to all of our audiences, supporters and fans “a travers le monde”/all over the world.