I am exploring. And capturing.
I had a vision I am just beginning to speak into existence.
I had a vision of a project that involved the collection of stories from my family.
Haitians are storytellers. Their stories are long, loud, and loving.
And I have heard so many.
Many of my formative memories are me sitting in a corner of a family living room, doesn’t matter which one, anti-socially cradling a book or writing something, while listening
listening listening listening.
But the collecting of stories is no small feat.
And part of story collection is knowledge of history, an honoring of ancestors.
For me, it is to start with something simple: names.
I want to know the names, the exact names, of the people who came before me
As told to me by those I love
while they are still around to tell their stories.
There is power in names.
And in one conversation, I already learned something things I did not know.
And I see
eventually
some people I know putting the names to art
adding more beauty
to the history of me and mine.
