Little Haiti as text.

Little Haiti as text. Introduction Miami's Cultural Community Tours web site describes"Little Haiti," an ethnically Haitian-dominant Miamineighborhood, as follows: This rich cultural and historic community is one of Greater Miami's true gems. Smell and sample the food, observe the art, hear the typical compas and racine (roots) music and learn about the Haitian culture in a walking tour that will stir the senses. Visit the botanicas, learn about vodou and understand the history of this wonderful community. The City of Miami's web site offers additional positiveinformation in "About Little Haiti": If you are looking for a quincallerie (hardware store), gros savon (soap), and beurre chaud (bread), then you must make a trip to Little Haiti, the neighborhood where Miami's growing number of Haitians have carved out a place they call their own. Little Haiti's population is 33,908. Little Haiti captures much of the flavor of world-famous Haitian primitive art, rich with colors of the Caribbean. Although many of the Internet descriptions mention an"industrious community" or a "strong sense of ethnicpride" or "entrepreneurial energy," the few that are lessfavorable and refer to crime, trash, and prostitution often receivedisproportionate attention. Some students are indeed afraid to visitLittle Haiti, or at least their parents worry when they do. Through "active learning" or "experientiallearning" (Kolb), however, where students are taken out of theclassroom and into real-life situations, or through "Peer-Led TeamLearning" (Berke), where they work in collaborative teams, studentscan experience Little Haiti for themselves. In a semi-structured,goal-oriented setting, students might notice the trash, but will alsocome to realize that there exists a unique cultural community in theirown backyard. These learning experiences can be field trips or moreindividualized group explorations of the area of focus, commonlyreferred to as City as Text[TM] in honors programs and colleges (Braid& Long). Students vividly remember these extended classroomexcursions, which add an eye-opening dimension to their education. From Tybee Island to Little Haiti The first time I did a Little Haiti exercise with students inFrench Linguistics, in Spring Semester 2003, it was a traditional fieldtrip. I called it "City as Text" since I was already readingBraid & Long in anticipation of an NCHC NCHC National Center for High-Performance Computing (Taiwan)NCHC National Coalition on Health CareNCHC National Collegiate Honors CouncilNCHC North Carolina Horse CouncilNCHC North Coast Hardcore (Australia)Faculty Institute later thatsemester and because the students were being encouraged to go out andread the city, to look at everything, talk to as many people aspossible, and write down what they could see, hear, and smell in theshops and in the streets of Little Haiti. We concentrated on thecommercial section of Little Haiti. I tried to encourage the students totake different directions when leaving the Libreri Mapou, a Haitianbookstore and cultural center in Little Haiti, and some did, but theexcursion was typically a group of about ten of us moving aroundtogether, rather than a true City as Text experience. The expeditionincluded a class discussion at Nuvo Kafe, a more upscale North Miami North Miami,city (1990 pop. 49,998), Dade co., SE Fla., a growing suburb of Miami, on Biscayne Bay; inc. 1926. It is mainly residential, but has considerable retail development. Manufactures include boats, wooden furniture, and aluminum products. venue, as well as a follow-up discussion in class a few days later and awritten reflection on the Little Haiti experience. One student, fortuitously, got lost on the way to our rendezvouspoint, Libreri Mapou, and ended up finding a vodou temple at a nearbylocation where she observed her surroundings in great detail beforeencountering the class. She provided an account of her observationsduring group discussion, and thus her incident added to our overallexperience of the day. In a sense, one can say that students really dolearn by failing. Educators often say that doing is more important thanknowing for today's students, and the post-X Generation, orMillennial Generation, really does prefer to learn through groupactivity. A few weeks later, I found myself also learning by doing at the2003 Coastal Faculty Institute at Skidaway and Tybee Islands, and Irealized through our small-group exploration of Tybee Island how City asText is really done. First of all, you need a small group. That day, ourgroup of four interviewed fishermen, beachgoers, shop owners, waitstaff, locals, vacationers, homeowners, and policemen. I quicklyrealized that this methodology only works with a small group. Our groupof ten in Little Haiti would never have had the same conversations orthe same unanticipated opportunities that arose during our Tybee Islandexcursion. For example, one couple ended up inviting us to visit theirfour-story house with amazing views of the salt marshes and beaches aswell as the more populated areas of the island. I also realized that working with people who are unfamiliar forcesone to look at things differently. Some of us noticed the birds, othersthe effects of the seaward wind on the salt marsh Salt marshA maritime habitat characterized by grasses, sedges, and other plants that have adapted to continual, periodic flooding. Salt marshes are found primarily throughout the temperate and subarctic regions. hay, and still othersthe various types of palm trees. Some pointed out architectural featureswhile others remarked on the make-up of the local population. Our nativeAlabaman had the most appropriate line for striking up conversationswith fishermen: "Are ya fishin' or are ya catchin'?"But once the person or the group we were talking with felt comfortablewith us, they opened up and talked about everything of importance on theisland: from taxes to sewage, from non-existent crime ("justbarking dogs The Barking Dogs is an Anglo-French alternative folk punk rock music group based in Paris (80's - 90's). The Barking Dogs is German extreme-right-wing street-punk music group (90's to now). ," according to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. the police) to tensions between the"tree huggers" and the "sand bubbas." At this pointI determined to do Little Haiti as Text in a more-structured butdirectionless way. At Tybee, we were only told which part of the islandto explore but not what to do except for the three City as Textstrategies of mapping, observing, and listening. Later, when the smallTybee groups got together, we learned even more about the island andrealized that the sum of everyone's experience did indeed offer amore complete view of the island than just one group doing the sameexercise and certainly much more than if just one person were to havevisited the island. Later, in the Fall Semester 2003, I used a more rigorous City asText methodology when another French class visited Little Haiti. Thistime I divided the Little Haiti area into four geographic locations,with some leaving the Libreri Mapou by foot and others by car. I gavethe students a handout with the basic strategies of mapping, observing,and listening. Students were not told what to expect. Indeed, the mostimportant thing to do is not tell them what to do other than providingthem with the three strategies. Furthermore, in class beforehand, weonly covered a few rudiments of Creole language creole language(krēōl`), any language that began as a pidgin but was later adopted as the mother tongue by a people in place of the original mother tongue or tongues. before these excursions.(On another occasion, the class had previously seen The Agronomist, amovie dealing with the journalist Jean Dominique's experiences inHaiti). This time I assigned groups, three or four students to eachgroup, making sure that they were diverse in terms of major andinterests, trying my best to break up any cliques and including oneCreole speaker in each group whenever possible. Each small groupappointed a leader who was to give a short report to the larger group onwhat the group saw, with whom they spoke, and what they ate. Studentshad two hours to explore their assigned area and then reported back atthe appointed time to the central location, Libreri Mapou, for adiscussion and a sharing of the day's experiences. What the Students Observed During our debriefing, which included Jan Mapou, the owner of thebookstore, students pointed out that a number of Haitian newspapersexisted, with articles in French, English, and Creole, such as HaitiProgres Haiti Progres is a weekly, mainly French Haitian newspaper. See alsoList of newspapers in Haiti External linksHaiti Progres site , Haiti observateur, local papers such as Haiti en Marche (inFrench with a Creole page at the end), Le Floridien (in French andEnglish), and Boukan (completely in Creole). They also found Frenchmagazines and newspapers, like Le Point, Paris Match Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It's best known for the frequent use of paparazzi photographs. The magazine also covers major national and international news along with celebrity features. Paris Match was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost. ,L'Observateur, Madame, La Tribune, and L'Equipe. Studentsnoticed the use of Creole everywhere. People would pop into the LibreriMapou, have a short conversation in Creole, buy a French newspaper, andleave. But students also heard English, French, and sometimes Spanish.Others were surprised at the mixture of French and English, such as agreeting card stating, "A ton shower" or "Pour votreshower." Formal signage is more often in French or English than inCreole (Super Cut, Louis Market, Ziggy Furniture, Brave Guede Botanica bo��tan��i��ca?n.A shop that sells herbs, charms, and other religious or spiritual items, especially those associated with Santeria.[American Spanish bot��nica, from Greek ,Bureau de Transfert), but handwritten hand��write?tr.v. hand��wrote , hand��writ��ten , hand��writ��ing, hand��writesTo write by hand.[Back-formation from handwritten.]Adj. 1. signs are often in Creole: AirContinent: $249 Bon Bagay! The groups noticed botanicas during the first excursion, but largegroups were not always welcome in such a modest environment. In smallgroups, however, the students visited these shops, where one couldpurchase Haitian crafts such as lanp tet gridap (a small gas lamp madefrom a tin can) as well as articles used for practicing vodou like ansan(incense), ason (ritual gourd gourd(gôrd, grd), common name for some members of the Cucurbitaceae, a family of plants whose range includes all tropical and subtropical areas and extends into the temperate zones. rattle), bale (broom), bouji (candles),fwet kach (special whip). The student who had gotten lost the first timetried to take her small group to find the vodou temple, but she had adifficult time because a fire had occurred since the last time the classwas there. That group persisted and did manage to see what was describedas a genuine setting for the practice of vodou. Just as we hadexperienced in Tybee Island, students realized that small groupingsallow for these types of serendipitous ser��en��dip��i��ty?n. pl. ser��en��dip��i��ties1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries.3. An instance of making such a discovery. visits. Food always plays a significant part in City as Text excursions.The first time that the group of ten visited the canne a sucre stand,which was reminiscent of being in Haiti, rather than interact with thelocals, they talked with each other while tasting the sugar cane. Thefirst class visited Nuvo Kafe together, but the waitress did not evenspeak French or Creole, so Haitian students in class explained thevarious food items and one student, who had recently visited Senegal,pointed out the difference between the African French French in Africa is present and spoken by many people. As of 2006 an estimated 115 million African people spread across 31 francophone African countries can speak French either as a first or second language, making Africa the continent with the most French speakers in the world. word griot griotAfrican tribal storyteller. The griot's role was to preserve the genealogies and oral traditions of the tribe. Griots were usually among the oldest men. In places where written language is the prerogative of the few, the place of the griot as cultural guardian is still (astoryteller) and the Haitian Creole homonym hom��o��nym?n.1. One of two or more words that have the same sound and often the same spelling but differ in meaning, such as bank (embankment) and bank (place where money is kept).2. a. griyo (deep fried pork). Theother classes doing the genuine City as Text in small groups on theirown also tried various food items, but this time, during discussion,they were all sharing with the others what they had seen and tastedduring their explorations. Many remarked that the stores in Little Haitihad spices used in Haitian cuisine. One group talked with a man whocomes all the way from Boca Raton Boca Raton(bō`kə rətōn`), city (1990 pop. 61,492), Palm Beach co., SE Fla., on the Atlantic; inc. 1925. Boca Raton is a popular resort and retirement community that experienced significant industrial development in the 1970s and 80s. , more than forty miles, to buy beefpatties and spices for Haitian cooking. The students tried La Choucoun(genuine Haitian cola), pate kreyol (pastries), and at Louis Marketpistach griye (roasted peanuts). At Lakay Tropical Ice Cream, theytasted unusual ice cream flavors such as kachiman (sugar apple orsweetsop) and kowosol (guanabana gua��na��ba��na?n.See soursop.[American Spanish guan��bana, from Taino.]Noun 1. or soursop sour��sop?n. In both senses also called guanabana.1. A tropical American evergreen tree (Annona muricata) bearing spiny, yellow-green fruit with tart edible pulp.2. The fruit of this tree. ). The last time our classdid Little Haiti as Text, while the students were off on their own insmall groups, I visited the local canne a sucre stand and bought sugarcane to share with the students, thus providing an unusual class handoutduring discussion. Students also learned of the different kinds of Haitian music,compas or konpa (mainstream rhythm dance music) and racine or rasin(folk music folk music:see folk song. folk musicMusic held to be typical of a nation or ethnic group, known to all segments of its society, and preserved usually by oral tradition. Knowledge of the history and development of folk music is largely conjectural. ), just by going to the music stores in the area. Whereas thefirst time, when I was the group leader, they just listened, took notes,and bought music to listen to later; when they were in small groups,they talked with the clerks, watched video-clips, and danced in thestore to the music. The number of money transfer places surprised some students. Theynoticed not only CAM Transfert but also Unitransfert, both nearby eachother. During discussion, we then talked about Little Haiti, or ratherthe Haitian Diaspora in general, as being Haiti's"[10.sup.eme] departement" (Aristide). Indeed, according toGuy Victor, consul general consul generaln. pl. consuls general Abbr. CGA consul of the highest rank serving at a principal location and usually responsible for other consular offices within a country. of Haiti in Miami, Haitian expatriates in theUnited States United States,officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. send 1.5 billion dollars to Haiti per year, a sum thatrepresents more than the Haitian government's annual budget. Students generally found the area to be quite different fromtypical American big-city neighborhoods. Most students commented thatpeople did not pay much attention to traffic when crossing the streetsand that people consequently tended to drive slowly in the commercialarea of Little Haiti. Some noticed domino players, the loser decoratedwith colorful clothespins similar to what one might see in Haiti. Othersremarked that one could hear Haitian music or radio stations blastingover loudspeakers on the sidewalks. With some inquiry, they found outthat one Haitian radio station, Radio Pep la, has been on the air inSouth Florida for around twenty years TWENTY YEARS. The lapse of twenty years raises a presumption of certain facts, and after such a time, the party against whom the presumption has been raised, will be required to prove a negative to establish his rights. 2. . However, in a true City as Text experience, groups do notnecessarily see the same things. For example, while visiting one areathe week before in preparation for our excursion, I noticed a sign inCreole: Miami nan vil magik la ke soley la toujou briye (Miami, themagic city, keeps the sun shining). But the following week, a group ofstudents at the same location never even mentioned the signage; insteadthey noticed the excessive trash in the street, sometimes in heaps. Thisdifference led to a very lively exchange, including the participation ofthe owner of the bookstore, Jan Mapou, in the general discussion aboutthe sometimes-neglected place of Little Haiti within the larger contextof the community of Miami. Conclusions At first, I did not think that the two types of excursions, thelarge field trip of ten students with the professor vs. City as Textwith students in small groups on their own, were extremely different.Students saw and discussed some of the same things; perhaps studentslearn out of the classroom no matter what the methodology. But afterdoing this exercise with many French classes during the past four years,I realize that students have a more personal contact with the communityin the smaller groups and, since they have not all seen the same thingsduring their explorations, they pay more attention to what others aresaying in the large group discussion. I highly recommend this methodology. It has worked well in LittleHaiti, one of our significant local resources. Students use the extendedtext idea to construct their own map of Little Haiti rather than justgoing on what they hear from parents or peers or what they read on theInternet. Our City as Text experiences have taken us to the maincommercial area of Little Haiti, but future visits could involve aweekday exploration of the Haitian Refugee center, the schools in thearea, or participation in cultural events at Libreri Mapou. This firsthand experience excites students about learning. Theycome back to regular class with questions from their visits to LittleHaiti such as the relationship between French and Haitian Creole. Thisdiscussion opens the door to their learning a few rudiments of Creole orperhaps a bit about the pronominal pro��nom��i��nal?adj.1. Of, relating to, or functioning as a pronoun.2. Resembling a pronoun, as by specifying a person, place, or thing, while functioning primarily as another part of speech. system or articles. I am mostfamiliar with French linguistics courses, but this methodology can beextended to any subject area. The pedagogical ped��a��gog��ic? also ped��a��gog��i��caladj.1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of pedagogy.2. Characterized by pedantic formality: a haughty, pedagogic manner. method is to have thestudents be the catalyst, to ask questions that can be explored in classor researched by the students themselves, much as we did and discussedon Tybee Island. Students become interested in learning. After theseexplorations, we might study the Haitian sound system or the origins ofHaitian Creole as an "accelerated French" (Chaudenson;Valdman). If students are motivated to learn more, we might thencontinue to look at the Haitian Creole verbal system with a glance atverbal particles and discuss Derek Bickerton's bio-programhypothesis on the origins of Haitian Creole. Students learn not onlyabout Creole, of course, but also how French and other languagesinteract and change over time or in particular contexts. For instance,questions of relexification can be discussed in the larger context ofAmerican English's influence on Spanish and Creole in Miami. Or wemight talk about how hybridism and selection from a "featurepool" play important roles in all cases of language evolution andthus conclude that Creoles are not really special languages but simplylanguages that developed under exceptional circumstances, namely onplantations in a racially segregated environment, thus creating broaderlanguage divergence (Mufwene). In other classes, students might want to learn more about HaitianAdvocacy Law. After learning from Jan Mapou of the many Haitianorganizations in Miami, students might then be motivated to find outmore, for example, about the Haitian-American Grassroots Coalition, anumbrella organization For the fictional company set in the Resident Evil videogame series, see Umbrella Corporation.An umbrella organization is an association of (often related, industry-specific) institutions, who work together formally to coordinate activities or made up of fifteen local organizations in Miami,with organizations such as the Veye-Yo Equal Treatment Coalition, theHaitian Women organization Fanm Ayisyen Nan Miyami (FANM), and theHaitian Lawyers Association. Sociological questions can also beexplored. One semester, students in my French Linguistics class read afollow-up article by Flore Zephir on the social value of French forimmigrants, which also played a large part in our regular classdiscussion, or rather heated debate, afterwards. Educators today write about a quiet revolution occurring in theacademy over the last twenty years: along with education, we are alsoconcerned about teaching civic engagement. Concerning the phases ofcitizenship often discussed in such articles, I felt that studentsbarely got past the "oblivious," "drive-by"service-learning experience with that initial field trip to LittleHaiti. I no longer feel that way after doing genuine City as Textexcursions with many classes. Students do not simply visit Little Haitiand then forget about it. They now want to talk about socialinequalities, participate in Libreri Mapou's cultural activities,and expand their multicultural awareness. By going to this neighborhood,losing their fear of the unknown, and fully engaging their interest,students undeniably come to see Little Haiti "not as deprived butas a resource to empower and be empowered by," and they aredefinitely moving in the right direction along the phases ofcitizenship, toward the "reciprocal" level of civic engagement(McTighe-Musil). References "About Little Haiti." City of Miami, NeighborhoodEnhancement Team. Accessed 15 Aug. 2007.<http://www.miamigov.com/nets/ pages/LittleHaiti/LittleHaiti.asp>. The Agronomist. Dir. Jonathan Demme. Perf. Jean Dominique. 2003.DVD DVD:see digital versatile disc. DVDin full digital video disc or digital versatile discType of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. . New Line Home Entertainment, 2005. Aristide, Bertrand. "Message du President de la Republiqued'Haiti." Embassy of the Republic of Haiti in Washington D.C.18 May 2003. <http://www.haiti.org/Whatsnew/discours_pres_18mai.htm>. Berke, Thomas. "Peer-Led Team Learning." NEA HigherEducation Advocate 21.1 (2003): 5-8. Bickerton, Derek. "The Language Bioprogram Hypothesis."The Behavioral and Brain Sciences Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), founded in 1978 and published by Cambridge University Press, is a journal of Open Peer Commentary modeled on the journal Current Anthropology 7 (1984): 173-221. Braid, Bernice & Ada Long, eds. Place as Text: Approaches toActive Learning. Monographs in Honors Education. National CollegiateHonors Council, 2000. Chaudenson, Robert. La Creolisation: Theorie, Applications,Implications. Paris: L'Harmattan, 2003. Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source ofLearning and Development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1984. "Little Haiti." Miami's Cultural Community Tours.Accessed 15 Aug. 2007.<http://www.miamiculturaltours.com/haiti.htm>. McTighe-Musil, Caryn. "Educating for Citizenship." PeerReview 5:3 (2003). Association of American Colleges and Universities This article or section is written like an .Please help [ rewrite this article] from a neutral point of view.Mark blatant advertising for , using . .Accessed 17 Aug. 2007.<http://www.aacu.org/peerreview/pr-sp03/pr-sp03 feature1.cfm>. Mufwene, Salikoko S. The Ecology of Language Evolution. Cambridge:Cambridge UP, 2001. Valdman, Albert. Le Creole: Structure, Statut et Origine. Paris:Klincksieck, 1978. Victor, Guy G. "Entrevue speciale." By GerardCharpentier. Le Soleil de la Floride March 2003: 9. Zephir, Flore. "The Social Value of French for BilingualHaitian Immigrants." The French Review 70.3 (1997): 395-406. PETER A. MACHONIS FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Florida International University,primarily at University Park, Miami; coeducational; chartered 1965, opened 1972. A research university, it has 18 colleges and schools and many specialized centers and institutes, including those in biomedical engineering, database