Sunday Snippets: Ceasefire

Always. And we stand in solidarity with the peaceful student protests, happening across the US.

Death doula says life is more meaningful if you 'get real' about the end

A portrait of Haitians trying to survive without a government

Indigenous women in Greenland sue Denmark over involuntary contraception in the 1960s and 1970s

Pay to stay: Florida inmates charged for prison cells long after incarceration

A hunk of space junk crashed through his roof in Florida. Who should pay to fix it?

A photographer documented Black cowboys across the U.S. for a new book

COMIC: The roadside marker unlocking a forgotten civil rights murder

10 years after Flint, the fight to replace lead pipes across U.S. continues

“The Bulldozer Kept Coming”: A Girl Stares Down Death in Gaza

Book Review: Haiti Noir

Haiti Noir, edited by Edwidge Danticat, is the latest from Akashic Books. In the style of some of the other titles in the series, Brooklyn Noir, Miami Noir and Baltimore Noir, Haiti Noir describes the the country from current residents, people who live in the tenth department and visitors, including the award winning Madison Smart Bell. The stories are chilling, with endings that leave the reader looking over their shoulder. Some of the very creepy ones include Gary Victor's The Finger, Kettly Mars's Paradise Inn and Louis-Phillippe Dalembert's Dangerous Crossroads.

Some of the stories require a trigger warning, Rosanna by Josaphat-Robert Large and Maloulou by Marie Lily Cerat for rape and sexaul assault. Very well written stories but there are some who would not enjoy them.

The earthquake also makes an apperance in several stories, from several different perspectives. There are a few duds, but very few. I think there were only two stories I didn't enjoy. Very highly recommended for curling up with a very strong lamp, if you are reading in the dark.

Heartbreaking

Because Haiti didn't have enough thrown their way...

First the earthquake (and the US still hasn't sent funds!), then the cholera outbreak and now a freaking hurricane. My heart goes out to the country and its people and I wish I could do more than just donate money.

Book Review: Create Dangerously

Once again, a masterpiece from the author of Krik? Krak! and Brother, I'm Dying,  Edwidge Danticat speaks about the necessary work of immigrant artists who create dangerously.

They write, sculpt, paint, photograph and air radio broadcasts because of a need to feel connected to their homeland, even if they are living in their country, and a need to inspire their fellow country men and women and rebel against oppressive regimes.

Danticat focuses mostly on Haiti and Haitian immigrants in this series of twelve essays. There is the radio broadcaster, who along with his wife, refused to be silenced even though it cost him his life after years of exile. A friend who witnessed two executions under Francois Duvalier's regime becomes a photojournalist so as not to forget.

And in the last essay, the tragedy  of January 12, 2010 is explored as Danticat describes the visits with friends and family and how she copes with the disaster; "their laughter fills me with more hope than the moment deserves. But this is really all I have come for. I have come to embrace them, the living, and I have come to honor the dead." She does this as her beloved city and country crumbles around her. A gripping and beautifully written collection of essays from an amazingly talented writer and one of my favorites. Highly recommend.

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