Young Haitian youth will be able to express their emotions from tragic events and share their stories

1. NEW
AUTHORS
A P R E S E N T A T I O N O N Y O U N G H A I T I A N W R I T E R S
Marcdana Antoine

2. The Gathering of Young Thinkers
American
graduate
student Laura
Wagner helped
start the group.
She was living
in Haiti at the
time of the
quake.

3. They've called themselves
the Konbit des Jeunes
Penseurs - the Gathering
of Young Thinkers.

4. “The idea is to
have a place
where they can
come together to
express a new
vision for their
country"

5. They do that by
reading Haitian
literature and
writing their
own poems and
stories - about
the earthquake,
about cholera,
about religion,
but also about
life and love
and sex.

6. Marlene Jean-Pierre explains that these are people
who aren’t in art school or performing arts school, but
who know how to write really well, are very expressive
and have lots of opinions about their community.

7. She teamed up with
her friend Marlene
Jean-Pierre, a student
and community
organizer, and the
group was born.

8. Assephie Petit-Frere
The mystery
performance
turns out to be a
five-minute piece
about the
earthquake.

9. "Nan gade, gade ou te teke m’ ak yon ti wòch
Jiskaske ou te rive keyi m’, lè fwi sa a rive nan men
w’"
"And you looked and looked, and you hit me
with a little rock
Until at last you knocked me down, until the
fruit fell into your hands."
Assephie Petit-Frere
"Cruel Love"

10. "The first story is all about
one woman who keeps a
journal and talks about her
own personal pain and also
the pain of her environment.
She looks at what is going on
with people around her – the
beggars and the brutal
henchmen in the town."
Edwidge Danticat on Love,
Anger, Madness

11. One of the main goals of the writing
group is to project a different image of
Haiti than the one you see on the news.

12. Laughter fills the room
"humor does allow these young people to assert their
humanity."