The Politics of Exclusion: Narrating Post-Earthquake Haiti
In this reading from her novel-in-progress, “Douze,” Myriam J. A. Chancy — author, Guggenheim Fellow, and HBA Chair of the Humanities at Scripps College – attempts to narrate a variety of points of view on the lived experience of the January 12, 2010 earthquake which devastated central parts of Haiti. In this presentation, via text and photography, she will discuss why the post-earthquake situation should matter to all of us and what the consistent, historical disavowal of Haiti’s place in the development of the hemisphere (in terms of the creation of national borders and philosophical boundaries) has meant in terms of the current inability of the populace to recover from natural and man-made disasters. A discussion of the role fiction can play in the breaking down fences and walls (real and metaphorical) through empathy will also be engaged.
Myriam J. A. Chancy is a Guggenheim Fellow and HBA Chair of the Humanities at Scripps College. Her academic publications include: From Sugar to Revolution: Women’s Visions from Haiti, Cuba & The Dominican Republic (WUP 2012), Framing Silence: Revolutionary Novels by Haitian Women (Rutgers 1997), and Searching for Safe Spaces: Afro-Caribbean Women Writers in Exile (Temple 1997; Choice OAB Award, 1998). Her novels include: The Loneliness of Angels (Peepal Tree 2010; 2011 Guyana Prize in Literature Caribbean Award, Best Fiction 2010), and Spirit of Haiti (Mango 2003; shortlisted, Best First Book Category, Canada/Caribbean region, Commonwealth Prize 2004). A recent editorial advisory board member of PMLA (2010-12) and of the Fetzer Institute (2011-13), she currently sits on the advisory board of Voices For Our America (VOA) housed at Vanderbilt University.
This event is presented in partnership with the Office of Public Events and Community Programs and Tuesday Noon Academy.
Free and open to the public.