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Once again, a humanitarian crisis in Haiti is being met with misdirected aid and misrepresentations of the nation. It's a reminder of how critical it is to center Haitian voices in teaching its history. Consider these resources from Teaching for Change.
https://socialjusticebooks.org/booklists/haiti/?fbclid=IwAR0z8o8HG_fvXaSZBPKnKJwZCJjQ9VbBJd6QgbO0Zw5JfeIftZVHlwbUkqU
Teaching About Haiti
Elementary | Middle School | High School Fiction | High School Nonfiction
All too often in the midst of the reporting on Haiti, we hear that the country is the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. Seldom do students learn about the long history of U.S. involvement in Haiti which has directly contributed to that poverty and challenges today. Nor do they learn that Haiti's revolution of independence was the only one in the western hemisphere to result in freedom from tyranny for ALL people. We offer here children's and YA books to fill the gaps in the media and curriculum. We welcome additional suggestions.
Visit the Teaching for Change site for more resources to teach about Haiti.
Most of the books on these lists are linked for more information or purchase to Powells.com (an independent, unionized bookstore) and/or Bookshop (an indie bookstore platform). A small percentage from book sales through these links goes to Teaching for Change.
Titles with reviews on this site are noted with an asterisk (*).
Elementary
Janjak and Freda Go to the Iron Market
By Elizabeth Turnbull, Mark Jones (Illustrator), Wally Turnbull (Translator)
Mama’s Nightingale: A Story of Immigration and Separation*
By Edwidge Danticat, Leslie Staub (Illustrator)
Haiti on My Mind: Stories by Haitian-American Teens
By Dana K. Vincent (Editor), Keith Hefner (Editor), Laura Longhine (Editor)
High School
Love, Anger, Madness: A Haitian Trilogy
By Marie Vieux-Chauvet, Rose-Myriam Rejouis (Translator), Val Vinokur (Translator)
Open Gate: An Anthology of Haitian Creole Poetry
By Paul Laraque (Editor), Jack Hirschman (Editor), Boadiba (Translator)
High School Nonfiction
African Americans and the Haitian Revolution: Selected Essays and Historical Documents
By Maurice Jackson (Editor), Jacqueline Bacon (Editor)
Images of Haiti: Stories of Strength
By Ruth Anne Olson; CreoleTrans.; Beth Harvey Designs.; St. James Episcopal Church (Minneapolis, Minn.)
Black History Month provides a key opportunity to launch this study. Haiti was the only nation in the western hemisphere to end slavery when it declared independence -- therefore the only nation to ensure true independence for all people.
Just as the study of Black History should be year round, so can our study of Haiti. For example, Professor Madison Smartt Bell suggests that "The Haitian Revolution, though seldom studied in proper detail outside Haiti, ought to be found near the center of any basic curriculum of American History."
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