Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work OnNovember12,1964,inPort au Prince,Haiti,ahugecrowd gathered to witness an execution. The president of Haiti at thattimewasthedictatorfrançois PapaDoc Duvalier,who was seven years into what would be a fifteen year term. On thedayoftheexecution,hedecreedthatgovernmentoffces beclosedsothathundredsofstateemployeescouldbeinthe crowd. Schools were shut down and principals ordered to bring their students. Hundreds of people from outside the capitalwerebusedintowatch. ThetwomentobeexecutedwereMarcelNumaandLouis Drouin. Marcel Numa was a tall, dark skinned twenty oneyear old.hewasfromafamilyofcoffeeplantersinabeautiful southernhaitiantowncalledjérémie,whichisoftendubbed the cityofpoets. NumahadstudiedengineeringattheBronx MerchantAcademyinNewYorkandhadworkedforanAmericanshippingcompany. LouisDrouin,nicknamedMilou,wasathirty one year old light skinnedmanwhowasalsofromjérémie.hehadserved intheu.s.army atfortknox,andthenatfortdixinnew Jersey and had studied finance before working for French, 1
Swiss, and American banks in New York. Marcel Numa and LouisDrouinhadbeenchildhoodfriendsinJérémie. Themenhadremainedfriendswhenthey dbothmovedto NewYorkinthe1950s,afterFrançoisDuvaliercametopower. There they had joined a group called Jeune Haiti, or Young Haiti,andweretwoofthirteenHaitianswholefttheUnited StatesforHaitiin1964toengageinaguerrillawarthatthey hopedwouldeventuallytoppletheduvalierdictatorship. ThemenofJeuneHaitispentthreemonthsfightinginthe hillsandmountainsofsouthernhaitiandeventuallymostof themdiedinbattle.marcelnumawascapturedbymembersof Duvalier sarmywhilehewasshoppingforfoodinanopenmarket,dressedasapeasant.louisdrouinwaswoundedinbattle andaskedhisfriendstoleavehimbehindinthewoods. AccordingtoourprinciplesIshouldhavecommittedsuicide in that situation, Drouin reportedly declared in a final statementathissecretmilitarytrial. ChandlerandGuerdès [two other Jeune Haiti members] were wounded... the first oneasked...hisbestfriendtofinishhimoff;thesecondcommittedsuicideafterdestroyingacaseofammunitionandall thedocuments.thatdidnotaffectme.ireactedonlyafterthe disappearanceofmarcelnuma,whohadbeensenttolookfor foodandforsomemeansofescapebysea.wewereveryclose andourparentswerefriends. After months of attempting to capture the men of Jeune Haitiandafterimprisoningandmurderinghundredsoftheir relatives, Papa Doc Duvalier wanted to make a spectacle of NumaandDrouin sdeaths. SoonNovember12,1964,twopinepolesareerectedoutside the national cemetery. A captive audience is gathered. 2
CREATE DANGEROUSLY Radio,print,andtelevisionjournalistsaresummoned.Numa anddrouinaredressedinwhatonoldblack and whitefilm seemstobetheclothesinwhichthey dbeencaptured khakis fordrouinandamodestwhiteshirtanddenim lookingpants fornuma.theyarebothmarchedfromtheedgeofthecrowd towardthepoles.theirhandsaretiedbehindtheirbacksby twoofduvalier sprivatehenchmen,tontonmacoutesindark glassesandciviliandress.thetontonmacoutesthentiethe ropesaroundthemen sbicepstobindthemtothepolesand keepthemupright. Numa, the taller and thinner of the two, stands erect, in perfectprofile,barelyleaningagainstthesquarepieceofwood behind him. Drouin, who wears brow line eyeglasses, looks downintothefilmcamerathatistapinghisfinalmoments. Drouinlooksasthoughheisfightingbacktearsashestands there,strappedtothepole,slightlyslanted.drouin sarmsare shorterthannuma sandtheropeappearslooserondrouin. While Numa looks straight ahead, Drouin pushes his head backnowandthentorestitonthepole. Time is slightly compressed on the copy of the film I haveandinsomeplacestheimagesskip.thereisnosound.a largecrowdstretchesoutfarbeyondthecementwallbehind theboundnumaanddrouin.tothesideisabalconyfilledwith schoolchildren. Some time elapses, it seems, as the schoolchildrenandothersmillaround.thesoldiersshifttheirguns fromonehandtotheother.someaudiencemembersshield theirfacesfromthesunbyraisingtheirhandstotheirforeheads.somesitidlyonalowstonewall. Ayoungwhitepriestinalongrobewalksoutofthecrowd withaprayerbookinhishands.itseemsthatheistheperson 3
everyonehasbeenwaitingfor.thepriestsaysafewwordsto Drouin,whoslideshisbodyupwardinadefiantpose.Drouin motionswithhisheadtowardhisfriend.thepriestspendsa littlemoretimewithnuma,whobobshisheadasthepriest speaks. If this is Numa s extreme unction, it is an abridged version. ThepriestthenreturnstoDrouinandisjoinedtherebya stoutmacouteinplainclothesandbytwouniformedpolicemen, who lean in to listen to what the priest is saying to Drouin. It is possible that they are all offering Drouin some typeofeyeorfacecoverthathe srefusing.drouinshakeshis headasiftosay,let sgetitoverwith.noblindersorhoodsare placedoneitherman. Th efiringsquad,sevenhelmetedmeninkhakimilitaryuniforms,stretchouttheirhandsoneithersideoftheirbodies. Theytoucheachother sshoulderstopositionandspacethemselves.thepoliceandarmymovethecrowdback,perhapsto keepthemfrombeinghitbyricochetedbullets.th emembers ofthefiringsquadpickuptheirspringfieldrifles,loadtheir ammunition, and then place their weapons on their shoulders.offscreensomeoneprobablyshouts, Fire! andtheydo. NumaandDrouin sheadsslumpsidewaysatthesametime, showingthattheshotshavehithome. Whenthemen sbodiesslidedownthepoles,numa sarms end up slightly above his shoulders and Drouin s below his. Theirheadsreturntoanuprightpositionabovetheirkneeling bodies,untilasoldierincamouflagewalksoveranddelivers thefinalcoupdegrace,afterwhichtheirheadsslumpforward andtheirbodiesslidefurthertowardthebottomofthepole. BloodspillsoutofNuma smouth.drouin sglassesfalltothe 4
CREATE DANGEROUSLY ground,piecesofbloodandbrainmattercloudingthecracked lenses. Thenextday,Le Matin,thecountry snationalnewspaper, describedthestunned lookingcrowdas feverish,communicatinginamutualpatrioticexaltationtocurseadventurism andbrigandage. The government pamphlets circulating in Port au Prince lastweekleftlittletotheimagination, reportedthenovember 27,1964,editionoftheAmericannewsweeklyTime. Dr.FrançoisDuvalierwillfulfillhissacrosanctmission.Hehascrushed and will always crush the attempts of the opposition. Th ink well,renegades.hereisthefateawaitingyouandyourkind. Allartists,writersamongthem,haveseveralstories onemight callthemcreationmyths thathauntandobsessthem.th is isoneofmine.idon tevenrememberwhenifirstheardabout it.ifeelasthoughihavealwaysknownit,havingfilledinthe curiosity drivendetailsthroughphotographs,newspaperand magazinearticles,books,andfilmsasihavegottenolder. Like many a creation myth, aside from its heartrending clashoflifeanddeath,homelandandexile,theexecutionof MarcelNumaandLouisDrouininvolvesadisobeyeddirective fromahigherauthorityandabrutalpunishmentasaresult.if wethinkbacktothebiggestcreationmythofall,theworld s veryfirstpeople,adamandeve,disobeyedthesuperiorbeing thatfashionedthemoutofchaos,defyinggod sordernotto eat what must have been the world s most desirable apple. Adam and Eve were then banished from Eden, resulting in everythingfromourhavingtopunchaclocktospendingmany long,painfulhoursgivingbirth. 5
The order given to Adam and Eve was not to eat the apple. Their ultimate punishment was banishment, exile from paradise.we,thestorytellersoftheworld,oughttobemore grateful than most that banishment, rather than execution, was chosen for Adam and Eve, for had they been executed, therewouldneverhavebeenanotherstorytold,nostoriesto passon. In his play Caligula, Albert Camus, from whom I borrow part of the title of this essay, has Caligula, the third Roman emperor,declarethatitdoesn tmatterwhetheroneisexiled orexecuted,butitismuchmoreimportantthatcaligulahas thepowertochoose.evenbeforetheywereexecuted,marcel Numa and Louis Drouin had already been exiled. As young men, they had fled Haiti with their parents when Papa Doc Duvalierhadcometopowerin1957andhadimmediatelytargetedforarrestallhisdetractorsandresistorsinthecityof poetsandelsewhere. Marcel Numa and Louis Drouin had made new lives for themselves, becoming productive young immigrants in the UnitedStates.Inadditiontohisarmyandfinanceexperience, Louis Drouin was said to have been a good writer and the communicationsdirectorofjeunehaiti.intheunitedstates, he contributed to a Haitian political journal called Lambi. Marcel Numa was from a family of writers. One of his male relatives,nononuma,hadadaptedtheseventeenth century French playwright Pierre Corneille s Le Cid, placing it in a Haitian setting. Many of the young men Numa and Drouin joinedwithtoformjeunehaitihadhadfatherskilledbypapa Doc Duvalier, and had returned, Le Cid and Hamlet like, to revengethem. 6
CREATE DANGEROUSLY Like most creation myths, this one too exists beyond the scopeofmyownlife,yetitstillfeelspresent,evenurgent.marcel Numa and Louis Drouin were patriots who died so that otherhaitianscouldlive.theywerealsoimmigrants,likeme. Yet,theyhadabandonedcomfortablelivesintheUnitedStates andsacrificedthemselvesforthehomeland.oneofthefirst thingsthedespotduvaliertriedtotakeawayfromthemwas themythicelementoftheirstories.inthepropagandaprecedingtheirexecution,helabeledthemnothaitian,butforeign rebels,good for nothing blans. AtthetimeoftheexecutionofMarcelNumaandLouisDrouin, my recently married, twenty nine year old parents lived in Haiti,inaneighborhoodcalledBelAir,aboutathirty minute walkfromthecemetery.belairhadagovernment sponsored community center, a centre d étude, where young men and women but mostly young men went to study in the evenings, especially if they had no electricity at home. Some of these young people not my parents, but young people who studiedatthecenter belongedtoabookclub,areadinggroup sponsoredbythealliancefrançaise,thefrenchinstitute.th e bookgroupwascalledleclubdebonnehumeur,orthegood HumorClub.Atthetime,LeClubdeBonneHumeurwasreadingCamus playcaligulawithaneyetopossiblystagingit. In Camus version of Caligula s life, when Caligula s sister, who is also his lover, dies, Caligula unleashes his rage and slowlyunravels.inaprefacetoanenglishtranslationofthe play,camuswrote, Ilookinvainforphilosophyinthesefour acts...ihavelittleregardforanartthatdeliberatelyaimsto shockbecauseitisunabletoconvince. 7
AftertheexecutionsofMarcelNumaandLouisDrouin,as the images of their deaths played over and over in cinemas andonstate runtelevision,theyoungmenandwomenofthe ClubdeBonneHumeur,alongwiththerestofHaiti,desperately needed art that could convince. They needed art that could convince them that they would not die the same way Numa and Drouin did. They needed to be convinced that wordscouldstillbespoken,thatstoriescouldstillbetoldand passedon.so,asmyfatherusedtotellit,theseyoungpeople donnedwhitesheetsastogasandtheytriedtostagecamus play quietly, quietly in many of their houses, where they whisperedlineslike: Executionrelievesandliberates.Itisauniversaltonic,just inpreceptasinpractice.amandiesbecauseheisguilty.a manisguiltybecauseheisoneofcaligula ssubjects.ergoall menareguiltyandshalldie.itisonlyamatteroftimeand patience. The legend of the underground staging of this and other plays,clandestinereadingsofpiecesofliterature,wassostrong thatyearsafterpapadocduvalierdied,everytimetherewas apoliticalmurderinbelair,oneoftheyoungaspiringintellectuals in the neighborhood where I spent the first twelve yearsofmylifemightinevitablysaythatsomeoneshouldput on a play. And because the uncle who raised me while my parents were in New York for two thirds of the first twelve yearsofmylife,becausethatunclewasaministerinbelair andhadachurchandschoolwithsomeavailablespace,occasionallysomeoftheseplayswerereadandstaged,quietly, quietly,inthebackyardofhischurch. 8
CREATE DANGEROUSLY Thereweremanyrecurrencesofthisstorythroughoutthe country,bookandtheaterclubssecretlycherishingsomepotentiallysubversivepieceofliterature,familiesburyingifnot burningtheirentirelibraries,booksthatmightseeminnocent but could easily betray them. Novels with the wrong titles. Treatiseswiththerighttitlesandintentions.Stringsofwords that, uttered, written, or read, could cause a person s death. SometimesthesewordswerewrittenbyHaitianwriterslike MarieVieux ChauvetandRenéDepestre,amongothers.Other timestheywerewrittenbyforeignorblanwriters,writerslike AiméCésaire,FrantzFanon,orAlbertCamus,whowereuntouchable because they were either not Haitian or already longdead.thefactthatdeathpreventedonefrombeingbanished unlike,say,theenglishnovelistgrahamgreene,who was banned from Haiti after writing The Comedians made the classic writersallthemoreappealing.unlikethecountry sowncitizens,thesewriterscouldneitherbetorturedor murdered themselves nor cause their family members to be torturedormurdered.andnomatterhowhardhetried,papa DocDuvaliercouldnotmaketheirwordsgoaway.Th eirmaxims and phrases would keep coming back, buried deep in memoriesbytheroterecitationtechniquesthatthehaitian schoolsystemhadtaughtsowell.becausethosewriterswho werestillinhaiti,notyetexiledorkilled,couldnotfreelyperformorprinttheirownwordsoutright,manyofthemturned, orreturned,tothegreeks. When it was a crime to pick up a bloodied body on the street,haitianwritersintroducedhaitianreaderstosophocles Oedipus RexandAntigone,whichhadbeenrewrittenin CreoleandplacedinHaitiansettingsbytheplaywrightFranck 9
FouchéandthepoetFelixMorisseauLeroy.Thisiswherethese writers placed their bets, striking a dangerous balance betweensilenceandart. How do writers and readers find each other under such dangerouscircumstances?reading,likewriting,underthese conditionsisdisobediencetoadirectiveinwhichthereader, our Eve, already knows the possible consequences of eating thatapplebuttakesaboldbiteanyway. Howdoesthatreaderfindthecouragetotakethisbite,open thatbook?afteranarrest,anexecution?ofcourseheorshe mayfinditinthepowerofthehushedchorusofotherreaders, butshecanalsofinditinthewriter scourageinhavingstepped forward,inhavingwritten,orrewritten,inthefirstplace. Createdangerously,forpeoplewhoreaddangerously.Th is iswhati vealwaysthoughtitmeanttobeawriter.writing, knowing in part that no matter how trivial your words may seem, someday, somewhere, someone may risk his or her lifetoreadthem.comingfromwhereicomefrom,withthe historyihave havingspentthefirsttwelveyearsofmylife under both dictatorships of Papa Doc and his son, Jean Claude thisiswhati vealwaysseenastheunifyingprinciple among all writers. This is what, among other things, might join Albert Camus and Sophocles to Toni Morrison, Alice Walker,OsipMandelstam,andRalphWaldoEmersontoRalph Waldo Ellison. Somewhere, if not now, then maybe years in thefuture,afuturethatwemayhaveyettodreamof,someone mayriskhisorherlifetoreadus.somewhere,ifnotnow,then maybeyearsinthefuture,wemayalsosavesomeone slife,becausetheyhavegivenusapassport,makingushonorarycitizensoftheirculture. 10
CREATE DANGEROUSLY ThisiswhywhenIwroteabookcalledThe Dew Breaker,a bookaboutachoukèt lawoze,oraduvalier eratorturer,abook thatispartlysetintheperiodfollowingthenumaanddrouin executions,iusedanepigraphfromapoembyosipmandelstam,whofamouslysaid, OnlyinRussiaispoetryrespected itgetspeoplekilled. ThequotationIusedis: Maybethisisthebeginningofmadness... ForgivemeforwhatIamsaying. Readit...quietly,quietly. Therearemanypossibleinterpretationsofwhatitmeans to create dangerously, and Albert Camus, like the poet Osip Mandelstam,suggeststhatitiscreatingasarevoltagainstsilence,creatingwhenboththecreationandthereception,the writingandthereading,aredangerousundertakings,disobediencetoadirective. ThisisapartofmystorythatIhavealwayswantedtounderstand better: my family s brief encounters with the pleasuresanddangersofreading.iamatagreatdeficitherebecause,asidefrommymucholdercousinmaxo,therewerenot manyfanaticalreadersinmyfamilythatiknowof,muchless people who would risk their lives over a book. Perhaps at a timewhenonecouldbeshotsoeasily,assassinatedsopublicly,notreadingorwritingwasasurvivalmechanism.still, sprinkles of other readers stories continue to intrigue and thrillme.youngmenandwomenwhoworshippedeuripides and Voltaire, George Sand and Colette and Haiti s own physician novelist, Jacques Stephen Alexis, who in April 1961, threeyearsbeforenumaanddrouinwereexecuted,hadbeen 11
ambushed and murdered trying to return from exile, some say,tohelptoppletheduvalierdictatorship. NooneinmyfamilythatIknowofhadwitnessedNumaand Drouin sexecutioninperson.stilltheycouldnothelp,whenit cameup,talkingaboutit,evenifinthebroadestofterms. Itwasaverytragictime, mymothernowsays. Itwassomethingthattouchedageneration, myminister uncleusedtosay. Theywerepatriotswhodiedsotherestofuscouldlive,isa lineiborrowedfrommyfather.myfatherwastheonewho, whilelyingonhisdeathbedinearly2005,firsttoldmeabout the banned books and the plays. Only when he mentioned togas and Caesars, and an author with a name that sounds likecamion,didimanagetofindmyway,amongmanyother possiblechoices,tocamus Caligula.Icouldbewrongabout thistoo,makingconnectionsonlyibelievearethere. Theonlybookmyparentsandunclehavereadmorethan onceisthebible.iusedtofeartheirreadingmybooks,worriedaboutdisappointingthem.mystoriesdonotholdacandletohavinglivedunderadictatorshipformostofyouradult life, to having your neighbors disappear and not being able eventoacknowledgeit,tobeingforcedtoactasthoughthese neighborshadneverexistedatall.reading,andperhapsultimatelywriting,isnothinglikelivinginaplaceandtimewhere two very young men are killed in a way that is treated like entertainment. Mourir est beau,todieisbeautiful,declaresthehaitiannational anthem. But writing could never attain that kind of beauty.orcouldit?writingisnothinglikedyingin,for,and possiblywith,yourcountry. 12
CREATE DANGEROUSLY WhenIfirststartedreturningasapublicperson,asan author, to Haiti, a place where people trace your failures and successes along family lines, I was often asked if there were anywritersinmyfamily.iftherewere,idonotknow.butanotherthingthathasalwayshauntedandobsessedmeistrying to write the things that have always haunted and obsessed thosewhocamebeforeme. BelAir,nowadestituteandearthquake ravagedslumoverlookingport au Princeharbor,wasstillapoorneighborhood wheniwasgrowingupthere.but,alongwithideologicalstudents, our neighborhood also had its intellectuals. Th e brilliant and compassionate Haitian novelist/poet/playwright/ painter Frankétienne grew up in Bel Air, as did the younger novelistandpoetlouisphillipedalembert,wholaterleftfor ParisandthenRome.TherewasalsoEdnerDay,awell known Macoute, who tried to court one of my young cousins, who triedtocourteveryone syoungcousins.heseemedliteraryfor nootherreasonthanthathewassometimesseenintheafternoons sitting on his balcony reading. But he was also a rumoredmurderer,oneofthosewhomayhaveshotnumaand Drouin. In Create Dangerously, Camus writes: Art cannot be a monologue.weareonthehighseas.theartist,likeeveryone else,mustbendtohisoar,withoutdyingifpossible. Inmany ways,numaanddrouinsharedthedestinyofmanyhaitian artists, particularly that of the physician novelist Jacques StephenAlexis,whowrotesuchbeautifulprosethatthefirst timeireadhisdescriptionoffreshlybakedbread,iraisedthe bookclosertomynosetosniffit.perhapstherearenowriters inmyfamilybecausetheyweretoobusytryingtofindbread. 13
Perhapstherearenowritersinmyfamilybecausetheywere notallowedtoorcouldbarelyaffordtoattendadecrepitvillage school as children. Perhaps there are no artists in my family because they were silenced by the brutal directives of one dictatorship, or one natural disaster, after another. Perhaps, just as Alice Walker writes of her own forebears in her essay In Search of Our Mother s Gardens, my blood ancestors unlike my literary ancestors were so weatherbeaten,terror stricken,andmaimedthattheywerestifled.as aresult,thosewhosomehowmanagedtocreatebecame,in myview,martyrsandsaints. Insteadofbeingperceivedaswholepersons, wrotewalker, their bodies became shrines: what was thought to be their minds became temples suitable for worship. Th ese crazy Saints staredoutattheworld,wildly,likelunatics orquietly,likesuicides;andthe God thatwasintheirgazewasas muteasagreatstone. OfcourseIcouldbecompletelyoffbase.BelAir sfrankétienne,amongothers,somehowmanagedtoremainhuman andaliveinhaiti,before,during,andaftertheduvalierdictatorship, producing a massive and innovative body of work. Balancingonthemetaphoricalhighseasandbendingtotheir oars without dying is what the majority of Haitians have alwaysdone,generationaftergeneration.thislegacyofresilienceandsurvivaliswhathadinspiredjacquesstephenalexis, MarcelNumaandLouisDrouin,andsomanyotherstosacrifice their lives. Their death is possibly among the shocking incidentsthateventuallymotivatedsomanyothers,likemy parents,forexample,toleave.thismaybeoneofthereasons IliveintheUnitedStatesofAmericatoday,writinginthislan 14
CREATE DANGEROUSLY guage that is not mine. This could possibly be why I am an immigrant and hopefully an artist, an immigrant artist at work.eventhoughthereisprobablynosuchthingasanimmigrantartistinthisglobalizedage,whenalgeriaandhaiti and even ancient Greece and Egypt are only a virtual visit away. Even without globalization, the writer bound to the reader,underdiabolic,orevenjoyful,circumstancesinevitablybecomesaloyalcitizenofthecountryofhisreaders. MyfriendtheHaitiannovelistDanyLaferrière,whowasa newspaper journalist during the Duvalier regime and was forcedtoleaveforcanadaduringthedictatorship,haspublished a novel called Je suis un écrivain japonais, or I Am a Japanese Writer.Inthebook,thefictionalauthor,astand in for Dany Laferrière, explains his decision to call himself a Japanesewriter,concurringwiththeFrenchliterarycriticRolandBarthesthat atext sunityliesnotinitsoriginbutinits destination. Iamsurprised, thefictionallaferrièrewrites, toseehowmuchattentionispaidtoawriter sorigins...i repatriated,withoutgivingitasecondthought,allthewritersi readasayoungman.flaubert,goethe,whitman,shakespeare, LopedeVega,Cervantes,Kipling,Senghor,Césaire,Roumain, Amado,Diderot,theyalllivedinthesamevillagethatIdid. Otherwise,whatweretheydoinginmyroom?When,yearslater Imyselfbecameawriterandwasasked, AreyouaHaitian writer,acaribbeanwriterorafrancophonewriter? Iwould alwaysanswerthatitookthenationalityofmyreader,which meansthatwhenajapanesereaderreadsmybooks,iimmediatelybecomeajapanesewriter. 15
Istheresuchathingasanimmigrantreader?hewonders. Itoosometimeswonderifintheintimate,bothsolitaryand solidary,unionbetweenwritersandreadersabordercanreallyexist.isthereaborderbetweenantigone sdesiretobury herbrotherandthehaitianmotherof1964whodesperately wantstotakeherdeadson sbodyoutofthestreettogivehim aproperburial,knowingthatifshedoesthisshetoomaydie? Soperhapsafterthoseexecutionswhenthoseyoungmenand women were readingcaligula, Albert Camus became a Haitianwriter.WhentheywerereadingOedipus RexandAntigone, SophoclestoobecameaHaitianwriter. We,asweread, RalphWaldoEmersonwroteinanessay onhistory, mustbecomegreeks,romans,turks,priestand king, martyr and executioner; must fasten these images to somerealityinoursecretexperience,orweshalllearnnothingrightly. Thenomadorimmigrantwholearnssomethingrightlymust alwayspondertravelandmovement,justasthegrief stricken mustinevitablyponderdeath.asdoestheartistwhocomes fromaculturethatisasmuchaboutharnessinglife joyous, jubilant,resilientlife asitisaboutavoidingdeath.sincehe d fashionedhisdressandpersona ablacksuitandhat,nasal voice,andglasses afterbaronsamedi,thevodouguardian spiritofthecemetery,françoisduvaliershouldhaveknown betterthananyonethatinhaitipeopleneverreallydie.th is is,afterall,aplacewhereheroeswhoareburnedatthestake are said to evaporate into a million fireflies, where widows andwidowersareadvisedtoweartheirnightgownsandpajamas inside out and wear red undergarments to keep their 16
CREATE DANGEROUSLY deadspousesoutoftheirbedsatnight.andwheremothers aresometimesadvisedtowearredbrastokeeptheirdeadbabiesfromcomingbacktonurseattheirbreasts.likeancient Egyptians,weHaitians,whenacatastrophicdisasterdoesnot preventit,recitespellstolaunchourdeadintothenextworld, allwhilekeepingthemclose,buildingelaboratemausoleums for them in our backyards. In another country, in the cold, withnofireflies,noredunderwearorbackyardmausoleums, theartistimmigrant,orimmigrantartist,inevitablyponders thedeathsthatbroughtherhere,alongwiththedeathsthat keep her here, the deaths from hunger and executions and cataclysmicdevastationathome,thedeathsfromparalyzing chagrininexile,andtheothersmall,dailydeathsinbetween. TheimmigrantartistpondersdeaththewaytheydidinGabrielGarciaMárquez smacondo,atthebeginningofone Hundred Years of Solitude. Wehavestillnothadadeath, Márquez scolonelsays. Apersondoesnotbelongtoaplaceuntilsomeoneisdeadunderthe ground. AndtheColonel swife sreplymighthavebeenthesame asmanyanimmigrantartist sparents,guardian,orsupporter: If Ihavetodiefortherestofyoutostayhere,thenIwilldie. Theimmigrantartist,toborrowfromToniMorrison snobel lectureknowswhatitis toliveattheedgeoftownsthatcannotbear ourcompany,hamletsthatneedourlaborbutwant ourchildrenbannedfromtheirschools,villagesthatwantour sickshutoutfromtheirhospitals,bigcitiesthatwantourelderly,afteralifetimeofimpossiblelabor,topackupandgooff somewhereelsetodie. IfIhavetodiefortherestofyoutostayhere,saystheColonel swife,theniwilldie.likeher,theimmigrantartistmust 17
quantifythepriceoftheamericandreaminfleshandbone. Allthiswhilelivingwiththemore regular fearsofanyother artist.doiknowenoughaboutwherei vecomefrom?willi everknowenoughaboutwhereiam?evenifsomebodyhas diedformetostayhere,willievertrulybelong? AlbertCamusoncewrotethataperson screativeworkisnothingbutaslowtrektorediscover,throughthedetoursofart, thosetwoorthreeimagesinwhosepresencehisorherheart firstopened.overtheyears,ihavetriedtoexploremytwoor three images in these rather simple essays. In each of these pieces,though,areseveralcities,acountry,twoindependent republicsinthesamehemisphere,butobviouslywithdifferentdestinesandgoalsintheworld. Theimmigrantartistshareswithallotherartiststhedesire to interpret and possibly remake his or her own world. So though we may not be creating as dangerously as our forebears thoughwearenotriskingtorture,beatings,execution, though exile does not threaten us into perpetual silence still, while we are at work bodies are littering the streets somewhere.peopleareburiedunderrubblesomewhere.mass gravesarebeingdugsomewhere.survivorsarelivinginmakeshifttentcitiesandrefugeecampssomewhere,shieldingtheir headsfromtherain,closingtheireyes,coveringtheirears,to shut out the sounds of military aid helicopters. And still, manyarereading,andwriting,quietly,quietly. WhileIwas atwork at4:53p.m.,onjanuary12,2010,the groundwasshakingandkillingmorethantwohundredthousandpeopleina7.0magnitudeearthquakeinhaiti.andeven before the first aftershock, people were calling me asking, 18
CREATE DANGEROUSLY Edwidge,whatareyougoingtodo?Whenareyougoingback? Couldyoucomeontelevisionorontheradioandtellushow youfeel?couldyouwriteusfifteenhundredwordsorless? Perhapsthisiswhytheimmigrantartistneedstofeelthat heorsheiscreatingdangerouslyeventhoughsheisnotscribblingonprisonwallsorcountingthedaysuntilafatefuldate withanexecutioner.orahurricane.oranearthquake. Self doubtisprobablyoneofthestagesofacclimationina newculture.it sastapleformostartists.asimmigrantartists forwhomsomuchhasbeensacrificed,somanydreamshave beendeferred,wealreadydoubtsomuch.itmighthavebeen simpler,safertohavebecomethemorehelpfuldoctors,lawyers,engineersourparentswantedustobe.whenourworlds areliterallycrumbling,wetellourselveshowrighttheymay have been, our elders, about our passive careers as distant witnesses. Whodowethinkweare? Wethinkwearepeoplewhoriskednotexistingatall.Peoplewhomighthavehadamotherandfatherkilled,eitherbya governmentorbynature,evenbeforewewereborn.someof usthinkweareaccidentsofliteracy. Ido. Wethinkwearepeoplewhomightnothavebeenabletogo to school at all, who might never have learned to read and write.wethinkwearethechildrenofpeoplewhohavelivedin theshadowsfortoolong.wesometimeseventhinkthatwe areliketheancientegyptians,whosegodsofdeathdemanded documentationofworthinessandacceptancebeforeallowing thementryintothenextworld.mightwealsobeabitlikethe ancientegyptiansinthewayoftheirartistsandtheirart,the 19
pyramid and coffn texts, tomb paintings, and hieroglyphic makers? OneofthemanywaysasculptorofancientEgyptwasdescribed was as one who keeps things alive. Before pictures were drawn and amulets were carved for ancient Egyptians tombs,wealthymenandwomenhadtheirslavesburiedwith themtokeepthemcompanyinthenextlife.th eartistswho cameupwiththeseothertypesofmemorialart,theartthat couldreplacethedeadbodies,mayalsohavewantedtosave lives.inthefaceofbothexternalandinternaldestruction,we arestilltryingtocreateasdangerouslyasthey,asthougheach pieceofartwereastand inforalife,asoul,afuture.asthe ancientegyptiansculptorsmayhavesuspected,andasmarcel Numa and Louis Drouin surely must have believed, we havenootherchoice. 20