Poster of Haitian Presidential candidate Mirlande Manigat in Jacmel, Haiti
While I was visiting Jacmel, Haiti during my Heart of Haiti blogger trip in February, I saw posters of Rally of Progressive National Democrats’ Presidential candidate Mirlande Manigat, a 70 year old politician, legal scholar, former Senator, Sorbonne-trained academic, mother, grandmother, and wife of former Haitian President Leslie Manigat. Guess what? In three days, the former First Lady and vice rector of the Université Quisqueya in Port-au-Prince could make Haitian women’s history by becoming the first woman President of Haiti. Click here to learn more about her.
Yesterday I listened to a discussion about former Haitian President Jean-Betrand Aristide’s plans to return to Haiti after a seven-year exile in South Africa on NPR’s Tell Me More. Tell Me More host Michel Martin and Jacqueline Charles, the Caribbean correspondent for the Miami Herald, engaged in a lively discussion about the impact of Aristide’s return on Haiti’s presidential run-off election on March 20. Click here to listen to the show. Former First Lady Mirlande Manigat and pop singer Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly are the presidential candidates.
Martin and Charles’ discussion reminded me of the many presidential candidate posters I saw on houses and buildings during my recent trip to Haiti as a Heart of Haiti blogger ambassador in February. Sweet Micky”s posters appeared to dominate Port-au-Prince, Croix-des-Bouqets, and Jacmel. No matter who wins the election, I hope and pray Haiti’s next president will help stabilize, heal, and rebuild Haiti and the lives, families, and businesses of her daughters and sons.
New Orleans is one of my favorite places to visit. It is magical. It is filled with feathered masks, crepes,
Mardi Gras beads, and Vodon spirituality. I fell in love with the Crescent City during my first visit in 1978. It was a family vacation attached to my mother’s sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.’s national convention (my sorority too)! N’awlins got underneath my skin and stayed there until I visited again in 1997. That trip transformed my life. I thought I was there to get my groove on, but NOLA knew better. Turns out I was summoned by Spirit and the characters in my debut novel Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One. They led me to the Essence Music Festival and dropped me in the middle of the French Quarter with one instruction: be open. So I walked in and out of shops, made small talk with local folks, followed the NOLA yellow brick broad to various neighborhoods, bookstores, and cafes. The end results were a collection of Mardi Gras feathered masks and a few pages of dialogue from characters with New Orleans roots.
Ananda posing in her New Orleans Mardi Gras mask as Sapphire, one of her archetypes Ananda wearing paper mache mask during Jacmel, Haiti Carnival Ananda wearing a paper mache mask at Jacmel, Haiti Carnival
Fast forward to today where I am thinking about the power of masks in Mardi Gras, the Jacmel, Haiti Carnival, and my own life. Whenever I see or wear a Mardi Gras mask, I am transported to a mystical, magical, and mysterious place that lets the good times roll all day long! I am also reminded of how colorful and creative masks can be. The paper mache masks that I saw and purchased recently during my Heart of Haiti trip in Jacmel, Haiti, were so animated. They came to life on their own. They provoked storytelling in my mind. Now that’s a powerful set of masks!
Ananda & Pascal Faublas, Jacmel Director for Fairwinds Trading
celebrating and promoting their digital sisters by tweeting about their businesses, wisdom, creativity, blogs, Facebook pages, causes, videos, and web sites. I created #DigitalSisterhood Wednesdays during the 2010 Blogalicious Weekend Conference and launched the weekly Twitter celebration to give women in social media a weekly opportunity to build and strengthen their communities. Each week women are encouraged to celebrate and promote their digital sisters by using the #FF (Friday Follow) format. This weekly celebration gave birth to Digital Sisterhood Month and the Digital Sisterhood Network in December. One of the lessons I learned during Digital Sisterhood Month was that Digital Sisterhood is more than a weekly or month-long celebration. It is a movement that has a life of its own. It is living and breathing on and offline.
Heather Whaling, Sloane Berrent & Ananda
Did you know Digital Sisterhood traveled with me when I left Washington, DC and landed in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on February 25? I had no idea she packed herself in my luggage with plans for developing digital sisterhood bonds with 11 amazing women I met through the Heart of Haiti campaign. See the list of digital sisters below. Click here to see more photos of the Heart of Haiti‘s Digital Sisterhood.
Heart of Haiti Digital Sisters
Sloane Berrent, Humanitarian, Kiva Fellow, and Founder of The Causemopolitan,
Laura Ciocia, Senior Digital Strategist at Everywhere,
Danica Kombol, Managing and Founding Partner at Everywhere,
Johnica Reed, Travel Tastemaker, Writer, and Founder of leisureStrategy,
Willa Shalit, Artist, Author, Co-Founder of V-Day, CEO of Fairwinds Trading, and Founder of Touch Foundation,
Nathalie Tancrede, co-founder of Fondation d’Ayiti Soleil, a Haitian organization that helps educate Haitian girls and women, and the Haiti Country Director for Fairwinds Trading
I learned so much about these ladies in four days. We talked about many issues as we toured Port-au-Prince. Stories, insights, reflections, and lessons learned danced in and out of our daily adventures. Laughter, silent pauses, a reflection and prayer circle, yoga before sunrise, Reiki healing touch sessions, blogging and tweeting in the hotel restaurant, filming video interviews, taking photos everyplace we stopped, late night girl weekend conversations, dancing and eating plantains at Jacmel’s Carnival, and chit chatting at the cafe in Toussaint Louverture International Airport are just a few of the ways Digital Sisterhood created bonds between me and these women.
It’s hard for me to fully describe the Digital Sisterhood bond that happened in Haiti. I guess I am still basking in the beauty and blessing of connecting with 11 dynamic women. So I will leave you with two of my favorite Kreyol words and video interviews of Willa Shalit and Heather Whaling. The Heart of Haiti Digital Sisterhood is “belle bagay” (a Kreyol word that means fabulous)!
Yesterday was International Women’s Day. In an effort to honor the 100th anniversary of this powerful day, I took three moments of silence to remember and honor the young Haitian women I met while visiting KOFAVIV, an organization that supports women and girls who have experienced violence. I met these amazing creative young ladies during my Heart of Haiti blogger ambassador trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti on February 26. A very special digital sisterhood moment happened during my visit. One of the young Haitian women and I really connected. We had some great conversations about her life and mine. Before I left, she asked me for my email so we could stay in touch. I promised her that I would stay in touch. This week I am planning to write her a short email that includes the photos we took together. Isn’t digital sisterhood great!
Port-au-Prince is a a busy city that has been deeply impacted by the January 2010 earthquake. Check out some of the photos I took during my Heart of Haiti blogger ambassador trip below. Click here to see more photos on Flickr.
Tomorrow evening I am experimenting with a new social media tool (at least for me) called Vokle during my live chat about my Heart of Haiti trip at 8:00 pm ET. Drop by and participate in the the video chat. You can use the hashtag #HeartofHaiti to follow the conversation. I will be sharing the books that helped me prepare for the trip, highlights from my trip, showing artwork I purchased from the Heart of Haiti artisans, and answering questions about my Haiti adventures. Click here to join the live chat. You can also register for it. Feel free to watch it live tomorrow on my web site’s home page.
PS: The live chat will not be recorded! Vokle does NOT provide this service:(! So I guess that means I will have to host a Digital Sisterhood Radio show about my trip and invite the bloggers who attended to be guests later this month. Stay tuned for the date and time (it will happen!).
Voodoo Flag featuring Haitian goddes of love Erzulie's veve at Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince, Haiti
When I checked into the Hotel Oloffson with my fellow Heart of Haiti “tripsters” in Port-au-Prince, Haiti on February 25, 2011, I was mesmerized by the beautiful artwork in the main hotel and my hotel room. Check out the videos below. Click here to see Flickr photos of the artwork.
Ananda standing with Voodoo flag artist Jean Paul Baptiste
One of the highlights of my Heart of Haiti trip was a visit to Voodoo flag artist Jean Paul Baptiste’s shop in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti on February 26, 2011. The video above features many Voodoo flags. I was in heaven when I saw the flags with the Haitian goddess of love Erzulie and La Sirene, a Haitian goddess of the seas who appears as a mermaid. Click here to see all of the photos on Flickr.
Ananda wearing a butterfly mask at the Jacmel Carnival in Haiti
My first carnival experience happened during my Heart of Haiti trip on February 27 in Jacmel, Haiti. It was “belle bagay” (a Kreyol word that means fabulous, fantastic, it was cool etc.). The papermache artwork and masks, music, food, and lively crowds of people filled with “joie de vivre” (joy of living) made it a special experience. Watch my videos and see photos below. Click here to see all of my photos from the Jacmel Carnival.
Jacmel Carnival life size masksJacmel Carnival CelebrationJacmel Carnival CelebrationCarnival Mask
Ananda Leeke 
