Boisrond Tonnerre on a Haitian postage stamp for the 150-year anniversary of the Haitian Revolution, (1804-1954).
•
•
•
Boisrond-Tonnerre was a Haitian writer and historian who is best known for having served as Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ secretary. He is the author of the 1804 Independence Act of Haiti.
Baillargau Raymond, known as Ti Roro, was a Haitian drummer known for bringing the artistry of Haitian Vodou ritual drumming and other traditional Afro-Haitian drumming styles to the stage and to recording studios. He was an international performer who influenced jazz musicians, in particular, Max Roach.
Bois Caïman (Haitian Creole: Bwa Kayiman) was the site of the Vodou ceremony during which the first major slave insurrection of the Haitian Revolution was planned.
On the night of August 14, 1791, representative slaves from nearby plantations gathered to participate in a secret ceremony conducted in the woods by nearby Le Cap in the French colony of Saint-Domingue. Presided over by Dutty Boukman, a prominent slave leader and Vodou priest, the ceremony served as both a religious ritual and strategic meeting as conspirators met and planned a revolt against the ruling white planters of the colony’s wealthy Northern Plain. The ceremony is considered the official beginning of the Haitian Revolution.
In the following days, the whole Northern Plain was in flames, as the revolutionaries conducted acts of violence towards those who had formerly enslaved them. Clouded in mystery, many accounts of the catalytic ceremony and its particular details have varied. There are no known first-hand written accounts about what took place that night. It was first documented in the colonist Antoine Dalmas’s “History of the Saint-Domingue Revolution”, published in 1814.
I loved this photo series @cedrickphoto took of me soooo much that I decided to make it the cover art for my upcoming single, ‘Don’t Get Caught Sick’. The song drops 11/1, and I’ll be celebrating!
More details to come but until then, you can preorder the song here: https://orcd.co/aog4yp9
Aida Overton Walker was the foremost vaudeville and theater black star of her generation. She was nationally and even internationally famous in her brief life. She was born in 1880 in New York City, and was hailed as a singer, dancer, actress, comedian and choreographer. In 1898 she joined the legendary Bert Williams and George Walker duo and was a key member of that super famous vaudeville act. She was known as “The Queen of The Cakewalk.” She worked to free young black performers of the early 20th century from degrading hamstrings and stereotypes. She died at the young age of 34 in 1914.
