ENTERTAINMENT
Caribbean Life, JANUARY 22-28, 2021 25
By Nelson A. King
Régine Romain, a Brooklyn-based
Haitian-American artist, educator
and visual anthropologist, in association
with the WaWaWa Diaspora Centre,
has published “Nou Pap Bliye: A
Haitian Coloring Book,” a collection
of illustrated photographs, poetry
and cultural symbols.
“Nou Pap Bliye” in Haitian Kreyòl
means “we will never forget.”
“January has always been a significant
month for the people of
Haiti,” Romain said. “Jan. 1, 1804 is
celebrated throughout the country
and its Diaspora as Haiti’s Independence
Day from French colonial rule
and chattel slavery. This year of 2021
marks the 217th anniversary of Haiti’s
triumphant evolution as the first
free Black nation in the Americas.
“This year also marks the 11th
anniversary of the catastrophic 7.0m
earthquake that occurred in Haiti on
Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2010,” she added.
Romain said “Nou Pap Bliye” features
illustrated images of Haiti that
she captured three weeks after the
devastating earthquake.
Rather than continue to emphasize
the images of catastrophic loss and
devastation inundating international
media following the tragedy, Romain
said the photographs emphasize “the
elements of faith, dignity, honor and
respect that allowed Haitian communities
to survive and move forward.”
Romain said she photographs
and researches “Haiti’s shifting yet
distinct presence throughout the
world in an ongoing visual Diaspora
Brooklyn-based Haitian-American artis, Régine Romain.
Regine Romain
Continued on Page 26
Amanda Gorman delivers a poem
during the 59th Presidential Inauguration
in Washington, U.S., January
20, 2021. Erin Schaff/Pool via REUTERS
By Nelson A. King
Amanda Gorman, the first ever
National Youth Poet Laureate in the
United States, received rave reviews
Wednesday by asking at President Joe
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s
inauguration, “Where can we find
light?”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Gorman,
22, a graduate of Harvard University,
with a B.A. in Sociology, asked
the question in reciting her emotional
Continued on Page 26
By Nelson A. King
A pall has been cast over the broadcasting
scene in St. Vincent and the
Grenadines and its Diaspora as leading
artists and cultural figures, among
others, pay tribute to popular, veteran
radio and television broadcaster Ferrand
“Randy D” Dopwell, who died on
Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021, at his family
home in Kingstown Hill, St. Vincent
and the Grenadines.
Randy D succumbed to prostate cancer,
his cousins, Fern and Dawn Dopwell,
Brooklyn residents, told Caribbean
Life. He was 69.
“We lost a true Vincentian patriot
and a broadcasting icon in veteran radio
broadcaster and TV host of the entertainment
program, ‘Vibes Caribbean’”,
veteran Vincentian calypsonian Alston
Continued on Page 26
FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT, GO TO CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM/ENTERTAINMENT
‘Where can
we find light?’
Artists tribute to
Vincy Randy D
COLORFUL
HAITI
Coloring book’ highlights 2010 Haiti quake
/ENTERTAINMENT
