ZING EXPERIENCE

100_8229I surprised my friend Kathy with a visit to her Brooklyn home the other day. She was her usual gracious self. We decided to give her husband, C., an even bigger surprise by showing up at his gig. C. and his gigantic bass were busy accompanying Paul Beaubrun, lead singer of Zing Experience. A gifted percussionist dropped rhythms that bounced off BAM’s mega facade, and rocked Lafayette all the way to Flatbush Avenue.

The venue was packed, but Kathy and I managed to get a good table. I had a perfect view of the back of Paul Beaubrun’s head. His hair falls just above his waist. Nice. But the diri djondjon black rice was too heavenly for me to complain about anything at all. The trio filled the house with a soul-rocking sound.

Paul, Kathy, & katia d. ulysse
Ok. It’s not a great picture. Blame C.’s phone.

As soon as the set ended, C. joined us at our table. Naturally, we gave each other a hard time about nothing major; that’s our thing. When Paul “Zing Experience” Beaubrun walked by, C. called him over for an introduction.  I was a fan in seconds.

I soon learned that Paul’s family and my mother’s were/are practically neighbors. We looked at each other, and we were like family; conversation came easily.

Days later, I met Paul at C.’s recording studio, Kamoken. We listened to a few works-in- progress while we filled up on sushi and brain-busting wasabi.  When another musician dropped by to work, Paul, Kathy, and I went upstairs for the INNERview I had to have for VoicesfromHaiti.

In Kathy’s office, I proceeded to bombard Paul with questions. Throughout the interrogation, the singer remained as humble as he is gorgeous.  We talked, talked, and talked some more.

Kathy had forgotten the story about how Paul and his beautiful wife met. She threw the first question. (FYI: Paul has been happily married for almost a decade now. . .)

100_8243Kathy: Paul, how did you and Cynthia meet again?

Paul to Kathy: We met in NY in May, 2005. Shortly afterwards we decided to form Zing Experience. It was like our first baby together. We loved it as soon as it came into existence.

Katia: What exactly is Zing Experience? (I had heard about the  band. I’d seen posters of Paul all over the place; I knew musicians who said they respect Zing. I know Zing caused certain people to breathe a little heavier. I didn’t know much more).

Paul: It’s a mix of racine, rock, reggae, and many different styles. It is also a spiritual movement. It’s an awakening of the self. Zing Experience is a way to be proud of your culture.

Katia: Why did you call the band Zing Experience? Does Zing have a special meaning?

Paul: We call the band Zing Experience, because I was born a Zing.

Kathy: What’s a Zing?

Katia: Yes, what is a Zing? (I still didn’t have a clue).

Paul: A Zing is a spiritual messenger or a poet. We are born with little dreads on our heads. For example, in Haiti when you go deep in the mountains, they don’t know the word Rasta or Dread. When they see me, they call me Zing.  In the dictionary, Zing is defined as “vitality.” I embody those qualities, I hope: I am an artist with vitality.

Kathy: What inspired you to  become an artist? (She had to have known the answer. Paul practically lives in the studio. I was glad to hear his explanation just the same).

Paul: First all, I wanted to be a professional soccer player. I didn’t choose to be a musician, music chose me.

Katia: What instrument do you play? (Still didn’t know).

Paul: My first instrument is the tanbou; now I play the guitar.

Katia: Which of the two instruments do you think helps you express what you feel more?

zing
Paul Beaubrun. Katia D. Ulysse. Big Smiles!

Paul: That’s a good question. I think it depends on the music.  I need to feel the melody. Some songs ask me to use a particular instrument–I let the music guide me. The music tells me which instrument to use. It’s not something that I’m exactly conscious of. I don’t say: Ok I’m going to use this or that instrument. The music controls me. I let the music take me where it wants.

Kathy: Is there one person in particular who inspired you to become a musician?

100_8245Paul: I grew up in a musical family. My father and mother are co-founders of Boukman Eksperyans. So home was music school for me. I didn’t have to do much to get inspired–or inspiration didn’t have to look too far to find me. We’d always been one. My dad–like a great teacher–introduced me to many different artists: Jimmy Hendrix, Bob Marley, Angelique Kidjo–she is amazing! I’ll never forget seeing her in Central Park. When I went out on my own, I had a lot to draw on. Inspiration came from inside and outside. It was everywhere. Inspiration is everywhere.

Kathy: How has the band evolved since 2006?

Paul: Zing is like a baby growing up. I’ve had the chance to meet many great people since we began; learned from them. The band grew musically, intellectually, and spiritually.

Katia: Where do you see Zing Experience in five or ten years from now?

Paul: We’ve paid our dues, and keep paying them. You name the spot, we’ve played there; we took any gig we could get. We played in Haiti from 2007 to 2009. We are planning and seriously hoping to play in Haiti in December, 2013. Most of our dreams have come true. We’ll just keep doing what we do. We’ll continue to grow and bring all that we can to the stage.

Katia: What’s the next big dream for Zing?

Paul: The next big dream is definitely to play in Haiti this December. We are keeping our fingers crossed. Think good thoughts. Send good vibes, and plan to be there when the band plays.

Kathy (with a serious look on her face): One thing I always notice about you is that you invite all kinds of people to play with Zing. That’s a sign of a true artist. You are open to other interpretation and other travels. The more open an artist is, the bigger the experiences; the bigger the feeling. That’s how you grow. Paul has his core band, but other artists come all the time. That’s a cool thing.

Katia: Tell me about your core band.

Paul: The core band is myself, Cynthia Casasola, Chico Boyer, Peter Barr, and Morgan Zwerlein. It’s an honor to play alongside them. We have a certain chemistry. Together we are Zing Experience.

100_8229Katia: When can Zing’s fans expect the next CD. “Project Haiti”–the previous CD–received a ton of attention. People love Zing. When will you give them more?

Paul: We’re planning for 2014. We’re working hard. The music is leading us to a good place. And we’ll bring the CD to you, as soon as the songs are ready.

Kathy: Beside going to Haiti in December, any big dreams you’d like to see come true?

Paul: We really, really want to go to Haiti in December. Like I said,  send us good vibes. That might be the biggest dream of all.

Katia: Thank you so much for the INNERview. I think I’ve been Zingged. I can’t wait to hear you play again. I wish you much success for years to come.

Paul (big smile on his face):  Thank you for interviewing me. It’s been a pleasure. I appreciate the fact that people actually care about Zing. My dreams keep coming true.

High-fives went flying all over the place.  It was time to get back to the business of making music. Another artist stopped by. A mini-jam session ensued. Paul drummed with his hands on his thighs. His head swayed from side to side. A melody from faraway places reached out to him. Soon it would take a form we may hear. That was just a tiny taste of what it means to have the Zing Experience.

VoicesfromHaiti. Nou bèl. E nou la.
We are beautiful. And we are here!

Mandela: The Last of Our Pride ~ Written by JASON HARRIS

Jason HarrisJason Harris pens “The Last of Our Pride” — a roaring tribute to the Lion of Azania, Nelson Mandela. Harris asks us to consider “What forms do our lives take as a race without the “one” whom we can look to for inspiration and model ourselves after?”

As Nelson Mandela’s health continues to improve, according to various news reports, VoicesfromHaiti stands with Jason Harris and celebrates “The Last of Our Pride.”

Jason Harris is a Baltimore based multimedia artist whose primary medium is speculative literature.  He is the editor and publisher of ‘Redlines: Baltimore 2028’ a speculative fiction anthology that focuses on near future scenarios in Baltimore, Maryland. His upcoming novella, ‘Fly, Girl’ will be released at his event, Mind Trip 2.0, in September 2013.  More information about Jason and his work can be found on his website,www.newfuturism.com.

The Last of our Pride

Written by Jason Harris

mandela 3Happy Birthday, Madiba. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is 95 years old, resting, dream-walking the path that separates the ancestors from our world.  Walter Sisulu, Chief Albert Lithuli, Govan Mbeki  and countless others on the other side occasionally brush his spirit and say, “Brother, you have done everything and more on that side.  What keeps you?”

Madiba, no doubt, makes a wry comment about the machines that his physical form is currently connected to, and promises that he will join the ancestors sooner than later.  There is no question that wherever the Lion of Azania travels, there is a crowd waiting for him. From the perspective of a child of the diaspora, the image of Nelson and Winnie Mandela holding hands raised over their head as a sea of ANC supporters shout ‘Amandla’, or the black and white photos of Mandela nattily dressed as a young barrister are iconic touchstones that speak to something within us that strives for and seeks out the best. There can be no disagreement with the idea that Nelson Mandela embodies our best.

mandela peace doveYet there is a disquieting void in this moment, as Mandela has been in and out of the hospital in the last year.  There seems to be less joy in celebrating a life of supreme achievement and more of a sense of dread.  White South Africans- the Boers (and the British) are worried that the hardliners in the ANC will exert their influence upon South Africa in Mandela’s absence and carry out measures akin to what Robert Mugabe has enacted in Zimbabwe.  Black South Africans (a redundant term in my opinion) are worried that white South Africans will revert to their more overt measures of oppression in the absence of a moral executor such as Mandela.  Mandela’s children are entrenched in a battle to properly bury their Father.  World leaders such as Obama are hastily making plans to descend upon South Africa to pay their respects and gauge in what manner Mandela’s possible transition affects sub-saharan Africa as a whole.

Desmond Tutu, Ahmed Kathrada, Thabo Mbeki are still with us.  Even former UN head Kofi Annan is with us; but none can be compared to Madiba.  In retrospect, Mandela is the last of the Lions- Martin, Malcolm, Medgar, Steve (Biko), Walter (Rodney), Kwame (Nkrumrah); these are Mandela’s peers.  These are men who fathered movements and stepped in harm’s way.  Mandela was able to reach his particular mountaintop – ending apartheid and bringing South Africa into a multiracial society. Nelson Mandela tasted victory in a way no athlete or executive could ever approach.  While there are mountains yet to be climbed, those journeys are for others.  What forms do our lives take as a race without the “one” whom we can look to for inspiration and model ourselves after?

nelson-mandela1_custom-451884e26a2e9677b50650949e908433e61f79b9-s6-c30Nelson Mandela has lived the lives of multiple men in one soul stirring timeline- Prince and son of a Chief, founder of the first Black law firm in Johannesburg, political activist stepping forward to speak for his people, revolutionary moving about underground to avoid arrest, political prisoner, unifying messianic force of change, President, and now in his retirement, an avatar for morality, dignity and leadership.  His close friend, Ahmed Kathrada, said it best:

“From childhood, when he was brought up as a chief, Mandela was groomed to be a leader. Added to that were his political experience, foresight, courage and dynamism.  Throughout the period that he operated underground, and during the Rivonia Trial, he displayed the undeniable qualities of leadership, culminating with his address from the dock.  Our lawyers, the media, the outside world and all of the accused….accepted him as the leader…”

Young_MandelaConsider the vile reality of apartheid, where a pencil was pushed into ones hair, and depending on whether the pencil held fast or fell out determined the racial category one was officially classified under.  Being classified as an African meant losing one’s property, curfew, restricted movements withIN the country, as well as general subservience to the white minority.  Mandela’s journey was littered with the likes of State sponsored terrorists such as Theuns ‘Rooi Rus’ Swanepoel, the policeman who ordered the Soweto massacre in 1976 and Piet Badenhorst, a sadistic warden whose iron fisted rule of the Robben Island prison that housed Mandela featured prison guards burying inmates up to their neck and urinating on them.  In spite of the dehumanizing tactics of the apartheid regime, Mandela and his fellow inmates transformed Robben Island into a think tank that laid the ground work for the end of South Africa’s version of Jim Crow. The 27 years of imprisonment honed his prodigious gifts as a leader until he emerged from jail as a force whose proper place was nothing less than the world stage.

nelson mandelaHe patiently waited, shaping and honing his weapon of choice, his ideas, ever alert to opportunities to make them sharper, more efficient, more accessible.  Madiba could have fallen to bullets, bombs, bombshells, money or promises.  He didn’t; he walked out of the boxes they placed him in to crush his mind, body and spirit, ready and willing to live up to what he was expected to be.   His emergence and his powerful example as a man of intelligence and morality inspired the entire world.

At the end of Spike Lee’s film ‘Malcolm X’, we see the children standing up and saying ‘I am Nelson Mandela.’   The image was beautifully conceived and brought to mind the ANC slogan of ‘when one in front falls, another is there to catch the spear and continue the fight’.  Almost 50 years later, the last words of Madiba’s famous speech during the 1964 Rivonia trial that would send him to prison for nearly three decades serves as perfect encapsulation as to why children would be so inspired:

news paper image of nelson mandela“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people.  I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination.  I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities.  It is an ideal which I hope to live for and achieve; but if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

Madiba’s charisma, intellect and discipline in the face of apartheid was singular- what we will find out in a world where the enemy has shifted its tactics, is not only who will carry on the Lion’s fight, but whether or not they are a lion at all.  Viva Madiba! Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika!

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Mandela - npr-photo
Mandela – npr-photo

“We stand here today to salute the United Nations Organization and its Member States, both singly and collectively, for joining forces with the masses of our people in a common struggle that has brought about our emancipation and pushed back the frontiers of racism.”

South African President Nelson Mandela
Address to UN General Assembly
3 October 1994

Juneteenth ~ Free Haiti’s Rèstavèks Now

Learn Haitian Kreyòl fortune cookieSi moun lakay pa vann ou, moun deyò paka achte-w. If someone inside your house does not sell you, someone from outside cannot buy you. ~Haitian Proverb/Pwòvèb Ayisyen

Texas. 1865. The Union Army’s Major General had to remind an assembled crowd that President Lincoln had, in fact, written a proclamation two years prior which freed all slaves. Some folk had not heard.  Granger, the Union Army guy, explained: “In accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free.”

Port-au-Prince. 2013. There are a few hundred thousand children in Haiti right this minute who would benefit from such a proclamation. They are known as rèstavèks.  “All slaves are free.” What nice words!  Should we put our voices together and proclaim Haiti’s rèstavèks free? Would they believe us? Libere tout rèstavèk jodiya. Isn’t it time for this deplorable practice to end?

Book by Katia D. Ulysse
Fabiola Can Count
written by Katia D. Ulysse
Illustrated by Kula Moore

Rèstavèk-ism is a difficult subject to talk and write about, but there’s information about it. Start with Robert Cadet’s Rèstavèk. And don’t forget to run to your favorite bookstore, and ask for your very own copy of Fabiola Can Count: a harmless little book about a rèstavèk girl. Fabiola Can Count, written by Katia D. Ulysse and illustrated by Kula Moore, is part of a six-book series published by One Moore Book. Other authors in the series include Michele Jessica Fievre, Ibi Zoboi, Edwidge Danticat, and Maureen Boyer.

Below is another harmless little story about a five year-old slave. The title is Don’t Count Me. Happy Reading!

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Don’t Count Me

written by

KDU

Several years ago a lady with very white teeth came to count all the rèstavèks in Haiti. Everywhere the lady went, she carried a thick notebook and a blue pen with a golden point. The words on the notebook’s cover read: Rèstavèks/Haiti’s Modern-Day Slaves.

The lady woke up early each morning to count the slave children, the rèstavèks. She counted, and counted, and counted. There were almost four hundred thousand. These rèstavèks — some as young as five years old — woke up before the roosters; they built fires for cooking, made breakfast, and served sweetened coffee to their grownup owners. They traveled to distant streams to fetch water for their keepers’ baths. Since they were not permitted to attend school, there was plenty of time for  sweeping, washing and ironing clothes. At night, the  rèstavèks slept on porches with the dogs and the shadows. One of the children the lady counted was a girl named Sophia.

The lady with the white teeth noted how perfectly balanced the heavy bucket was on Sophia’s head. “I can spin around without spilling a drop. Watch me,” Sophia boasted, twirling. She held the bucket in place with one hand. The other was cocked on her bony hip.

“Why are you carrying this bucket of water on your head?” the lady wanted to know.

“Because I cannot carry it on my feet,” Sophia retorted, laughing. But the lady with the white teeth could not bring herself to laugh. She’d seen thousands of children like Sophia. She’d seen them balance things on their heads that would break an army general’s neck.

Sophia’s threadbare clothes would make useless cleaning rags, the lady also noted. The child’s hair looked as if it had not seen a comb in months. The whites of her eyes were burnt-orange. Her clavicle protruded through thin skin. There were a number of welts crisscrossed on her arms, back, and legs.

When the lady asked Sophia her age, the child replied: “If I was five years old one minute ago, I am five years old now.” Sophia did not look at the lady when she answered her questions.

“Are you a rèstavèk?” the lady asked the same question she’d asked several thousand times before.

“If you think I am a rèstavèk, then maybe I am.” Sophia hunched her shoulders.

The lady put a check in the YES column, adding one more to her list.

“Why are you counting rèstavèks?” Sophia asked.

“It’s for a special report that will help children like you.”

“Don’t count me,” Sophia said. “If my owners catch me talking to you, I will have a lot more of these.” She indicated the welts on her arms.

“It’s my job to count you,” the lady with the white teeth explained.

Sophia ran as far and fast as she could, but did not spill a single drop of water from the five-gallon bucket on her head.

(Excerpt from kdu’s Rubble Stories)

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I found this piece on YouTube with Oprah & Jean Robert Cadet.

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Hey. . .Friends of VoicesfromHaiti,  check back soon for a nice piece by Patricia Philippe.

While we’re at it, get a copy of Juneteeth by the inimitable Mr. Ralph Ellison.

VoicesfromHaiti: Things are not always pretty like hibiscus and sweet like raw sugar rapadou. We’re still beautiful. And we’re still here. Nou bèl. E nou la.

Peace!

Kreyòl Pale. Kreyòl Konprann: Men yon ti istwa folklorik mwen pote pou nou

Ti istwa folklorikPou tout Ayisyen toupatou, men yon ti istwa folklorik mwen pote pou ou jounen jodiya. Si se Angle ou pale, mwen rakonte menm istwa sa a sou lòt lien wap jwenn anba videyo sa a. Ou konnen mwen pa tap janm kite mwa’d mas fini san nou pa koze.

kdu photo, taken near a pile of post-quake rubble.Mèsi a tout moun ki toujou vizite www.VoicesfromHaiti.com. Fwend nou sou Facebook tou, si lide w di w. Wa jwenn nouriti pou namn ou. Epitou, si ou ta renmen ajoute vwa w sou VoicesfromHaiti, voye tèks an Kreyòl ou byen an angle. Si nou ka pibliye tèks la, na p twò kontan fè sa. Mwen paka tann pou nou koze ankò. Ok, moun lakay yo, jwèt pou ou. ~ Katia D. Ulysse

If English is your language, click here for the same story.