L'Union Fait la Force

A few pictures from last Friday. A jam-packed Josephine paying tribute to those who lost their lives and those still suffering from the effects of the January 12 earthquake in Haiti. Early in the evening, a gentleman from the Haitian embassy in DC spoke a few words about the situation in Haiti, how 92% of government buildings in Port-Au-Prince had been destroyed and the country was in dire need of technical personnel. He urged those willing to help to consider flying down to Haiti on the government's expense to work on the rebuilding of the country. More info on the Greater Washington area Haiti relief efforts is on the GWHRC webpage.

Thanks to Sarah, Emmanuel, and Jad from the World Bank, Jorge from the Interamerican Development Bank, and all those who contributed to getting such a large number of people to show up and show their support.

Choosing the right music to play at fundraising event of this type is a touchy subject, but we decided that it would not be irreverent to play some joyful konpa, rap kreyol and kanaval tunes from Haiti among our usual fare. Some timely tracks we played out included Capleton's "Haitians" [uzershare], Twista's "911 (A Freestyle for Haiti)" [uzershare], and Lil' Flip's "Feel It N Da Air (Tribute to Haiti)" [mediafyre], plus some amazing Kanaval 2010 tunes from T-Micky, Mawon, King Posse, Project Boyz, BC, Vwadezil, Surette, Carimi, Tempo, Ti Kabzy, Krezi, Passion Kompa, etc. that may sadly never be performed they way they were intended...