Congrats on the publication of Konbit! Can you say a little regarding what the book is about?
Thank you for this opportunity. It feels great to come home. The NEOMFA, like Haiti, is my poetry home. It is a tremendous privilege to talk with you about the collection.
Konbit is a culmination of ten years of writing that embraces all the influences on my literary career. My work is heavily influenced by memory, so history is important to me. Konbit is a three-part collection that tries to rearrange the past, present, and future [on] the same playing field as if to make them one.
The book focuses in part on the Bois-Caïman ceremony in Haiti. What drew you to that as an inspiration?
Yes, the Bois-Caïman Ceremony is central to the collection, just as it is for the history of Haiti, if not the world. To put it simply, the Bois-Caïman ceremony is the event that announced the end of slavery in the modern world. During the night of August 14th, 1791, a group of maroons organized a religious ceremony where they swore to fight to abolish slavery in Saint-Domingue (the name of the colony that would become Haiti). They fought for the following thirteen years to make this wild idea possible on January 1, 1804.
I often think, actually quite a lot, about the state of mind of these ancestors who had known nothing but slavery, not only on their island, but throughout the world. For three hundred years, slavery had been the norm in the colony. The impossibility of freedom would have been immense, yet they dared to dream and fought for it.
We are facing the same thing right now. Imagining a future beyond our current system of capitalism, imperialism, and extraction seems impossible because that’s all we know. It is so ingrained in us that some of us believe [it] to be human nature just like the enslavers believed it was natural to enslave other human beings.
In this collection, I am trying to understand what made it possible for my ancestors to be so bold as to defy history, and provide some alternatives that can still be found in Haitian culture to help us imagine better alternatives for our own future.
The Haitian word “konbit” has no direct translation in English. That seems like a great place to start, since it sets up some space or ambiguity right away. I’m not sure if you intended this book for U.S. readers, but how did you see yourself navigating between the content and your potential readership?
Konbit is a Haitian Kreyòl word that is used for a lot of activities that require the participation of everyone. It does not have one specific meaning, instead, we use it for anything that is part of the communal way of life in Haiti.
Yes, U.S. readers are the people I had in mind while writing this book. I did think a lot about the title for the same reason you mentioned, but I decided to stay with it for two reasons, (1) like you mentioned, there is a sense of ambiguity and I wanted that. I wanted the reader to wrestle with the concept, to sit and to think, and hopefully to come up with their own ways of interpreting the poems. Having a foreign title is the most honest way to tell that to the reader in advance. (2) the concept of Konbit would be new to the average U.S. reader, because there is not a direct translation into English. Language expands and limits our understanding. Therefore, it would be a disservice to the reader if I had chosen to stay only within the limits of English.
I found the decision to use a Haitian Kreyòl word immensely freeing. It was uncomfortable for the first two days, but I had faith in the readers. Just as I learned their English words and concepts, I believed they too would learn mine.
Some of the pieces are presented as “in conversation with” other poets such as Tyehimba Jess and Natasha Trethewey. Can you talk about that technique and what you were aiming for with it?
Yes, a lot of the pieces are in conversation with the poets that I have admired. To be honest, all of the poems are in some way in conversation with other works, songs, poems, virtual arts, etc. They are, like konbit, communal works that cannot stand on their own. They are a continuity of the past that, hopefully, will bridge to the future.
Konbit has been very well-received. Do you have another book in the works or other projects you can preview for us?
Yes, I was overwhelmed with gratitude [for] the reception. I cannot thank the NEOMFA enough for providing me with the tools and, most importantly, a cohort of supportive writers. I am indeed working on some poems. I am obsessed with returning home. It has been seven years since I was in Haiti, so I am writing my way back home. Thank you.
