Exploring cultural origins

     
     
City of Poets ~ Life and Hope in Jeremie, Haiti
A Provenance Center Exhibition ~ A collection of photographs from Haiti
July 24 through September 25, 2010
   
   

Mary Snayd
Photograph, 2009

Robert Spitz
Photograph, 2008

 
   

The city of Jeremie is the capital of the Grand Anse region of Haiti, located in the southwestern tip of the island of Hispanola. Founded in 1756 during the time of French colonial rule, Jeremie earned the title of "City of Poets" in honor of its literary and artistic community. In the 1960s, during the Duvalier regime, local opposition prompted the dictatorship to cut Jeremie off from access to the rest of Haiti, and soldiers were sent to suppress political activism, ultimately resulting in the 1964 massacre of local poets and artists believed to be plotting against the government. Today, while Jeremie continues to be isolated from the rest of the country, its culture and spirit remains vibrant and alive despite conditions of extreme poverty, disease and natural disaster. This exhibit of photography and other media seeks to honor this spirit and share a glimpse into the life of Jeremie and its people.

 


Patrick Raycraft
Photograph, 2010
 

“Haiti:
Shattered & Surreal”

Also featuring a collection of photographs by Patrick Raycraft, a photojournalist for the Hartford Courant. While on vacation in Santo Domingo following the Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti, he joined the International Medical Alliance relief effort. He documented his experience by writing daily journal entries and photographing.

 


From the earliest times that humans gathered in social groups, the seeds of culture have taken root and continue to flourish today. Every manifestation of human culture, whether in the arts, sciences or religions, has an origin that is both comprehensible and of meaning to all mankind.

Culture is inseparable from the social experience of mankind. No artist, scientist or religious scholar has produced or created his or her work outside of a specific cultural influence and environment. At the same time, all such human efforts have the potential to change the cultures in which they arise, as culture reflects the ongoing evolution of life.

The mission of Provenance Center is to serve as a forum for cultural awareness. Our vision is that with a clearer understanding of the cultural foundation and origins of the human experience, that which we share will prevail over that which keeps us apart.

As a forum for the exploration of cultural origins, Provenance Center seeks to reveal what makes each cultural perspective unique and to foster an improved understanding of what is shared by all cultural perspectives through cultural competence and communication programs and strategies.

While the diversity of cultures and their expression varies greatly across the world, there is no form of cultural expression that is so different or unique that it cannot be understood by all other human groups. Thus, that which constitutes the origin and foundation of all cultural expression is part of the collective experience of mankind.

~ Nadesha Mijoba ~
 

 


 

"Here we have our present age . . . bent on the extermination of myth. Man today, stripped of myth, stands famished among all his pasts and must dig frantically for roots, be it among the most remote antiquities." ~ Nietzsche ~

 




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