Hosted by the Lyda Moore Merrick Gallery
July 5 – September 30, 2008
The Lyda Moore Merrick Gallery at Hayti Heritage Center continues its mission of community education with a exhibition of portraits of the Haitian people, Strength, Spirit and Dignity: Portraits of Haiti by Thomas Plaut. The exhibition will run through September 30, at the center’s gallery at 804 Old Fayetteville Street, Durham, NC.
“These photographs are extraordinary, powerful images,” said V. Dianne Pledger, President/CEO. “They provide not only the quality of artistic expression we seek at the Foundation’s gallery, but provide important insights into the Haitian people.”
The portraits were taken in Montrouis, a coastal area some 60 miles north of the capital, Port-au-Prince in March 2006, by Thomas Plaut, Ph.D. He is a photographer and sociologist who recently retired from teaching at Mars Hill College after 34 years of university teaching. In Haiti, Plaut worked with a medical team of three physicians, three nurses and three other volunteers traveled from Asheville, treating 1,035 children in five days of clinics organized by Haitian counterparts in three coastal and two mountain communities. In between measuring kids’ heights and weights, he photographed the clinics and the communities that hosted them.
Instead of the violence and political instability, which appears to be the mainstay of press reports about Haiti, Plaut said he found “strength and dignity in hard-working people living in an impoverished and environmentally devastated region. African Americans know all too well the experience of being stereotyped. In Haiti, the difference between myth and reality is equally, if not more extreme. This exhibit seeks to portray the people of Montrouis as we encountered them in their everyday lives.”
“Americans should know more about Haiti’s history,” Plaut said. “Not only is Haiti the first Black Republic. It is the second oldest republic in the western hemisphere. The Haitians’ successful fight for independence against France led to Napoleon giving up his dream of a western empire, which made the Louisiana Purchase possible. Americans owe a huge debt of thanks to Haiti, but very few of them know it!”
“Americans also should know about the health crisis that kills thousands of Haitian children each year (30,000 in 2004),” Plaut said. “Asheville’s Mission Manna program is an eight year-old effort to help children in one area of the country. Twice each year its medical teams return with nutritional foods, multi-vitamins, anti-biotic and other medicines. It also has acquired land and has started the construction of a small clinic for malnourished children—but construction has stopped for want of funds.”
To learn more about St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation/Hayti Heritage Center programs, call (919) 683-1709 to schedule a tour. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday from 10am – 5pm and Saturday 10 am – 3pm
