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
The Muhammad Ali | The Photographs of Sonia Katchian exhibition has been seen in four communities around the country already, including the Muhammad Ali Center, where they have said, “Sonia’s photographs of Muhammad show the gentler side of an incredibly complex, loving human being who just happened to be a boxer.” Pulitzer Prize winning journalist E.R. Shipp has said, “Your photographs are unusual — they show the human side of Ali!” Master photographer Kwaku Alston gasped when he saw The ALI Folioâ„¢, saying, “These are the best photographs of Muhammad Ali I’ve ever seen!” The testimonials keep coming in.
St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation, Inc. once again will host the bi-annual exhibition by the African American Quilt Circle February 1 – April 6, 2008 in the Lyda Moore Merrick Gallery at the Hayti Heritage Center. This is the seventh exhibition by the Quilt Circle which holds its monthly meeting at the center for those who have a passion and interest in quilting. This group is made up of dynamic women and men of all ages from across the State of North Carolina. There membership is estimated at over 60 individuals at this time.
My name is Stephen Hayes and this is a quick introduction into my many faces. The son of Lender and Stephen, I was lucky at first to grow up with two parents to look up to, but due to drugs, in 1990 my mother decided to separate from my father. My father preferred to support his drug habit rather than his family. So we left and I began another stage of my life with my mother and older brother to look up to.My brother is someone I always looked up to. He was the motivation factor in my love of art. By watching my brother overtime making something out of nothing, I became motivated to creating, building, and drawing things. Art became a way of self-expression for me. My mother saw the potential I possessed. When other children were getting bicycles and toys for Christmas, she brought me a workbench and tools.
