For the young Haitian poet Jean D’Amérique, the Festival d’Avignon is ” a utopia under the open sky “. And this Friday, July 15 at 11 a.m., the vocalization of his opera dust, the winning play of the 2021 RFI Theater Prize, opens the 10th edition of “Ça va, ça va le monde! “. The time of the readings, also broadcast on the antennas and social networks of RFI, the Garden of the street of Mons, next to the Palace of the popes, is transformed into Court of honor of the African authors and Haiti.
He did not changed. Jean D’Amérique still exudes this aura of the young poet connected to the entire universe. Every word is carefully weighed and posed, his palpable passion for life expressing itself in a smile on the outside and a bubbling on the inside, in constant connection with his deep and powerful spoken word. Today, almost ten months after receiving theRFI Theater Prize last September, the big day arrived. His piece opera dust will finally be born on stage, for the pleasure of the eyes and the ears of the author and the public of “It’s going, it’s going the world! “.
“I love hearing my texts out loud”
” I can’t wait to read this, exclaims the poet. I’m very excited, because I love hearing my lyrics out loud. It’s a moment when the text takes on another dimension, another look, the word becomes really flesh. We can touch it, we can live this word directly. I love that. I find that words are made for that, to be carried aloud and they invade space and our minds. »
► To read also: Haitian Jean D’Amérique, winner of the RFI Theater 2021 prize for “Opera dust”
A voice directed by the director Armel Roussel and interpreted by the actors Sachernka Anacassis, Wilda Philippe and Guy Régis Junior, but also by students from the École du Nord in Lille, and accompanied by a musical creation by Pierre- Alexander Lampart. As for Jean D’Amérique, he preferred to keep the surprise and stay away from the preparations: ” When someone else does a reading or a staging of my texts, I don’t really like to intervene. I really want to give space to the person doing the creation. Me, I stay in my place of author that I like. I consider that I am creating material for the stage, for the voice, and the person can use it as they see fit, because reading a text aloud is another experience. Therefore, on opera dust, no, I did not intervene in the preparation of this reading. It will be really a discovery and I hope for nice surprises [rires]. »
“I want to see Sanite Bélair come back with us”
At the heart of the text is Sanite Bélair, a Haitian anti-colonialist resistance fighter. The story of this lieutenant of the Haitian revolutionary army is as grandiose as it is tragic. Engaged very early in anti-slavery fights in Haiti, she was captured by French colonists and then shot in 1802, at the age of 21. In opera dust, Jean D’Amérique undertakes a veritable resurrection of this largely forgotten heroine. In her story, Sanite Bélair launches the #HéroïneEnColère movement to demand a real place in the country’s history and connect heroin with the struggles against all oppressions today. Until then somewhat forgotten, even in Haiti, with his play, Jean D’Amérique managed to really resuscitate Sanite Bélair in the collective consciousness:
” What I liked very much, following the RFI Theater prize for opera dust, we talked a lot about Sanite Bélair, much more than before. I saw articles everywhere that talked about the play. I even saw a lot of online media in Haiti that all of a sudden was doing articles about Sanite Bélair. I like it too much! That’s what I want to see. In this way, the piece echoes with that. She returns as a ghost and fascinates social networks, she invades people, haunts us. The highlighting of the RFI prize gave impetus to propagation, even propaganda, around Sanite Bélair. And I hope that will continue. I want it to take up even more space. Besides, I would like the piece to be able to circulate much more in Haiti. There was a reading at the end of last year at the Festival Quatre Chemins. I want to see her come back to us. »
A rain of distinctions for Jean D’Amérique
Waiting, the situation in Haiti remains very complicated and the author has not yet had the opportunity to return to his native country to meet his compatriots and see the reactions on the spot. ” There, the situation is complicated, there are a lot of political tensions, insecurity. But I always stay on the lookout for a small breach to be able to go there. And above all to be able to reconnect with projects there that are important to me. The TransPoétique festival, which I set up in 2019, has had a two-year hiatus. This year, I hope to take it up again. There, we are preparing, but with a lot of uncertainty, because over the last two years, we have had to cancel at the last moment, each time. This year, we are preparing it. Given the situation, it’s still uncertain, but we believe in it! »
► To read also: Ten years of “It’s okay, it’s okay the world!”: the Court of Honor of African authors at the Avignon Festival
Meanwhile, the whirlwind of life continues for Jean D’Amérique. The poet, novelist and playwright has collected an impressive number of prizes since last September: the Apollinaire Découverte prize and the Heather-Dohollau prize in Saint-Brieuc for his collection silent workshopthe Dubreuil Prize and the Montluc Resistance and Freedom Prize 2022 for his first novel sewing sun. And at the end of June, the French Academy awarded him the Heredia prize in the Poetry category for Red Rhapsody.
“I am a consciousness influencer”
As important as the distinctions are for him the discussions in the schools. And at the age of 27, Jean D’Amérique, born in December 1994 in Côtes-de-Fer, a small town in the south-east of Haiti, under the name of Jean Civilus, has a very clear vision of what that he wishes to pass on to young people. ” I have a great opportunity to have literature as a tool, as a weapon. First of all, it allows me to have a voice in society. I do a lot of talks in schools in France. When I go to see young people, I try to convince them that it is possible to speak out in society. Especially through literature. It’s a space of freedom, it’s a powerful speaking tool. You can use it to do something interesting and useful. I feel like saying that I am a consciousness influencer with literature. I hope to participate in a transformation of society by acting through the minds of people, through words.
If you really want to inhabit this world, you have to commit. We do not have a choice, he continues. I say this at a time when I feel like it’s almost has-been to be committed, to be in a form of revolt and in a form of consciousness. I am still trying to convince young people. When I look at my journey in relation to where I come from, to what I have seen and gone through, I understood very quickly that only by committing can we get over it. go out. So this commitment, this struggle that drives me, I want to make it heard through literature and convince other people to join this perspective too. »
► Friday, July 15 at 11 a.m., opera dust by Jean D’Amérique is the first of six readings that will take place from July 15 to 20 at 11 a.m. (free admission) in the Jardin de la rue de Mons (Maison Jean Vilar), as part of the 10th edition of It’s alright, it’s alright people! at the Festival d’Avignon 2022. The readings will also be broadcast live by facebook live. The creations will also be broadcast on RFI antennas every Saturday from July 30 to September 3 at 5:10 p.m. (Paris time) and will be available as a podcast on rfi.fr.
The 2022 edition of “It’s okay, it’s okay, people! »
RFI presents Alright, Alright World! in co-production with the Festival d’Avignon and the company [e]utopia, with the support of the SACD, Wallonia-Brussels International, the French Institute, and the French Institute of Benin. This cycle of six readings of works by African and Haitian authors is coordinated by Pascal Paradou and directed by director Armel Roussel.
July 15th : Opera Dust by Jean D’Amérique (Haiti)
Winner of the “RFI Theater Prize” (2021)
Forgotten by history, Sanité Belair returns to earth. Lieutenant of the Haitian revolutionary army, anti-colonialist resistant, executed in 1802, at the age of 21, by French soldiers, she will fight again to repair the memory and find her place alongside the “fathers of the Fatherland “.
July 16: Wedding race by Nathalie Hounvo Yekpe (Benin)
On a proposal from the Francophonies – From writing to the stage
Three women and the “hear-says”. One is single, the other is married out of interest and the third by force. A drama that tells the difficult struggle of African women to choose their life and face social and family pressure.
July 17: Encircled Earth by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (Senegal)
Adapted and read by Aristide Tarnagda, and co-produced by La Charge du Rhinocéros
Written in 2015 by the man who will become the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to win the Goncourt Prize, this novel explores the violence of terrorism and its consequences on a city that is entering into resistance.
July 18: That of the islands by Koulsy Lamko (Chad)
In Nantes, the Haitian Celile or Celle des Iles, storyteller and cabaret singer is going through a casting to brighten up the evenings at the restaurant “Le petit bateau négrier”. Woman or spirit, she awakens the destroyed memories of slavery.
July 19: Brief trial by Laura Sheilla Inangoma (Burundi)
On the proposal of the Récréâtrales
A trial. Three women are accused of murder and witchcraft. But the corpses are nowhere to be found. And social networks are getting involved. A contemporary narration on the memory of the sacred, the place of the spiritual and the challenges of modernity.
July 20: Phantom by Dieudonné Niangouna (Republic of the Congo)
Read by Catherine Boskowitz
A family confronted with history and memory, that of a father killed in Cameroon by a white rhinoceros? Three brothers and sisters, accompanied by their nephew, meet to sell the family home, but everything changes when an old man appears who strangely resembles the deceased father.