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29744: Simidor: The passing of Haitian poet and artist Jacques Charlier (fwd)
From: daniel simidor <danielsimidor@yahoo.com>
Jacques Rey-Charlier: May 4, 1945-December 27, 2006
The playwright, poet, director, writer and
mixed-media artist Jacques Rey-Charlier died at his
home in Harlem on December 27, 2006. He was 61 years
old. Born in Haiti of the late historian Etienne
Charlier and the Montreal-based writer Ghislaine
Charlier, he had long suffered from kidney failure
and, more recently, leukemia.
Jacques, who settled in New York in 1965,
was at first attracted to architecture, photography
and cinema and for a while pursued those interests at
New York University. But in the heady days of the
anti-Duvalier era, he and other progressive
collaborators nurtured a passion for theatrical
protests. With Syto Cavé and Hervé Denis, he founded
the cultural collective Kouidor (literally, "golden
calabash"). Among the noted collaborators of the
troupe were the poet Georges Castera, artist Bernard
Wah, musicians Jean Coulanges and Boulo Valcourt.
From 1970 to 1975, the troupe performed in France,
Canada, Martinique and Chicago. In New York City, it
often presented works in French, Creole and English in
various theaters and parks.
In 1977, Jacques published La Part Des
Pluies and Le Scapulaire Des Armuriers, two volumes of
poetry illustrated by his wife Cécile Corvington and
the artist and poet Davertige, respectively. Over
the years he also published a number of poems in the
Haitian publications Chemins Critiques and Conjonction
as well as in such literary reviews as Po&sie, La
Lettre Internationale, La Main de Singe, Mot Pour Mot
and Sariphage. Three of his short stories were
broadcast by Radio France Culture.
Although he had sojourned in France a number
of times before, in 1984 he spent a three-year stint
as artistic director, writer- and artist-in-residence
at the cultural center Moulin D'Andé in Normandy. An
admirer of Joseph Cornell and Marcel Duchamp, he
produced a number of "boites sculptures,"
assemblages which were exhibited in group shows in
Paris and Lilles. He also had three solo shows in
Limoges, at the Centre D'Art Contemporain in Rouen and
in the Moulin D'Andé.
Since his return from France in 1987,
Jacques completed, among other works, a historical
novel, Dodomea, a book of fairytales, Contes du
Sommeil De Caliban and a long epic, Voyageurs Sans
Esprit. Since then, he has taken to writing in
English and has diligently translated a number of his
works from French?including Dodomea and Contes Du
Soleil De Caliban. Pigheaded, he turned down several
offers?including from Gallimard-- to have his works
published. For him, it would seem, it was either all
or nothing.
Meanwhile, he increasingly isolated himself,
first, in his Queens, and then, Harlem
apartments?reading, listening to jazz, Haitian roots
music, reassembling his own computer, fine-tuning his
translations, drastically covering his walls with two
murals alluding to Vodou myths and themes from
Dodomea. A spurt of inspiration led him to create
large scale drawings on plywood?among them a recumbent
and flagrantly exhibitionist Gede figure, and images
of (Agwe's) boats, various models of which he
meticulously constructed from scratch. He often
reveled in his early days in the seaport town of
Jeremy. All in all, he was a cultural warrior,
romantic, proud and unyielding.
Not one for solemnities, there will be an
informal celebration for him at his home in Harlem.
A commemoration of his life and work will be planned
in the next few weeks. And as he would have wished,
his ashes will be scattered in the Guinaudée River
near Jeremy, Haiti, the historical memory of which he
continually crystalized and reinvented in his mind
and work.
Andre Juste
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