The National Coalition for Haitian Rights Honors Frisner Augustin 5 November 1999
Channel: The Frisner Augustin Memorial Archive
Date: 2019-08-19

The National Coalition for Haitian Rights (NCHR), a non-profit organization that promoted the rights of Haitian refugees and Haitian Americans and that supported civil and democratic society in Haiti, awarded Frisner Augustin a Certificate of Achievement during a gala fundraising event at John Jay College Theater in the Clinton neighborhood of Manhattan. The honor followed Mr. Augustin's winning of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) less than two months earlier (https://youtube.com/watch?v=GlvWbPHCDUw), an achievement that attracted the attention of NCHR’s Executive Director, Jocelyn McCalla. Filmmaker Michèle Stephenson recorded the event for NCHR, and McCalla later donated a VHS copy of the recording to the Frisner Augustin Memorial Archive.

During the preceding summer NCHR invited Mr. Augustin to its weekly TGIT, or Thank Goodness It’s Thursday, a pre-weekend get-together at its office in Manhattan’s Tenderloin district. Just before the summer, NEA had announced its Heritage Fellows, so McCalla responded by inviting Augustin as a special TGIT guest. During that gathering Frisner spoke about the challenges of growing up in a destitute community with the desire to become an artist. NCHR was planning its fundraiser around Jean-Robert Cadet, author of a book about Haiti’s rèstavèk children (domestic servants/slaves) and a former rèstavèk himself. Augustin’s own story moved McCalla to honor both him and Cadet at the benefit. Makandal performed for the event, along with Haitian twoubadou (troubadour) Beethova Obas.

The twenty-eight-minute video that McCalla contributed captures Augustin’s and Makandal’s segments of the event. It began with celebrated Haitian author Edwige Danticat introducing Mr. Augustin from a short biography. Jocelyn McCalla then related a humorous anecdote and presented the framed certificate (00:03:34). Augustin’s six-minute thank-you speech revolved around his struggles in Haiti and repeated motifs thematic for him, namely, that he learned to drum to help his family and that the drum was his diploma. After a break in the program, during which the video caught some backstage talk, Makandal performed, beginning at 00:12:23 with a vocal and instrumental piece in rada style (yanvalou and zepòl). At 00:21:20 the drummers moved downstage to a tanbou marengwen (literally, mosquito drum but more technically a portable earth bow). Because the event spotlighted children, Augustin brought the instrument as an example of how poor children can make music in Haiti, as he had when he was a child. The video shifts into its final segment, a music and dance performance in the ibo style, at 00:26:30.

Frisner Augustin, lead drum
Steve Deats, second drum
Jonathan Bloom, third drum
Kesler Pierre, bas (frame drum)
Donald Etienne, fè (iron beater)
Jimmy Deats, tchatcha (rattle)
Sandy St. Cyr, vocal
Smith Destin, dance

Source Identifier: MAK_LW_PUB.007_0002mi_co_19991105
Creator: Michèle Stephenson
Rights: Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0
Date: 5 November 1999 (exact)
Source format: VHS cassette
Language: English and Haitian Creole