PORT-AU-PRINCE – Residents of Haiti’s gang-plagued capital could enjoy a brief escape from daily lives scarred with violence this weekend as the PapJazz festival entertained around 100 music fans.
Postponed in 2022 and moved to northern city Cap-Haitien the following year over security fears, the celebration returned to Port-au-Prince last year in a cut-down, four-day format.
This year’s 18th edition of PapJazz was further truncated to just two days in the Karibe Hotel, which hosts some UN offices, and the Quartier Latin restaurant.
Lively jazz, Haitian “rara” carnival music, rap and slam poetry all performed by local artists set the atmosphere abuzz on Saturday night.
Organizers were unable to host foreign performers this year as the airport has been closed since November 11 due to gang violence.
Actor and slam poet Eliezer Guerisme and musician Joel Widmaier were among the leading artists in one of the shows, dubbed “Les amours. Balles perdues” (“Love affairs and stray bullets”) recounting the grief and violence of Haitian life.
“This is exactly the power of art: overcoming even the most formidable barriers,” Guerisme told AFP, wearing a crown of thorns twisted out of barbed wire.
“There were definitely people here tonight who had to cross barricades just to come and hear poetry, music during this state of war,” he added.
“We’re living in a city under siege, where speaking up has become an act of resistance.”