Haiti Cultural Exchange presents FANM d’Ayiti | Honoring Haitian women as pillars of our society through live music and song. In partnership with Brooklyn Botanic Garden, we're celebrating through Art in the Garden: Spring Weekends for three different events. Our third event took place on May 8th (Saturday) and featured performances by Riva Precil, Monvelyno Alexis, and Markus Schwartz.
It was a rainy day on Saturday at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Thankfully the rain cleared up just in time for Riva Précil, Monvelyno Alexis and Markus Schwartz to perform a number of Haitian songs both original and traditional. The crowd grew gradually and the sun came out to warm everyone up.
HCX director Régine Roumain gave opening remarks and introduced Commissioner Mitchell Silver who spoke briefly about the importance of being outdoors together in community and share some personal memories of his own at the garden as a young boy.
The band began their set with an opening song which required clapping and the audience happily obliged to accompany them while singing along. Riva taught a number of Haitian rhythms and dance moves, explaining a bit about each, emphasizing the harvest dance and songs about natural remedies found in nature. By the end of their performance, everyone was on their feet dancing. There were lots of children in the audience who enjoyed following along and creating their own dance moves.
