San Juan, Puerto Rico – Frankétienne, a renowned writer, painter, actor and musician known as the “father of Haitian letters”. He was 88 years old.
Borni Jean-Pierre Basilic Dantor Franck Étienne d’Argent (more on her name later), he was raised in Bel-Air straw in Capital Haiti And he became what many consider the most important writer of Haiti. On Thursday he died after an unspecified disease, according to the statement from Haiti’s government.
Thousands mourn his loss.
“Through his writings, he lit the world, carried the soul of Haiti and defied silence. May his word stay, may his spirit still smoke. Goodbye, Master,” Haitian Prime Minister said Alix Didier Fils-Aimé.
The Haitina government said Frankétienne was the founder of spiralism, described as a chaotic and pluralistic literary movement that appeared in the country of Caribbean in the 1960s.
He wrote songs, plays and novels, including “Dézafi”, which means “challenge” and became the first modern novel written in Haitian Kreola, leads Haiti’s go. Based on his experience, they live under Brutal dictatorship François Duvalier, known as Pope Doc.
Frankétienne is also renowned to works, including “Au Fil Du Temps”, Ultravocal, “and” Pèlin Tèt “, as well as for his pictures” Désastra “, which shows victims Catastrophic earthquake 2010and “Diffile Émergence Verda La Lumière”, which shows the victims of the hurricane.
“His images are a visual extension of the literary universe, where we find the same abundant energy reminiscent of its thick and polishemic texts,” Le Center d’Art, Haitian Cultural Institution, on X.
Frankétienne also served as the Haiti Culture Minister in the late 1980s and received the order of arts in France and letters.
Evans Paul, former Prime Minister, said the artist dedicated to the Haitian identity, freedom of expression and social justice.
“Frankétienne was much more than an artist: He was a living force, a lighthouse for Haiti and for humanity,” Paul said in the statement. “With his incisive pencil, her stunning voice and his visionary look, he was founded as a giant Mapou, the unwavering pillar of Haitian art and thought.”
Mapou is one of the highest trees in Haiti and is considered sacred.
Michael Deibert, Author “Note from the last vows: The fight for Haiti,” and “Haiti will not fail: recent history,” Recalled Interviewing Frankétienne last year.
“To sit and talk to Frankétienne there was a lesson in Haitian history and culture and Water And art and creativity, “he said.
Deibert said the artist “had a really fascinating combination that could go to discursive mystical tangents, but he was extremely witty and ridiculous. He really symbolized all this creativity in Haiti.”
In an interview in 2023. With UNESCO Frankétienne explained the meaning behind their seven names.
“My grandmother … and my mother … She decided to give me a crown of important names, with mystical and baroque resonance, probably to protect a little” Petit Blanc “against the misconception of any wizard,” Frankétienne said, who He was born to the Black Haitian mother and the White of us the father who left his family.
He said he was working on about 60 books and 5,000 images in his life, calling himself “Original lunatic who must have disrupted any number of” normal “people”.
Frankétinne told UNESCO to stay on a creative road “full of uncertainty” and “jump to my last breath.”
“I’ve always been on the go, looking for new things,” he said. “Permanent creation is odyssey without stopping.”
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2025-02-21 16:46:00
