Here are some guidelines for the group project, due on January 31, in class.

First, identify some art, music, object, film, text, or any other item of popular culture about the Haitian Revolution. There are many such items about Toussaint L’Ouverture, but there are also others about the revolution in general. Then, work on a presentation about it, with the following questions as guidelines:

How is the Haitian Revolution remembered in this music/art/song/text?

What is the interpretation of these events?

The creation of this thing: When, who, why?

Did it circulate? Was it popular?

What is the memory of blackness/revolution/radical ideas it is tapping into or creating?

The presentation can be any format, but please limit it to 5-7 minutes long. You don’t need to hand in a formally written piece, but please do write something up that identifies each person’s role in the project.

You will be graded on presentation, originality, and evidence of contribution of the whole group. I will also be looking for a sense of the relevance of memory and the shifting relationships between memory and history. In this sense, the readings for this week will be an important guide.

Here are some examples of texts/art/film that you might want to look at, but don’t feel limited to them. These are from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toussaint_Louverture

• English poet William Wordsworth published his sonnet “To Toussaint L’Ouverture”^[131] in January 1803.
• African-American novelist Frank J. Webb references Toussaint in his 1857 novel The Garies and Their Friends about free African Americans. Toussaint’s portrait is a source of inspiration for the real estate tycoon Mr. Walters.
• In 1934, Trinidadian historian C. L. R. James wrote a play entitled Toussaint L’Ouverture, which was performed at the Westminster Theatre in London in 1936 and starred actors including Paul Robeson (in the title role), Robert Adams and Orlando Martins.^[132] The play was later revised in 1967 as The Black Jacobins, after James’s classic 1938 history of that name.
• In 1938, American artist Jacob Lawrence created a series of paintings about the life of Toussaint L’Ouverture, which he later adapted into a series of prints.^[133] His painting, titled Toussaint L’Ouverture, hangs in the Butler Institute of American Art in Youngstown, Ohio, US.
• In 1944, the African-American writer Ralph Ellison wrote the story “Mr. Toussan”, in which two African-American youths exaggerate the story of Toussaint L’Ouverture. In this story, Toussaint is seen as a symbol of Blacks asserting their identities and liberty over White dominance.
• Kenneth Roberts‘ best-selling novel Lydia Bailey (1947) is set during the Haitian Revolution and features L’Ouverture, Dessalines, and Cristophe as the principal historical characters. The 1952 American film based on the novel was directed by Jean Negulesco; Toussaint is portrayed by the actor Ken Renard.^[134]
• 1971 album Santana features an instrumental song titled “Toussaint L’Ouverture”. It has remained a staple of the band’s concert repertoire since that time. Officially released live instrumental versions are included on the 1974 album Lotus as well as the 1998 CD re-issue of Abraxas.
• In 1977 the opera Toussaint by David Blake was produced by English National Opera at the Coliseum Theatre in London, starring Neil Howlett in the title role.
• 1983, Jean-Michel Basquiat, the Brooklyn-born New York painter of the 1980s, whose father was from Haiti, painted the monumental work Toussaint L’Ouverture vs Savonarolla, with a portrait of L’Ouverture.
• David Rudder‘s calypso “Haiti“, first recorded in 1988, begins with a reference to Toussaint.^[135]
• 1995–2004, Madison Smartt Bell published a trilogy of novels inspired by the slave uprising and Haitian Revolution, with Toussaint L’Ouverture a key figure. All Souls’ Rising (1995) was shortlisted for both the PEN/Faulkner and National Book awards. Master of the Crossroads (2000) and The Stone That the Builder Refused (2004) completed the trilogy.
• In 2003, Hakim Adi published a book about great political figures from Africa since 1787, which included Toussaint L’Ouverture as one of the greatly influential political leaders in those years.^[136]
• In 2004, John Agard had published Half-Caste and Other Poems (Hodder Children’s, 2004), in which features the poem “Checking Out Me History” that references Toussaint and “Nanny de Maroon”. This poem is now being studied (as of 2010) for GCSE English. The poem is copyrighted 1996.
• In 2004, Kimathi Donkor painted Toussaint L’Ouverture at Bedourete.
• Bell also published Freedom’s Gate: A Brief Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture (2007)
• Wyclef Jean created an album in 2009 referencing Toussaint L’Ouverture’s life and influence on Haiti. The album is called From the Hut, To the Projects, To the Mansion
• Derick Alexander directed The Last Days of Toussaint L’Ouverture, starring Joseph Ademola Adeyemo as Toussaint L’Ouverture (2009)
• Nick Lake referred to many incidents in Toussaint L’Ouverture’s life in his young adult novel In Darkness (2012)
• Haitian actor Jimmy Jean-Louis starred as Toussaint L’Ouverture in the 2012 French miniseries Toussaint Louverture.^[137]
• English rapper and poet Akala‘s song “Malcolm said it” references Black rights activists in the hook, including the line “Toussaint said it”
• Experimental rock group Swans named the track “Bring the Sun / Toussaint L’Ouverture” on their 2014 album To Be Kind after Toussaint L’Ouverture.

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