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Posts tagged as “Port-au-Prince”

Sean Penn Charity to Sponsor Haitian runners for New York Marathon

By goodblacknews on June 4, 2013
In this Jan. 7, 2013 file photo, Astrel Clovis, a 42-year-old marathon runner, trains in the early morning in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti
In this Jan. 7, 2013 file photo, Astrel Clovis, a 42-year-old marathon runner, trains in the early morning in Petionville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The Haiti humanitarian group for Hollywood actor Sean Penn announced Friday that it will sponsor five Haitian runners so they can compete in the New York City Marathon in November. Penn’s J/P Haitian Relief Organization will accept the top three men and two women finishers in a rare half-marathon that will wind through the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Sunday.
Ron Baldwin, executive director of J/P HRO, said the decision to sponsor Haitian runners in the world’s largest marathon was inspired in part by an Associated Press story. The January report featured a Haitian distance runner named Astrel Clovis who faces numerous obstacles as he runs through the hilly streets of Port-au-Prince three years after the Jan. 12 earthquake devastated the capital.
“It’s an inspiring story,” Baldwin said of Clovis. “After the earthquake, he’s running. He’s self-training, and has no support. We decided ‘let’s give that guy a chance.’ And it grew from there to build a whole team.” Clovis has a good shot at making the cut for New York. He is a favorite among the more than 50 registered runners participating in Sunday’s government-organized race. He finished second in a marathon in neighboring Dominican Republic in December with a time of 2 hours and 42 minutes.

UK Puts Haitian Art In The Picture With Major Exhibit

By goodblacknews on October 21, 2012

Kafou - Haiti, Art & Vodou exhibition

Paintings by Frantz Zephrin are showcased in the Kafou – Haiti, Art & Vodou exhibition at Nottingham Contemporary. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian
Haiti is often known for its grinding poverty, brutal oppression and natural disasters but the biggest exhibition of its art ever staged in the UK aims to provide more of a balance.  “When you walk in here, hopefully it is, on a simple level, visually eye-popping, astonishing,” said the director of Nottingham Contemporary, Alex Farquharson. “These images speak to a very rich culture. There is a lot of joy.”  Farquharson was speaking ahead of the opening of a major show of Haitian art inspired by Vodou, the religion which has been a central part of people’s lives since Haiti became the world’s first black republic in 1804.