Our Story
Si Ayiti Te Pale was created from a shared belief that Haiti’s story must be told by its own people — especially its youth. Born from the collective work of the Jacquelin Montalvo Despeignes Foundation (JMD), New York Coalition for Educating Families Together (NYC CEFT), Havenora Hope and Wellness Foundation (HHW) and Fondation des Gens Dévoués pour le Développement D’Haïti (FoGeDDH), this initiative brings together education, culture, healing, and community engagement.
Our work is rooted in a simple but powerful idea: Haiti is not voiceless. Haiti speaks through its children, its artists, its families, its history, its pain, its beauty, and its dreams. Through music, visual art, storytelling, dance, film, and digital expression, Si Ayiti Te Pale creates space for Haitian and Haitian-descended youth to honor where they come from, express who they are, and imagine what Haiti can become.
This movement is not only about art. It is about memory, identity, dignity, and possibility. It is about building bridges between Haiti and the Diaspora, between generations, and between silence and voice.
The Future We Imagine
At Si Ayiti Te Pale, we believe that Haiti’s future cannot be separated from the voices of its children. We envision a global Haitian community where youth are no longer silenced by shame, trauma, displacement, or division, but are empowered to speak, create, heal, lead, and imagine a new future for Haiti and the Haitian people.
We envision a cultural renaissance where Haitian identity is celebrated with dignity,
where art becomes a bridge between Haiti and its Diaspora, and where the stories of Haitian youth help transform pain into purpose, memory into movement, and cultural expression into collective healing and national renewal.
Our Mission in Action
Si Ayiti Te Pale exists to create sacred and transformative spaces where Haitian and Haitian-descended youth can express their truths through culture and the arts. Through poetry, storytelling, music, dance, film, visual arts, intergenerational dialogue, and healing-centered programming, we encourage youth to reconnect with Haiti, with one another, and with their own voices.
Our mission is to preserve Haitian culture, amplify youth expression, promote healing from trauma and displacement, strengthen connections between Haiti and the Diaspora, and inspire a generation committed to Haiti’s cultural, social, and human renaissance.
We are building more than a festival. We are building a global movement of remembrance, healing, artistic expression, cultural diplomacy, and hope — one that reminds the world that Haiti is alive, Haiti is speaking, and Haiti’s youth will help shape its future.
Our Commitment
Si Ayiti Te Pale is committed to educating, inspiring, and mobilizing communities around the power of Haitian culture, history, and identity. We believe that meaningful change begins with awareness, grows through dialogue, and flourishes through collective action.
By bringing together youth, artists, educators, cultural leaders, families, and allies from Haiti and across the Diaspora, we create opportunities for learning, healing, collaboration, and civic engagement. Through cultural expression and community-centered programming, we seek to strengthen connections across generations, foster global solidarity, and encourage active participation in shaping a more just, united, and hopeful future for Haiti and its people.
Our Focus Areas
Music & Sound Healing
Sound as therapy, identity, and resistance.
Visual Arts & Design
Painting stories that textbooks erase.
Storytelling & Poetry
Words that reclaim and reimagine.
Digital Content Creation
Youth voices amplified through modern media.
Dance & Movement
The body as a vessel of cultural memory.
Community & Mental Wellness
Healing circles, support, and belonging.
FOUNDERS' MESSAGE
To speak of Haiti is to speak of love, memory, pain, resilience, dignity, and possibility.
Si Ayiti Te Pale was born from a deep conviction that the voices of Haitian and Haitian-descended youth matter — not tomorrow, not someday, but now. Across Haiti and throughout the Diaspora, too many of our young people carry invisible burdens: displacement, silence, generational trauma, cultural misunderstanding, humiliation, identity struggles, and the painful feeling of loving a country the world too often reduces to tragedy. Yet despite everything, Haiti continues to live in the hearts of its children.
This movement exists because we believe Haiti is not voiceless. Haiti speaks through its youth.
It speaks through poetry and drums. Through dance and film. Through stories whispered between generations. Through grief transformed into art. Through courage transformed into leadership. Through the dreams of young people who still dare to imagine a better Haiti and a more united global Haitian community.
At the Jacquelin Montalvo Despeignes Foundation (JMD), New York City Coalition for Educating Families Together (NYC CEFT), Havenora Hope and Wellness Foundation (HHW), and Fondation des Gens Devoués pour le Développement D’Haiti (FoDeDDH), we have always believed that education, culture, community engagement, and human dignity are interconnected. We believe healing and empowerment must happen together. We believe culture is not decoration — it is survival, memory, resistance, diplomacy, and medicine.
Si Ayiti Te Pale is therefore more than a festival. It is a global cultural and artistic movement rooted in truth, healing, identity, and renaissance. It is a sacred space where Haitian youth and Haitian-descended youth and young adults can speak openly, create fearlessly, reconnect proudly, and help shape the future of Haiti and its Diaspora.
We are building bridges:
between Haiti and the world,
between generations,
between memory and future,
between pain and hope,
between silence and voice.
We invite artists, students, educators, families, organizations, and communities everywhere to join us in this movement of remembrance, expression, healing, and transformation.
Because Haiti is still speaking.
Because Haiti is still alive.
Because Haiti’s children still carry the power to help rebuild its future.
With hope, love, and solidarity,
Rose Amazan
Farah Despeignes
Guy-Robert Pierre
The rest of the team at Si Ayiti Te Pale
The Teams at
Fondation des Gens Devoués pour le Développement D’Haiti
Havenora Hope and Wellness Foundation
Jacquelin Montalvo Despeignes Foundation (JMD)
New York City Coalition for Educating Families Together (NYC CEFT)
Our Journey in Four Movements
1
Remembering
Honoring the roots and stories that define Haitian identity.
2
Expressing
Creating space for authentic voices and artistic freedom.
3
Healing
Processing trauma and finding strength through community.
4
Reimagining
Imagining and building the future we choose.
Join Our Journey
Whether you are a youth, an artist, an educator, or an ally — there is a place for you in this movement.
