The Women Artists of Matènwa, Haiti

	Thank You everyone for this summer!   RaRa is closed but will be re-open between Thanksgiving and Christmas so remember us for your gift-giving list.
	We will be revamping this website this winter to include all of the artists' products as well as our new blog from Matenwa! And we return to Matenwa this December to bring back great new work for your enjoyment. Please visit RARA, our Matènwa gallery, at 55 Commercial Street, Wellfleet MA 02667. for information and orders, please contact: mariebroudy@yahoo.com

WHAT MATTERS?
RaRa's mission:
To enhance the community vision of Matènwa artists and their families by promoting artistic skill, economic security, education, creative opportunity and cultural exchange.

When hurricane Sandy hit the U.S. I received frantic calls from the artists in Matènwa. Mixing up news about New Jersey and Rockaway, Queens, they were terrified by rumors that half of North America had been wrecked by the same cyclone that ransacked their homes.

Their concerns were real: that we, you, RaRa were devastated, and that, due to one extreme act of nature, our collaboration might be over.

And they still never failed to ask about my mother.

The women's fears were not so off the mark. They are aware that the world has changed. Society has gone global, what happens to one happens to us all, and whether one is in an "under-developed" or "overdeveloped" country, our economies are intertwined.

Every year around this time I appeal to you to renew your faith in us. I ask you to continue to contribute to our collaboration with the women and men in Matènwa, Haiti, to support our goals and struggles, to make possible our successes.

Last year, above and beyond your general support, we asked you to help RaRa open when we lost our rent donor, to buy medication for artist Venez Kasimir as we attempted to save her life, and to keep her family clothed and fed for six months while they got back on their feet.

You came through, your support gave us courage to go on, and we want you to know it made ALL the difference.
Thank You Flags

Meanwhile, Matènwa has ridden a vertiginous wave of ups and downs this year: The painters received a large order for silk scarves from the Fetzer Institute that, in the end, benefited all the artists at the Sant Atizana.

Our beloved friend-mother-artist Venez Kasimir died of a head tumor after a long fight, leaving a son, eight daughters, four grandchildren, a heart-broken partner and a deeply grieving community.Wana's safehouse for girls, with your help, was able to build dry and sturdy beds for all the children in her care.

Hurricane Sandy tore up homes (including some we had recently repaired after the earthquake) and caused a brutal rise in food prices on the island.

To the enduring sorrow of us all, another artist, gentle Gladys Saint Jean, died this month from a mysterious illness, leaving behind two children.

Also this year, inspired by the Sant Atizana's progress, several village organizations approached us for help that at this point is beyond our fiscal scope but still worth encouragement.

COURAGEOUS WOMEN (Fanm Kouraj)
This group of women teachers originally inspired the artists to start their own theater workshops. Their focus is on education, social reform and family protection with an emphasis on the elimination of child slavery ("restaveks"). The teachers asked us for help with their dream to build a home for rescued restaveks (boys and girls). Linked to the school, it would offer the children a progressive education and a protected place to live. The Fanm Kouraj used their own money to buy a piece of land on which to build the home. We were able to give them $500 which put 10 kids in school but they need to raise $10,000 to finish and run the project.


COURAGEOUS MEN (Gason Kouraj)
After years of watching the Fanm Kouraj and the Sant's artists stand up in public for family rights, a group of men led by the school principal felt they too needed to organize and act. They came to us with formal goals:
1-Fix, by hand, the broken roadways neglected by the government. 2-Plant trees to rescue their area from erosion. 3-Build composting outhouses for families and educate them on best use. 4-Intervene as a group when other men abuse their wives or children. 5-Get legal papers for children without birth certificates (a complicated and costly system in Haiti) so they can register for public school.
They are seeking to raise about $6000 to take their projects to a regional level.

EDENS CATHYL
Edens, one of our best self-taught artists, has an opportunity to go to art school in Jacmel, a Haitian city famous for its arts and music.
The school is willing to find him housing but he needs tuition and living costs for a year, which is about $2500.

YOGA
We have the opportunity to bring Yoga training to Matènwa! Several organizations doing this in Port-au-Prince already know the health, stress reduction, and group connection benefits have been enormous.

If funded, one of Wellfleet's yoga instructors, Kristen Shantz (Provincetown's school nurse, who has visited Matènwa and knows the community), has offered to hold 3-4 weeks of classes at the Sant Atizana and train instructors to carry on after she leaves. We are hoping to raise her travel and living costs of about $2000.

ON THIS END of the connection, given our commitment to grow sales and stabilize the artists' economic future, we have signed on with Genius Switch, a web design company in the process of revamping our outdated website to make it more dynamic, interactive, and sales-friendly. We're grateful to The Martin Nerber Memorial fund for covering this expense.

For all of this, WE NEED your ongoing support. It is the bedrock that keeps our efforts grounded, alive and moving.
Foremost this year we need to make sure the women artists and the Sant, the cornerstone of our mission, remain strong and viable.
That includes keeping their commercial outlet, RaRa, alive and well.

Once that's safe, if your generosity can expand to kickstart these other groups' dreams, we will earmark your donation on their behalf.

We also welcome any leads towards grants or other donors who might be interested in specific needs.
This December Arielle Berrick, Ethan Scholl, Nate Mayo and I will be spending Christmas in Matènwa. We will return with more stories, pictures, video, and beautiful new work. Lisa Brown and Valerie Bell will be bringing their annual group of Nauset High students to Matènwa in February.

Our fabulous yearly dance party, the 12th annual MERCI D'AVANCE DANCE
will take place at Wellfleet Preservation Hall February 9th, 2013.
More news will be coming soon about that great community event!
We hopeyou will consider making a generous gift to RaRa in the spirit of WHAT MATTERS and look forward to keeping you posted on this year's progress.

With love and gratitude always,
Ellen LeBow, the RARA board, and all the Matènwa artists

P.S. On a personal note, Seth and I are still working to bring our two godchildren, Venez's daughter and granddaughter Hernitte and Woodmya (ages nine and ten) to live with us for two great reasons: to get a terrific education and to experience Wellfleet, one of the most heart-connected communities on the planet. It will give them wings.

Yes, I know what matters.
Please make a gift this year to keep this marvel going.

Should we be able to expand our funding, please indicate which of these projects is a top priority for you:
The Courageous Women's Restavek Shelter
The Courageous Men's Community Repair project
Eden Cathyl's chance to formally expand his artistic potential
Kristen Shantz's Yoga trauma-reduction Training for the artists and their children

You can donate easily through PAYPAL

Or send a tax-deductable check to: "HAITI PROJECT" (the name
of our 501c3) or to: RaRa PO Box 26 Wellfleet, MA 02667
Thank you from all of our hearts.

An Update from Ellen LeBow about the Artists of Matènwa, Summer 2012- A Death in the Family: A few days ago Arielle Berrick and I returned from our annual summer stay in Matènwa. We brought new work from the artists and left them with new designs to master.   Good things had happened. The artists finished their biggest order yet from the Fetzer Institute. The Gason Kouraj ("Courageous Men") began, with our funding, to repair the failing road with shovels and pick axes.   The Fanm Kouraj (Courageous Women) had bought a piece of property where they plan to build a home for formerly enslaved and abused children. The scarf painters planned a journey to the main island where they were invited to perform their grass roots theater. But this was one of our sadder visits. You may remember some months ago we were raising emergency funds for the family of one of our best-loved silk painters and my longest friend in Matènwa, Venez Kasimir..

A traditional Haitian funeral includes a lively 24-hour wake/party/dance than can go on for a week.
Within days a flood of family and friends began to arrive from other parts of Haiti. They set up sleeping areas in every corner of Venez's home and took over our own rooms at the Sant.
While Venez's body rested in the morgue waiting for her brother and sister to arrive from Florida the men slaughtered a cow to provide plenty of food and we donated massive amounts of rice, beans and vegetables. The women cleaned, cooked day and night and served everyone who showed up while the men danced to a DJ and played ferocious, marathon rounds of dominoes. 
 
On the day of the funeral everyone came in their finest clothes. Venez's youngest daughters were dressed in white, gauzy crinolines and high heels with frilly socks. All forty-three artists wore hand-made paper banners that read "Venez Atis Yo Pa P Janm Bliye W" - "Venez the Artists Will Never Forget You."
 
The night before the artists had swept the LKM school clean (the event was too large for the local chapel) and tied green branches to the window grills with purple ribbon.
 
As the guests were settling in the coffin arrived on the back of a pickup truck along with a funeral band called "Fanfè"- Fanfare - who sat in wrinkled suits with their battered tuba, saxes and fraying drums ready to lift us up.
 
When the morticians formally placed Venez's blue coffin in the center of the room her oldest daughters and friends began to wail, keening as if their souls were being turned inside out. Many had to be forcibly carried from the room, prostrate in traditional, funerial collapse.

The preachers preached, guest choirs sang, but the most moving moment was when all the artists stood up together, many pouring tears, and sang their rendition of  "Dieu Puissant" filling the room with the intimacy of her memory.
 
The procession that followed was worthy of New Orleans. The horns of "FanFare" led, followed by men wearing Venez's silk flower wreathes like turbans on their heads, followed by friends bearing igh the green and ribboned branches, followed by the rest of Matènwa, moving in a wave down the rock-strewn and gauged- out dust road. We were headed toward the ruined graveyard where Wolan and friends had spent the last 3 days building his own wife's tomb.
 
The band stopped at the foot of the path to Venez's house and played "Old Lang Syne" - something people in Haiti used to sing to visitors when they were about to go home.
 
And there we were.
 
Venez was 50 years old.

 
The money allotted for the rest of Venez's medications will continue to support her children for the next 4 or 5 months while her husband and older daughters get back on their feet.
 
The silk painters, who had painted Venez's scarves for her while she was sick, decided to offer her place in the group to two of Venez's oldest daughters.
 
This story isn't finished.  But RaRa in Wellfleet will be open weekends through Oyster Fest where you can see pictures of Venez and buy her work.
 
This fall we will be revamping our website so you will finally be able to see all of the artists' variety of work, order easily, and read updates about life in Matènwa.
 
Please remember us for the holidays, and, as always, thank you for your incredible support.
 
Ellen LeBow, Arielle Berrick, and the artists of Matènwa, Haiti.
 

	rarawellfleet@verizon.net		RaRa is tiny but packed with glittering life! Visit RaRa's new bigger and better location at 55 Commercial Street, Wellfleet, right next to Wellfleet Pizza on our beautiful and historic salt marsh. Learn more about the project and buy gifts for everyone you know. Your support ensures the artists' - and their families - future. Come visit us - or SHOP ONLINE !