Recommended Reading List for Haiti

Dear friends,

In order to be better equipped to understand and to walk in mutual solidarity with the Haitian people, I am suggesting the books, movie, and music listed below.

If you have any other suggested material, please let me know.

Cordially,

Felix Ortiz – Cotto

Recommended Readings about Haiti

Bell, Madison Smartt.  Toussaint Louverture, A Biography.  New York:  Pantheon Books, 2007.

Bosch, Juan.  De Cristobal Colon a Fidel Castro, El Caribe, Frontera Imperial.  La Habana:  Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1983. (Spanish)

Danticat, Edwidge.  Kirk? Krak!.  New York:  Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, 1996.

Davis, Wade.  The Serpent and the Rainbow, A Harvard Scientist’s Astonishing Journey into the Secret Society of Haitian Voodoo, Zombis and Magic.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1985. 

Farmer, Paul.  The Uses of Haiti.  Monroe, ME:  Common Courage Press, 2005.

James, C. L. R.  The Black Jacobins, Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution.  New York:  Vintage Books, a Division of Random House, Inc., 1989.

Kidder, Tracy.  Mountain Beyond Mountains:  The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, A Man Who Would Cure the World.  New York:  Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004.

Shacochis, Bob.  The Immaculate Invasion.  New York:  Penguin Books, 1999.

Sunshine, Catherine.  The Caribbean:  Survival, Struggle and Sovereignty.  Washington, D.C.:  EPICA Task Force, 1988.

Trost, Margaret.  On That Day Everybody Ate, One Woman’s Story of Hope and Possibility in Haiti.  Kihei, Hawaii:  Koa Books, 2008.

Wilentz, Amy.  The Rainy Season:  Haiti Since Duvalier.  New York:  Simon and Schuster, 1990.

Video:  The Serpent and the Rainbow.  Dir. Wes Craven.  Universal Pictures, 1988.  (Rated R, 98 minutes)

Music (Social Justice):  Bryan Sirchio, Crosswind Music:  “Wooden Bell,” “Staring at my Overflowing Plate.”  Additional information at:  http://www.sirchio.com.