In an unprecedented act of love and support, all major networks and all top broadcasting corporations (including Viacom and all of its networks such as MTV, VH1, and Epix) has donated 2 prime time hours of commercial-free broadcasts in efforts to raise much-needed funds and relief for HAITI.
Singers & Entertainers performed and Actors, Directors, & Producers took phone calls, donating their time in the process to help HAITI. We were impressed that they were all glammed-down, demonstrating that it was NOT about them…I loved each one all the more.
My family and I had the pleasure of speaking with our favorite new rising star, Gabourey Sidibe!!! She is exactly as I have pictured her to be – down to Earth, humble, sweet, and oh-so-real. (She told me I lived in “Dirty Jersey” jajajaja.) I told her about H. Luiz Presents (and how I covered her performance in PRECIOUS!) Gaby (here I go!) mentioned that she’s going to check it out. Speaking with Gabourey was a very delightful surprise for the whole family.
You can donate to the Red Cross www.redcross.orgor another legitimate organization helping Haiti.
Offering prayer is a wonderful thing or ask your Church (or Mosque, or Temple, or etc,) to gather donations for Haiti.
Some friends donated their time by participating in “call centers”…they speak the Haitian language.
Other friends who said they could not afford to give, re-evaluated their own situation and gave up 3 lattes or 5 cups of coffee (the equivalent to $10) to give UNICEFhttp://www.unicef.ca/portal/SmartDefault.aspx what they would normally spend on themselves in a week.
My son’s high school (and many, many other schools) asked students to give donations.
Musician Wyclef Jean has used Twitter to rally web users to contribute to his grassroots Yele Haiti earthquake fund. He’s urged his followers to text “Yele” to the number 501501. If you send the text, the organization will receive $5. The amount will be added to your next cell phone bill. Consider retweeting Wyclef’s updates and get some of your Twitter followers to donate, too.
This is the ONLY “text-a-donation” that H. Luiz Presents endorses: You can text “HAITI” to 90999to donate $10 via the Red Cross. There are a lot of scams out there with slight number changes like 90909 or 990990 – be careful!
Companies with hundreds of employees can setup a “check system” where each employee can donate at least $1 directly from their paychecks. My Partner’s very large corporation has donated over $500,000.00 to date via this system (they have literally thousands of employees in NYC alone.) This parent company is also matching dollar for dollar what the Red Cross is receiving as a personal donation. WOW!!
Davide Montpelier came back from France in high spirits. His formal education was completed and he was ready for the next phase of his life – manhood. He wanted to start his own business, running an opera theater. Davide’s training was in business, music, and the arts, so he felt that owning and operating an opera house was a perfect venture. He studied in the great opera houses of Italy, refining his business skills and knowledge of the great operas of the time. Two years later, he studied the craft in France, where he met influential people in the business of running opera houses. Davide also had a many lovers in France, mostly singers. With his family backing him, he was ready to open a successful opera house, right in the heart of New Orleans.
“Mere, I’ve been back for three weeks now and I think that I have already secured a location for my Opera House.” There was an excitement in his voice that struck fear – not joy within his mother’s heart.
“Young Davide, slow down. You just returned from France less than a month ago. Slow down, Chere. There’s plenty of time for all that.”
“There’s no time, Mere. No time to slow down. Fabrice will be here sooner than…”
“Fabrice? Who…is this Fabrice? And who is he to you?”
There was a long pause that filled the room before Davide answered the question he dreaded since his return. He did not know how to go about it, and now the question was put to him. “Fabrice Saint Marie is a Frenchman that I have studied with at the academy. He’s a very fine opera singer, Mere, the best. Fabrice is a wonderful tenor and he’s coming to America to Lead in my Opera.”
“Lead in your Opera, Chere? What Opera? You have written no Opera. You just returned and you hardly secured a real location and now you have ‘Leads?’” This is Madness! Madness is what this is”
“It is not madness, Mere. I have written three Operas before my return to Louisiana and Fabrice will be playing the Lead in all of them. He’s due to arrive in about a week. Fabrice has relatives outside of New Orleans. He’ll be staying with his family until we can get a place of our own”
“A place of your own? Have you gone mad, Davide? That kind of ‘living’ is not accepted here in Louisiana. We did not send you to France to indulge your…your…”
“Indulge my ‘what,’ Mere? I want to hear you actually say what I’m indulging in.”
“Your Papa and I did not send you to France to be ungodly. If you knew what this family has had to do to be where we are today, you would think twice about bringing disgrace to the generations of people who…”
“Generations of people? Mere, this family has had many generations of people just like me. There’s Uncle Luiz and Henrique. There’s Great-Aunt Estelle and Beatrice. Your cousin Stephan and I even heard of Grand-Uncle Maurice…”
“Be quiet, Chere. Don’t you spit on the names of prominent members of this proud family. You’re my son and I love you, you know that. I have always known who and what you are – always known. But it’s them out there that I’m worried about. You’ll be hurt, maimed, or even worse! Is that what you want? Is it not safer, better to be who you are in secret? Must the world know what you do?”
“What I do? It’s not what I do, Mere. It’s who I am and who I’ll continue to be – not what I do.”
“Davide, I forbid you to bring shame to this family. You must forget this ‘Fabrice Saint Marie,’ this Opera business and do something else, something meaningful with your life!”
“Mere, I am going to build an Opera House and Fabrice Saint Marie is going to be my Lead. I will be happy, successful, and be who I am meant to be – with or without you or my precious family name.”
She gave him a menacing look, but he knew she was just trying to be bold. His stare called her bluff until she said. “Really, Chere…then what precious family name is going to fund this little business of yours, Saint Marie?”
Christophe De La Reux owned over 200 acres of lucrative cotton fields near Cane River. He was also part-owner of his father’s business, the third largest importer of French wines in all of Louisiana.Christophe’s wife, Sarah Jane, a deeply religious woman, was never truly in love with him. She married him because her father said she will do well to marry a man of French descent with deep pockets in the cotton and wine businesses.Together they owned and cared for 14 slaves, all whom were related to each-other in one fashion or another.They treated their slaves quite well compared to other slave-owners of their day.Some even said they treated them too well.At breakfast, the De La Reuxs were at their usual places having their usual conversation.James, their “Houseboy,” was pouring the second serving of coffee – right on schedule.James was always dressed in the finest tuxedos and even had his own room, complete with a bed and French linens.Sarah Jane, the Missus, insisted they have a male slave manage their household, for she grew up with a butler who ran her mother’s home in Wales.At the age of 12, Sarah Jane Lawson sailed to America with her parents and they brought their English butler with them.Now, in her own marital home, she carried on that tradition.Sarah Jane could not very well call James a butler since he was a slave. So, she settled on “Houseboy” – he was 33 years old with boys of his own.Sarah Jane saw to it that James would conduct and manage their home with the grace of a butler.James would be taught to speak French and have the finest training in “servitude.” This, no doubt, would please all family and company that visited the Manor – especially the De La Reux clan, thought Sara Jane. “James, did those boys catch that wretched owl yet? It has to be over two years now and I can still hear him through the night.”She didn’t even bother to look up from her coffee cup for a reply.The nervous Houseboy responded, “No Madame, the owl is very elusive and– ”“Leave that owl well enough alone!” interrupted Christophe.“I told you Sarah Jane, we should be grateful that we have an owl on our land. Owls keep rats and other vermin out of our fields.” If only that were true, James whispered in his head.“Oh – of course, you’re absolutely right. Christophe, what’s wrong with me? After all, the owl is a creature from God and has every right to be free on this land or any other.Who are we to hunt it down or to try to trap it in a cage? It’s ungodly and inhumane.James, the Master is quite right…you tell those slaves to let that owl be.”“Oui, Madame.”.
Taboo Down the Bayou is the official name of the novel I am writing. I have not decided if it is going to be an eBOOK or if I should go with a publisher (I should be so lucky.) Taboo Down the Bayou is a novel based on the Free Creoles of Color (Les Gens de Couleur Libre) before the Civil War in Louisiana. The Gens de Couleur Libre have always fascinated me.
My maternal grandmother carried the blood line of the Tainos who occupied Saint-Domingue, a French Colony on the Carribean island of Hispanola from 1659 to 1804, then it became the independent nation of Haiti. The Spanish Colony of Hispanola became what we call today the Dominican Republic, who’s capital is called Santo Domingo. Both Colonies, French and Spanish, were on the SAME island called Hispanola and thus lies the confusion that continues to this very day.
Here’s my quick take: France and Spain both had colonies on an island in the Carribean called Hispanola (the “Spanish ” Island.) The French called their side of the island Saint-Domingue and the Spanish called their side Santo Domingo (or San Domingo is some history books) but it’s the same name - just written in their respective languages. It was named after Saint Dominic (not for Saint Sunday as some believe) by Christopher Columbus. Before the Island was colonized by the Spanish and French, it was inhabited by the Taino, the Arawak-speaking natives or the Carib people. The Taínos called the island Kiskeya or Quisqueya, meaning “mother of the earth”, as well as Bohio, Haití or Aytí (land of high mountains.) These natives, as well as imported African-born people, became the Slaves of the Island. France came to own the whole island in 1795 with the “Treaty of Basel.” Spain ceded the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola to France. However, the slaves of the French Colony, Saint-Domingue, revolted and won their independence, and renamed themselves the now free republic “Haiti” after the indigenous Arawak name. France continued to rule the Spanish Colony, Santo Domingo. In 1808, the criollos (or creoles – natives with bloodlines to Spain) of Santo Domingo revolted against French rule and, with the aid of Great Britain (Spain’s ally) and independent Haiti,returned Santo Domingo to Spain’s control. Haitian forces, led by Jean-Pierre Boyer, invaded in February 1822. It was the Haitians who abolished slavery in all of Hispanola. [This is why I do not understand the friction between some Dominicans and some Hatians]
“Gens de couleur is a French term meaning “people of color.” This is often a short form of gens de couleur libres (“free people of color”). In practice, it can refer to creoles of color with Latin blood, and certain other free blacks.The term was commonly used in France’s West Indian colonies prior to the abolition of slavery. Before the Revolution broke out in Haiti, there were four distinct groups of people living in Saint-Domingue: whites, black slaves, the maroons, and the free people of color. There were approximately 28,000 gens de couleur in 1789. Roughly half of them were mulattoes, usually born of French men and slave women.” – WIKIPEDIA
The Free People of Color is practically obliverated from our history books (along with our Native American History) and I plan to write about it in my novel Taboo Down the Bayou.
NOTE: Respective to the Island today after many civil wars and revolutions, both countries have different governments. The Dominican Republic is a representative democracy and Haiti is is a presidential republic.
