This week, just as Miami is winding down Konpa Fest its gearing up for “The Haitian Rara Experience”: a 4-day festival of film, workshops, and music events. The main event is the Miami premiere of the new documentary “The Other Side of the Water” at the Colony Theater on May 23rd, 8pm, followed by a live rara battle between Brooklyn’s DJARARA and Miami’s Rara Lakay that will likely spill onto the streets of Miami Beach. The film follows the 20-year journey of a Haitian Rara band in Brooklyn, and was itself 6-years in the making.
According to Richard “Pitha Dred” Pierre-Louis, one of the festival organizers, “This is important because when you go to our history of music like this, its mostly oral. Each generation it starts to disappear. Now for the first time we have a vision about rara, something for the next generation. When my kinds want to do research they have something powerful to go to.”
The festival also includes workshops on arts and activism at the Light Box Studio on Thursday and Friday, rara performances at Tap Tap Restaurant on Friday, and an all-day “Culture Jam” on Sunday at the 7th Circuit Studio in Little Haiti featuring another film screening, arts for kids, and performance by DJARARA, Rara Lakay, and Jan Sebon and Kazak. [Full details, addresses and ticket info at http://www.othersideofthewater.org/news.asp]
The festival is presented by Miami Light Project, Change Charity, Inc., Moksha Family, Tap Tap Restaurant, and HaitiXchange.
