#60 - When Theater Becomes a Refuge

Theater Against Violence: Giving a Voice to Displaced Teens | Voodoo: Honoring Damballah | Young Rapper OG Fresh Zz at the Top | Police Advance in Martissant | Peace in Cité-Soleil

Jean Elie FORTINE, Etienne COTE-PALUCK, and Jean-Paul SAINT FLEUR

Mar 25, 2026

∙ Paid

Photo: Jean Elie Fortiné / Dèyè Mòn Enfo

The Theater Intervention Brigade – Haiti (BIT Haiti) is staging its third production as part of the “Theater Against Violence” project. Ten teenagers from various displacement camps have been invited to express themselves through acting. All this and much more in issue #59 of HAITI MAGAZINE by DÈYÈ MÒN ENFO.

Summary #60

Theater Against Violence: Giving a Voice to Displaced Teens
Voodoo: Honoring Damballah
Music Video of the Week: “Black American” by OG Fresh Zz
Police Advance in Martissant, Control Still Fragile
Peace Returns to Cité-Soleil
Press Reviews

Theater Against Violence: Giving a Voice to Displaced Teens

“I was glad they called me back, because I was sad—I had nothing to do,” explains 15-year-old Ferlanda, whom we met last Thursday at Studio Théâtre En Lisant (Turgeau neighborhood, Port-au-Prince). “I haven’t even gone back to school.”

She has been living in a camp for displaced people for the past three years after she and her family were forced to flee their Savane-Pistache neighborhood by armed criminal groups.

Together with her young colleagues, she is staging a new play titled Mèsi Leta Peyi m, based on their own stories. It tells an account of a trial held by displaced teenagers against the country’s leaders, who are accused of the crime of abandonment. However, the state vanishes, and the main defendant becomes elusive. How, then, can one judge a government that no longer exists?

“When I’m here, I feel better,” says 14-year-old Feguence from Carrefour-Feuilles. “Down there [in my camp in the Bois-Vernat neighborhood], there are often fights. […] Also, when I’m down there, there’s always the sound of the radio. It’s hard to even sleep. And the police sometimes fire tear gas when there are fights [in the camp].”

During our visit, Daphena Rémédor, an actress and member of the programming team for the En lisant theater festival, led the workshop. Jenny Cadet, the co-founder of BIT Haiti and a theater director, also leads workshops as part of this project. Five new young people have joined those from the previous phase.

“The good news is that five young people managed to leave their camp to go to the countryside with their families,” explained Eliezer Guérismé, the artistic director of the BIT Haiti collective.

The workshops are held on weekdays leading up to the two performances scheduled at the Pyepoudre Cultural Center in Port-au-Prince on March 30 and 31.

Photos: Jean Elie Fortiné / Dèyè Mòn Enfo

Voodoo: Honoring Damballah

A lavish ceremony was held for Damballah in the Delmas 75 neighborhood of Lakou Salvatoris last week, and our photographer was there. After the prayers and a ritual to allow the lwa (spirits) to enter, Damballah, the snake lwa, appeared in the form of two of his “facets,” explains our contributor Françoise Ponticq, who was also present.

“Damballah La Flambeau is a fiery and powerful facet of the lwa Damballa in Voodoo, often associated with Petro rites (hot/aggressive energies). He is a primordial creative force, a powerful magician, capable of healing, but also of acting with the intensity of fire, often linked to the rainbow and transformation. ”

For his part, Damballah Wèdo “is one of the most important lwa in Haitian and West African Voodoo, revered as the great creator serpent, a symbol of wisdom, fertility, and purity. Associated with the color white, rivers, and trees, he is the husband of Ayida Wedo (the rainbow goddess) and represents the principle of good.”

Music Video of the Week

Black américain - OG Fresh Zz

“They think I’m a Black American,” goes the chorus of the song by the latest rap sensation, the young OG Fresh Zz, which has racked up over a million views on YouTube in three weeks. “I walk around Texas without papers, just like Barack Obama, and with Kodak Black I’m heading all the way to Ottawa,” he also raps.

The rapper had a few hits last year (such as “Movie” and “Chèlè”), but it seems that this latest single has cemented his success. His melodic, laid-back rap humorously points out that young Haitians in the hip-hop scene closely resembles that of young people in the United States, and they take a certain pride in it. Although the artist’s Facebook page lists his location as Washington, D.C., he appears to be based in Haiti, where the music video was filmed.

Police Advance in Martissant, Control Still Fragile

A police armored vehicle at the Champ-de-Mars on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. Photo: Jean Elie Fortiné / Dèyè Mòn Enfo

The police have advanced as far as Martissant 11, though they have not yet consolidated their gains.

“It’s still a theater of operations [for the police]; they don’t have total control,” explains Jean Daniel Sénat, a journalist for Le Nouvelliste and host of the morning show on Magik9 radio. Armored vehicles had reach that far as witnesses on the ground and a police source confirmed to him. “For a long time, they couldn’t get there. But these aren’t areas that are completely under police control.”

Martissant, a town and stronghold of some of the capital’s most significant armed criminal groups, has been abandoned by the authorities for several years. On June 1, 2021, these groups overran the Martissant road, which connects the capital to the entire southern part of the country. This was a turning point that led to the current state of war.

These police incursions are therefore not yet stable and are not accompanied by ongoing operations aimed at controlling the territory. Nevertheless, they represent a significant step forward, as numerous operations are also taking place in the capital’s downtown area.

Peace Returns to Cité-Soleil

A vendor and her motorcycle taxi driver at the Airport intersection last month are riding a motorcycle with a load of bananas purchased in the lower part of the capital. Photo: Jean Elie Fortiné / Dèyè Mòn Enfo

Our correspondent on the ground confirms that a relative calm has returned to Cité-Soleil in recent days following clashed between armed groups within the Viv Ansanm coalition. Although the area remains under the control of these long-standing rival groups, the streets have grown quieter, and markets have resumed operations.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the conflict forced nearly 3,000 people to flee their homes in Cité-Soleil and part of Croix-des-Bouquets. Most of the displaced individuals have found refuge with relatives, while seven camps, included two newly established ones, have also taken in some of them.

Based on the available information, it seems that the Canaan group was responsible for the attacks in the area.

DÈYÈ MÒN ENFO’s team

Photojournalists: Francillon Laguerre, Sonson Thelusma, Andoo Lafond, Milot Andris, Patrick Payin, Ketlain Difficile, Steeve Saint Fleur, Clarens Siffroy
Community manager: Steven Andris
Editorial board: Etienne Côté-Paluck, Jean Elie Fortiné, Jean-Paul Saint-Fleur
Interns: Wilky Andris, Donley Jean Simon
Special collaboration: Stéphanie Tourillon-Gingras, Mateo Fortin Lubin, Françoise Ponticq
Media partners: Centre à la Une, J-COM, Nord-Est Info
Institutional partners: Kay Fanm, Mouka.ht

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