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WBURHaitian Poet Feels The ‘Afterworld’ In His Native Land

Published March 9, 2010  UPDATED 7:30 PM

Jean-Dany Joachim (Bianca Vazquez Toness/WBUR)

BOSTON — Nearly two months after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, U.S. troops are withdrawing from Haiti.

With the capital city, Port-au-Prince, still in ruins and more than a half a million people living in encampments, some Haitians fear the departure of American troops is a sign of dwindling international interest.

It is a concern shared by Jean-Dany Joachim, a native of Port-au-Prince and now the “poet populist” of Cambridge. Joachim has just returned from his first visit to Haiti since the quake, and joined WBUR to discuss what he saw, what he felt, and to share a poem on the experience.

“There is a boulevard in Port-au-Prince, it is the main boulevard in Port-au-Prince,” Joachim said. “As a child I walk on the streets and see those stores. When I woke up in the morning I went there. That’s the way I wanted to do it, alone. I wanted to face it.

“It was so devastated, the feeling I had when I went there, you know, I watched a few movies that described the afterworld, what happened, what Earth would look like. That’s what I felt.”

WBUR’s Lisa Tobin produced this story for broadcast.

WBUR Topics · Boston · Haiti
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  • What makes your comments honest when based solely on conjecture? Who are you to judge? Here is a human being who just lost countless relatives, friends and colleagues in one of the most devastating natural disasters in history. Let’s at least let him talk and write about it in peace. I, for one, am grateful for his contribution today.

    Posted by escritora on March 9, 2010, at 8:40 PM
  • I’ve yet to meet an honest man and I’m 60.

    Posted by Peter Petraitis on March 9, 2010, at 1:32 PM
  • He is a college professor/poet/fundraiser trying to remind us all not to forget about Haiti once it leaves the headlines of mass media. Let’s try not to forget that. “I believe in the simple things that work.”

    Posted by NotStarving on March 9, 2010, at 12:22 PM
  • …and it’s a perfect chance to get some additionally needed publicity, esp. if you’re a starving poet.

    Posted by Peter Petraitis on March 9, 2010, at 8:21 AM
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