In a recent notice to the members of Krewe du Kanaval, founders Win Butler, Regine Chassagne and Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s Creative Director Ben Jaffe, along with his wife Jeanette, told its members that due to the uncertainty with the pandemic, and concern for the well being of the Krewe members, they decided to “pause Krewe du Kanaval’s usual activities for 2021.”
Krewe du Kanaval was founded by Jaffe and Arcade Fire’s Butler and Chassagnge in 2018. It’s beneficiaries, the Preservation Hall Foundation and KANPE Foundation, deepen the connects between the music, culture and people of Haiti and New Orleans.
As they say in show business however, the show must go on, and Krewe recently announced the first of several virtual events.
The first one is a free virtual book club event that will be led by their partners, Haitianola, along with scholars Kaiama L. Glover and Laurent Dubois. The club will be centered around a collective reading of René Depestre’s novel Hadriana in All My Dreams. Meetings will take place via Zoom on Thursday evenings (6-7pm CMT on 1/14, 1/21, 1/28 & 2/4) and feature discussions about the novel and its varied themes – Haiti’s history, the Vodou religion, the meaning and representation of zombi, and the layered meanings of the country’s carnival.
You can sign up for the book club here.
We’re excited to say that for WXPN’s Kanaval: Haitian Rhythms and the Music of New Orleans project and documentary, an event is being planned in Philadelphia to celebrate Kanaval, “krewe” style, in the future. Additionally, the story of Haiti’s history and musical connections with New Orleans are a significant part of the radio documentary and feature Ben Jaffe, Win Butler and Regine Chassagne, historian Laurent Dubois, and Lori Martineau and Linda Reno of Haitianola, and others.
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