For the second year, New Orleans non-profit Positive Vibrations Foundation is an integral partner with Krewe du Kanaval. This year Positive Vibrations brings seminal Haitian roots band Boukman Eksperyans to New Orleans. Boukman Eksperyans will perform throughout the celebrations on Friday, Feb 22nd. Additionally PVF has orchestrated an exciting collaboration between Boukman Eksperyans and the Loyola Symphony Orchestra directed by Haitian Conductor, Dr. Jean Montès. “Our projects at home and abroad accelerate cultural enrichment for artists and communities. We are thrilled to host Boukman Eksperyans at Kanaval and especially excited to introduce them into the formidable creative catalyst of
Geraldyne Wyckoff, Offbeat Magazine “What better way to give to young children than to empower them with knowledge and just to instill in them how important it is to know things—to be curious and to want to excel?” she [Herreast Harrison] asks while living the answer. Herreast Harrison’s life story sings of destiny. A soft-spoken yet sharp-witted and culturally astute and involved woman, Harrison, 81, took her cues from her mother, Mattie Johnson, in her love of books and artistic creation. “I had a quest for knowledge,” Harrison says, remembering that her mother read to her children and taught them how to read at an early age. “I was a curious child, it was just how I was wired I guess,” ad
Geraldyne Wyckoff, Offbeat Magazine Renowned and multiple-award-winning clarinetist, composer and educator Dr. Michael White came to learn that just performing New Orleans jazz was not enough. Part of the deal was carrying on the tradition for future generations. “It came as a result of circumstances,” White explains. “I was playing with a lot of older musicians [born between the late 1890s and 1910] and at the time many of them got sick and started dying out so I ended up having a lot of hospital visits. The thing that started recurring over and over, which I found strange at the time, was that a lot of them would say stuff like, ‘It’s up to you to keep this music going.’ I thought it was r
