Happy Wednesday, Good People!

I am back and reactivated my social media accounts. Hopefully, my accounts won’t be hijacked and photoshopped again 😔

Let me share some recent updates!

In addition to other medical complications, my seasonal allergies have gotten out of hand this time and I continue to suffer breathing problems in this city. This is been going on for three weeks now. Doc (the allergist) puts me back on meds. (I may have to take allergy injection for 16 weeks/four months. Yes, it is that severe on me) Frankly, no one likes to be dependent on meds to function normally. I’m allergic to everything in the world, including carpet, dust, pollen, trees, leaves, grass, even myself 😊

I was invited as a guest speaker and author to the Symposium to commemorate Haiti’s literary GIANT Frankétienne. Unfortunately, I had to cancel my flight. I actually wrote a good paper on “ Dézafi” for the event.😊

Some pleasant news/updates:

1. Last week, I received the “Teacher of the Year”Award from San Jacinto College. Thank you, San Jac community, especially our students!!!
2. I received a travel research grant to conduct research for a book project from the University of Florida (UF) Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. I wll be in Gainesville, Florida this summer. Go #Gators 🐊 ☀️
3. My paper proposal for the joint annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) was accepted. If the good Lord allows it, I will be in Boston in November.
4. Finally, I was able to do the edits and substantially trimmed down my manuscript on Jean Price-Mars, my biography on Price-Mars with Vanderbilt University Press. The original manuscript was 589 pages and I reduced it to 398 pages with endnotes excluding the 22-page biography. You should be proud of me 😊

I resubmitted the revised manuscript to the amazing VUP editorial team. I’ll wait for their feedback to move forward to the next step. Let me tell you, I have a big sense of relief now 😅

By the way, I will be teaching an 8-week Humanities course this summer with a focus on the concept of “The Good Life.” We will be interacting with sources from five disciplines, including classical philosophy, psychology, anthropology, religion, and music to explore what they say about “The Good Life” and its relationship to the “Happy Life.”

This is an undergraduate course.

**I have already written the first draft of the syllabus, but I welcome reading recommendations on the concept.

That’s all I had to share for today. Hope you have a pleasant Wednesday!

Well, I was honored today with the Faculty/Teacher of the Year Award!

I am currently working on an article that offers a critical analysis of Dézafi (1975), the first novel written in Haitian Kreyòl by Nobel Prize nominee and literary icon Frankétienne. This essay examines the production of moral evil as constructed violence within the twin settings of the novel, the villages of Ravin Sèch and Bouanèf.

While many critics have interpreted Dézafi as “a potent commentary on a country haunted by a history of slavery” or as an allegory for the zombification of the Haitian people under the Duvalier regime, my analysis challenges these dominant readings. Instead, I argue for a twofold approach: first, that the concept of zombi/zombification in the novel should be read “at face value,” without allegorical or metaphorical interpretation; and second, that Dézafi serves as Frankétienne’s critical assessment of zombification as a form of moral evil and constructed violence within Haitian Vodou. To support this argument, I explore the novel’s reliance on Haitian oral traditions—particularly proverbs and witty (and “pithy”) sayings—which function as moral frameworks for evaluating religious sensibilities, beliefs, social relations, and human behavior.

The tentative title of the article is “Moral Evil as Constructed Violence: Zombification and the Critique of Vodou in Frankétienne’s Dézafi.”

The classic critical work on Frankétienne’s major works in French.

Dr. Celucien Joseph is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

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My new poem is called “A Love’s Gentle Passage & Memory.” It does have an unusual structure, as it pertains to its poetic content and meaning. There are four speakers assigned different roles.

At the sound of the first musical beat—a piano—, the first speaker, a young woman who mourns the love she once enjoyed, opens up the poem with an existential question—bearing an emotive quality.

The second speaker, a young man who also mourns the memory of a triumphant love, asks a series of questions which he hopes will console his heart. This stanza is accompanied by the sound of a different musical instrument, preferably a violin.

The final speakers are a couple who just begin their love journey, an experiment they hope will bring greater joy and excitement. This final stanza is accompanied by the rhythmic sound of a French horn, as these new lovers sing the poetic lines in unison.

“A Love’s Gentle Passage & Memory”

Speaker 1

What happens when romantic love dies?
Where does it go?
What will it become?
How much could we hold on to it?
How much could we hope without it?

Does a love that fades away become a ghost in the night?
Does a love that we mourn become only a whisper at dawn?
Does it stop our heart beating?
Can hope still blossom amid love’s ashes?

Speaker 2

What happens when lovers exhale their final breath?
Where does their breeze finds its rest?
Can the vision of a dying love rekindle its passion?
How much warmth still remains from its fire?

Speaker 3

Love does not die; it only transforms.
Love becomes a ghost in echoes, a silent kiss in the wind.
It fades to ember, dissipates like fog.
It touches our memory’s marrow, shaping lovers’ hearts long after the summertime of the soul.
Romantic love stains the spirit, pressing into silence.

“Held by the Wind”

The moon is beautiful, yet far away,
But you stay near, beating in my heart.
Every road I take to forget you
Leads me back to where you are.
Birds have feathers so they can fly—
Yet yours keep my mind from drifting away.

I just found out two days ago that San Jacinto College posted this picture of me on its LinkedIn page during the celebration of Black History Month.

I am grateful for the nomination and the opportunity to continue serving our students, the English Department faculty and staff, and the San Jacinto College. Thank you, San Jac Family!

Here’s my new poem:

“Where my Love Lives and Grows”

At dawn’s first light, your memory rises with the sun in my heart.
I hide you deeper than the secrets of my inner being.
You are a steady light in my darkness.
When the weight of this world bears down, you pick me up and lift me higher.
No distance too far, no road too hard, to be at my reach.

You’re my laughter in the storm, the gentle touch that makes me whole.
You’re the love song played in my piano, the only sound that calms my soul.
You’re the only one I’m singing to marvel.
Your eyes, so pure, so sublime, are the first light of my mornings.

You’re my last thought before I close my eyes, the steady force that rebuilds me.
Your hands are the only ones I want to hold.
You’re the dream I never want to lose.
You’re the sculptor that reshapes my shattered pieces.
You are etched into my heart, a love so sincere, a love too deep for time to erase.

I was just trying to state a few propositions on the relationship between music and religion in Haiti and the imperative for interreligious dialogue—Rice University, “Haiti and the World International Symposium.”