#noukapalekreyòl

[kreyolnyc]

Check out this throwback from the HCLI Blog, "To Speak or Not…?" written by HCLI Founder Wynnie Lamour. Does this story sound familiar? Have you been through a similar experience? "At first, I didn’t realize that they were making fun of me. I mean, there I was describing my trip up to the mountains of Haiti, excited to recount how I felt to view the entire city of Port-au-Prinice bathed in sunlight as I watched from what felt like the clouds. “Te fè fwèt anpil”, I told them. “It was very cold.” Something worth sharing given the fact that just a few miles down the road it was nearly 100 degrees hot. They laughed, asking me to repeat what I had just said: “Te fè fwèt anpil”. They laughed, pointing out that I was mispronouncing the word for ‘cold’. I scrunched my face up, both in frustration and confusion. Was I being questioned about correct pronunciation by the same people who, just a couple of days ago, stressed that Kreyòl is not a real language with any real rules? Was this the same person who just earlier told me that he can’t read Kreyòl because people just write it however they want. Not wanting to seem ungrateful (I was their guest after all) I asked politely how I should be saying the word. It’s “frèt” they told me, not “fwèt”. I didn’t know whether to point out that, just like all other languages, Kreyòl has words that are sometimes pronounced in different ways. How could I make such claims to them, especially given the fact that I’m a ‘blan’ in their eyes? A traitor of sorts, who left, only to come back whenever it suits me? Internally, I sighed. What could I say without coming off as pretentious and disconnected from their reality? Instead, I laughed along with them, praying that a moment would come when all Haitians (myself included) will be able to say with pride, respect and no fear of retribution, that we speak Kreyòl." #HaitianCreole #ReCenteringBlackness #DyasporaAyisyen #HaitianDiaspora #KreyòlAyisyen #Kreyòl #LangKreyòl #LanguageAdvocacy #NouPaBlan #NouAyisyenTou #NouPaEtranje #NouKaPaleKreyòl #WeSpeakKreyòlToo #LanguageLearning #RevolutionaryThinking #RevolutionaryTeaching #RevolutionaryLearning #HonorAndRespect #HonorOurLanguage #OnèRespè (at Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn)