Heritage Celebration: Uplifting the Haitian Family

Haitian Heritage Month: Uplifting the Haitian Family is intentionally grounded in the scholarship and community praxis of Dr. Charlene Désir, a Haitian school Psychologist, Research Professor, and initiated Manbo/Priestess Healer whose work bridges psychology, diasporic studies, and culturally rooted healing traditions. Central to this convening is Dr. Désir’s framework of Diasporic Grief, a diagnostic and cultural concept that names the multigenerational trauma produced by migration, displacement, political instability, racialization, and ancestral rupture. Rather than pathologizing Haitian families, her scholarship reframes grief as a collective, historical, and spiritual wound requiring communal repair.

This two-day intergenerational gathering integrates cultural memory, embodied healing practices, and empirical research to address the layered realities facing Haitian families in South Florida. Dr. Désir’s background in school psychology informs the focus on children and family systems, while her research expertise ensures that discussions of trauma, resilience, and identity are data-informed and structurally grounded. As an initiated Manbo, she also understands healing as relational and ancestral, expanding wellness beyond clinical models to include ritual, art, music, storytelling, and communal gathering as legitimate forms of restoration.

Programming such as Family Grief & Trauma Repair, Lakou Timoun, and Breaking Diasporic Barriers reflects her integrative approach: whereby scholarship meets lived experience; cultural affirmation meets psychological insight. Resources embedded throughout the event within intergenerational panels, mental health dialogue, marketplace economic support, and interactive holistic sessions offer practical tools for strengthening families while restoring pride and continuity. The intention is clear: to move Haitian families from silence to strategy, from fragmentation to reconnection. This event affirms that Haitian families are not deficient but resilient carriers of ancestral intelligence, worthy of sustained support, visibility, and culturally grounded pathways to healing.

Featured presenters include Professor Bayyinah Bello, Dr. Charlene Desir, Dr. Latasha Russell, and Ireola Olaifa.

Activity highlights include: Lakou Timoun (Children's Space); Mache Ayisyen (Haitian Marketplace); film screening, artists' gallery, dance, and spoken word.

Cover Image: Three Indians Vivian D. and John H. Hewitt Haitian Collection, African American Research Library and Cultural Center - Broward County Library Special Collections.

Friday, 29 May 2026 6:30 - 8:30 pm

Saturday, 30 May 2026 11:00 am - 5:00 pm

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