2014 Benefit Concert featuring Moonlight and Mangos' s Artwork

Photo by Sabine Cherenfant
This Sunday Feb. 2nd, Moonlight and Mangos' s artwork will be featured in a benefit concert at the Elmont Memorial High School. Please click here to be directed to the page to RSVP and attend this event. 

Digital Book World: Writing is not enough

Photo by Sabine Cherenfant

From Jan. 13 to Jan 15, leaders in the publishing industry reunited at the fifth annual Digital Book World Conference + Expo to talk about ways to help the industry successfully adapt to the digital era. Although the conference was mainly focus on helping publishers find innovative ways to maintain the publishing industry, writers should definitely heed the topics discuss in the sessions. They play a very important part on transitioning the publishing industry to a digitally aware market. Below are some points I gathered that all writers (artists in general) should keep in mind:

• As a writer, your brand is very important. Indeed, this is not a secret. We live in a world where social media can either make or break you. As a writer, you must have an online presence. Build your own community/followers. Take advantage of social media to make your mark. 
• Fan loyalty drives sales. This was a very important point made by one of the speakers at the conference. Moreover, As Ashleigh Gardner of WattPad noted, when you interact with your fans (especially on social media), you boost their interest and in turn build a stronger loyalty. Follow your followers. Get to know them. 
• Consider both self-publishing and a publishing company. Self-publishing is very tricky. Writer, Dana Beth Weinberg stressed that you have to persist until you successfully sell your book. You have to keep writing. You will also need to hire professionals to edit the book, format it and design the cover. Yet, with tools like amazon.com and other marketplaces, you can easily sell the book. Most importantly, all of the revenues come to you. Weinberg also pinpointed that both methods are segmented. None is better than the other. Authors who use both methods gather more revenues than authors who use only one or the other. Furthermore, as Matt Macinnis of Inkling said, people value authority, which is what publishers bring. They gave your book the stamp that approves it as a material worthwhile for readers. 
• Book-to-book consistency ensures sales growth. As a writer, you have a lower chance of having your books flop when you are consistent in what you put out.
• There's real opportunity in failure. Dominique Raccah of Sourcebooks held a presentation on the role of failure in helping you look at yourself. As she stated: "You look at yourself more when you fail." Failure gives you a chance to discover other solutions, become more innovative and take your time to analyze the things you are doing. 
• Make sure your book is available in a digital format. There's just no way around it. 
• Be forward-minded. Be aware of the start-ups out there. Most importantly experiment with them. Do not dismiss any of them because you can't predict which one will work and which one won't. As one of the speakers explained, no one can pick winners because based on research, the winners are never the ones on the experts' list of best start-ups. 

Reintroducing Elizabeth Fabien

Photo Provided by Elizabeth Fabien

Elizabeth Fabien is a poet, playwright and the author of the collection of poems, W.O.R.D.S.: Wisdom to Survival. A four time recipient of the International Library of Poetry Editor's Choice award, she often performs her pieces at Boukan Night in Florida and has over 400 written pieces in counting. She discovered the joy of writing 14 years ago after watching the Christmas contests in Haiti, which were filled with talented composers. The poetic music inspired her to explore her inner writing ability. Moreover, after moving to the U.S., she used writing as a way to learn English. What was just a tool to practice English turned into a form of expression for her, tapping into subjects like love, nature, God, society and the Haitian culture. She had the opportunity to recite her poems at her Alma Matter, at weddings, galas and literary clubs. Fabien hopes to publish her works in the future and to be know nationally and internationally. She is currently working on a project for Haiti, titled “Phoenix has risen.”

Art Show Fundraiser Feat Moonlight and Mangos This Weekend

8 of Moonlight and Mangos's pieces of art will be for sale at the From Here To Haiti (FHTH) Art Show Fundraiser this Saturday and Sunday at 1 to 6 PM. 30 % of the money will go to the FHTH nonprofit organization. Be there!!!

Tanguy Exume's "Sur Mon 31" soon to be published!

It came on December 20th, five days before Christmas and 12 days before the new year. It was just an email with a simple subject line yet a message big enough to push a long scream out of Tanguy Exume.
"It was a long yell as if someone in my family passed away [followed by] constant laughter," divulged Exume. "I just couldn't imagine it. Finally I had a positive answer on having something published."
Now begins the process to publishing Exume's collection of poems, "Sur Mon 31," and he is more than ready for it. He has already signed the contract, sent corrections, took out the English poems (including the poem that will feature a rap verse by Mizzy) and replaced them with French poems. He will soon receive a tentative cover, and from there, there will be a lot of back and forth to bring the book to its final look before officially publishing it in four months or less.
It all started 10 months ago in March as a "tentative project" (as Exume describes it) to challenge himself to write 31 poems in 31 days for his 31st year on earth.
"I was working on just following a task, so sometimes it was painful," he admitted. "Some nights, I would be like 'OMG I have to write a poem today.'"
Other nights, he would wake up in the middle of the night realizing he forgot to finish a poem.
"It was the first series not based on inspiration," he said. I was forcing myself to write as opposed to feeling something and writing about it."
The collection is made of a diverse set of poems varying from political and social issues to pure love. As Exume pinpointed, several of the poems contrast with the title, which refers to the expression "Sur mon 31" (meaning to be on your Sunday best).
He wrote one of the poems (also one of his favorites) in Vancouver Island where the aboriginal heritage is celebrated.
"We went by a lot of Totem Poles, and that day I had to write a poem," he narrated. "And I [thought] if they ask me build a Totem Pole, what would it be, what would it contain, what would be my heritage and what would it represent?"

"Mon Totem/ Un poeme/ L'embleme de ma vie boheme/ Le siege de mes dilemmes/ Mon Totem..." he wrote describing every aspect of his life. 

He joked about his inability to draw and explained writing the poem was his way of drawing with words his Totem pole.

Also in the collection is a poem on Aida, the love goddess and on John Coltrane, the famous Jazz saxophone player.
"It about how I feel when I listen to John Coltrane, and the fact that I grew up with my dad playing the saxophone," said Exume. "All of those memories resurface throughout the poem, but the poem is really based on the accomplishments of John Coltrane and his influence on me."
Once the book comes out, he plans to tour and promote his book in Vancouver and Montreal, Canada and of course, his country Haiti.
As mentioned in my first article on Exume, he is also hoping to produce a CD composed of a dozen of the poems. Due to budget and time constraints, he didn't start this project yet. Nonetheless, Exume is determined to give his fans something concrete to remember him in addition to his live performances.
Of course, the upcoming book will also fulfill this goal.
In two weeks, he will his release his video project with new poems on YouTube. Please see the video for a preview.
Exume, elated, talked about his excitement for upcoming reactions for his book.
"I am not afraid," he said, welcoming both positive and negative feedbacks. "I do it because I love writing. I have no commitment to writing. I am very excited for 2014."

The year is still young

The year is still young. We are just ending week two of January. So go ahead! Set your goals and get inspired to make 2014 a year to remember:

5 tips for setting goals
In this YouTube video, Jennifer Hain lays out 5 steps in achieving your goal for this year. She advises you to set one goal to not stretch yourselves thin and get discouraged. You can add more goals as things happen organically.

While you're at it, make sure to watch the movie "Shadows in the Sun," which was released in 2005, starring Harvey Keitel, Joshua Jackson and Claire Forlani. The inspiring movie embodies mentorship and striving and believing in your talent.

Another great movie to watch is "Queen to Play," starring Kevin Kline and Sandrine Bonnaire. All I can say about this movie is when you wake up the next day thinking about the moral of the story, you know you've watched a great movie.

Article on Aton

 

Click here to read an interview of Aton with Kreyolicious, in which he
promotes his comic book on the first Haitian Superhero. Make sure to read our article on the superhero, who is no longer named Aton: The Demi God, but Djatawo. The name Djatawo is made of two names Jah, which is a biblical name for God, and Tao, which means path from the Chinese religious tradition Taoism.