Haïti « Livres en Folie » Rétrospective/perspectives
Even though one out of two Haitians meet great difficulties to access literacy, the literary event « Livres en Folie » (could be translated « madness and the books”), has been reaching heights in popularity throughout its 20 issues. Even the 2010 earthquake did not impede the setting of this commercial book fair created to sell locally printed books.
Haiti is the country of mountains. The new world’s gateway. A peninsula with all that it implies of obsession with self and self enclosure and openness. A country of contrast which, despite a pretty low rate of literacy (52% in 2012 according to CIA World Factbook), is filled with writers, poets and book related events. As if the book was something sacred. The Scripts, holy. Books related events are then plenty: regional fairs (Verrettes à la découverte du livre, Savanette en lecture, Festival du livre et des arts du Nord-Ouest) international ones (Foire internationale du livre d’Haïti), itinerant book fairs (Livres en liberté, étonnants voyageurs-Haïti), discussion and meeting spaces with authors (Les Vendredis littéraires, Le Club Signet de la Bibliothèque ARAKA, Les mardis de la philosophie de Café Philo-Haïti)…. But the longest (with the literary Friday of the Karib University), the one that has the biggest impact on the literary production is without doubt “Livres en Folie”.
Reasons for the 1995-2014 “madness”
When Max Chauvet, director of the daily Le Nouvelliste and owner and manager of the printing office L’imprimeur S.A, launches the first issue, June 15 1995 at the Complexe-Promenade, in Pétionville (10 kms from Port au Prince), with the help of the bank UNIBANK, there are only 125 titles available and 4 local authors signing their books. According to the director of the oldest francophone daily of the Americas, Livres en Folie was thought to help authors sell their remaining stock of self-published books and print more of it so as to inflate the Haitian book market.
Livres en Folie keeps on attracting Haitian authors as well as readers, private and public institutions and after many changes of location due to great success, has, from 2009, moved to the Parc historique de la canne à sucre- Sugar cane historical park, large space of 1 hectare located in Tabarre (Western Port au Prince). Since 2010, the fair opens its doors to foreign writers. Although writers from the rest of the French speaking Caribbean have not yet been directly invited, their work is set on Livres en Folie’s stands. A significant example is the one of the well acclaimed novel La Lézarde by Martiniquese Edouard Glissant, Renaudot prize in 1958: from the 13th issue of Livres en Folie, it has been not only submitted but also re printed by the editions of the National Press of Haiti. In 2013, even if Livres en Folie celebrated the centennial of the birth of the eminent Martiniquese poet, co founder of the negritude movement, Aimé Césaire, the presence of Antillean authors remains anecdotic and the one of english speaking islands nonexistent.
How to reduce public’s affluence ?
Free until 2012, an entrance fee is required to Livres en Folie since 2013 in order to regulate the public’s overwhelming participation in an enclosed space. The creation of a user’s participation cost by charging an entrance fee, “ticket modérateur”, of about 150 gourdes (3 euros) did not have the expected result. The 19th issue has nonetheless achieved to attract many thousands of people and has generated almost unexpected income.
10 000 tickets sold. Strengthened by this experience, for the 20th issue, the organizers doubled the entrance fee and the fair, for the first time, was held throughout two days. 300 gourdes (5,13 euros in 2014) the first day, for the general public and 200 gourdes (3.42 euros in 2014) for the public of schoolchildren the second day.
For Anaïse Chavenet, communication and sales officer of the fair, it was not about discouraging buyers by charging an entrance fee. “It is a principle that consists in tracking effective buyers because many people come to the park to enjoy themselves and not to buy books”. But the principle of the “ticket modérateur” actually works as if Livres en Folie “was paying for” people to come buying books. This year, the ticket effectively entitled buyers to special discounts (until 150 gourdes discount from a book’s initial price, adding up to 40% reduction on all the fair), but also a soda, or even a phone top-up card…
A reduced number of participants has nonetheless been observed, in comparison to the previous issues. Failure?
No. According to the organizers, the selling of books has really been facilitated. Previously, buying a book could cost more than an hour waiting to the buyer. This year, at the biggest counter of the fair, the buyer could have his books within less than 15 minutes.
The online sales of Livres en Folie’s books lasted 10 days after the event. The same advantages as the ones proposed to buyers who came to the sugar cane historical park were provided. Between 2012 and 2013 the online sales doubled, according to Mrs Chavenet.
Encourage authors to publish
Barbancourt rum, since 2012, grants funds amounting to 5000 US $ per category: literary and scientific creation.
The Livres en Folie’s organizers proposed a Livres en Folie’s prize of 2500 US $ per category that rewards since 2012, young shoots for their first bookHaitian Literature on the international stage
Haitian literature’s presence is significant on the international stage. The whole prizes received by Haitian authors those last 20 years is a testimony of this international presence: Carbet de la Caraïbe et du Tout-monde’s prize (that since 1991 have prized 10 Haitian authors), Livre insulaire’s prize, Medicis prize, one of the most prestigious in France, in 2009 for Dany Laferrière, diverse prizes for Lyonnel Trouillot, Gary Victor, Louis-Philippe Dalembert, Marvin Victor, Yannick Lahens, Edwige Danticat, Evelyne Trouillot, Villard Denis dit Davertige, Frankétienne, Mimi Barthélémy, Anthony Phelps, Kettly Mars, René Depestre… the list goes on.
Is there a relationship between the fair and the international recognition of Haitian literature? If Livres en Folie gave Haitian authors a space for exchanges and meetings with the public, this fair cannot be considered the exclusive factor of Haitian literature’s development.
As early as 1912, the Haitian poet Etzer Vilaire received the Davaine prize from the French Academy- Académie Française, for his “Nouveaux poèmes” and Georges Sylvain has been distinguished with Solon Menos and Dantès Bellegarde, for an anthology of Haitian poets at the same time.
This means that Haitian literature flourished and garnered international notoriety from the beginning of the 20th century and famous authors then were Anténor Firmin, Louis-Joseph Janvier, Etzer Vilaire, Georges Sylvain, Jean-Price Mars…
Livres en Folie, real “barometer of the literary and scientific Haitian production in Haiti”, yes. But Haitian literature earned its credentials well before the birth of this fair.
Wébert Charles
SOME FIGURES
1995 : 4 haitian authors were there to dedicate their book - 125 books presented
2004 : 46 haitian authors were there to dedicate their book - more than 800 books presented
2014 : 161 haitian authors were there to dedicate their book - 1.865 books presented
The firts editions guests
1995 : Jean Desquiron, Georges Apollon, Raphaël Paquin
1999 : Georges Anglade (geographer), Gary Victor (novelist), Kettly Mars (novelist) et Margaret Papillon, sucessful author for scholars
Crédit photos : © Moranvil Mercidieu, 2014, Port-au-Prince
Translated from French to English by Kra Kouassi - Read the complete article in French
This article is proposed by Collectif 2004 Images, KAMACUKA partner.
Comments
Depuis la Martinique
S’il est acquis que le pays d’Haïti a offert et continue d’offrir au monde des écrivains de talent, la passion du peuple haïtien pour le livre demeure une énigme. Enigme à moitié résolue dans cette analyse bien documentée de Charles Webert sur la manifestation « Livres en folie »si l’on sait lire cette phrase « en Haïti c’est comme si le livre était quelque chose de sacré… Les écritures, saintes. »
Acceptons l’idée que l’expérience des uns peut ouvrir des portes aux autres et observons ce qui se passe là dans ce moment de communion autour du livre ?
D’abord, les concepteurs de livres en folie sont eux-mêmes des fous du livre, ils travaillent dans le secteur : imprimeurs, éditeurs, ils côtoient les auteurs et vivent au quotidien le challenge de la diffusion des livres dans leur pays. Ils connaissent les moments forts et les temps faibles, ils font confiance à la rencontre entre auteurs peu connus et écrivains confirmés et avant d’intégrer les auteurs étrangers ils focalisent l’intérêt sur la production du pays.
Ensuite « Livres en folie » est soutenue par uniBank et Barbancourt, des mécènes. L’entrée est gratuite et on y fait de très bonnes affaires, l’auteur et le lecteur sont gagnants.
Enfin si l’acte commercial permet d’écouler les invendus ce qui se vit là est extrêmement fort car il s’agit bien de rencontres humaines, de liens qui se tissent entre les écrivains et les visiteurs, de la passion, de l’écoute mutuelle, de la reconnaissance partagée.
Malgré la montée en puissance de la manifestation et l’ouverture à l’étranger, l’âme du projet n’a pas changé, les privés continuent d’aider, les initiateurs sont soutenus par les participants animés par la même foi dans la capacité de l’art à transformer le monde.
Il ne s’agit pas seulement d’un doux rêve ou d’un beau discours. Tous ont compris que le livre ne peut vivre que si on l’achète. L’enjeu commercial est intégré mais l’art et l’argent ont su trouver un mode de cohabitation à dimension humaine.
Et si on rêvait , demain en Martinique peut-être pas « livres en folie » mais des petits marchés du livre chaque semaine sur nos grands marchés, des brocantes de livres , des défis livres sur les radios aux heures de grande écoute , des portes qui s’ouvrent aux auteurs peu connus, des éditeurs éligibles à des prêts à taux zéro dans des banques locales, des espaces d’échanges de livres dans des abris sur les plages et par-dessus –tout le goût sucré des mots écrits offert à nos enfants dès le plus jeune âge.
Marie-Denise Grangenois, Septembre 2014
Reaction from Martinique
If it is agreed that the land of Haiti gave and keeps on giving talented writers to the world, the haitian people’s passion for books remains enigmatic. Enigma partly solved in this well researched analysis of Charles Webert on the ‘Livres en folie’ event (‘Madness and the Books’) if we are able to see through this sentence: “ It is as if in Haiti, books were something sacred…The Scripts, holy”.
Let’s accept the idea that the experience of some can open doors to others and let’s observe what happens in this moment of communion with books.
First, ‘Livres en folie’’s initiators are themselves mad about books, their professional activities revolve around it: printers, publishers, they work aside authors and live daily the challenge of publishing books in their country. They know about highs and lows and they trust the encounter of emerging and well established authors; and before introducing foreign authors they are primarily concerned with national production.
Second, ‘Livres en folie’ is supported by benefactors: UniBank and Barbancourt. The entrance is free and there are good deals to be made: the author and the reader both benefit from it.
Finally, if this commercial book fair allows the selling of remaining stock of books, what happens is extremely strong as it is about human exchanges, connections that are established between writers and visitors; it is also about passion, mutual listening and shared recognition.
Despite the growth of the event and its international opening, the soul of the project hasn’t changed, private investors keep on helping and the initiators are supported by participants moved by the same conviction that the power of art can change the world.
It is not only about sweet dreams and fascinating speeches. All have understood the fact that books can only live if we buy them. The financial issue has been accepted and money and art have made their way to a bearable coexistence.
If we were to dream, tomorrow in Martinique maybe not ‘Livres en folie’ but small book markets every week on our bigger markets, flea markets specially dedicated to books, books contests on air at prime time programmes, doors opened to new authors, publishers eligible for zero interest loans in local banks, spaces to exchange books under shelters on beaches and above all, the gift of all the sweetness of words dewed in ink to our children from their tender age.
Marie-Denise Grangenois, September 2014