Sojourner Truth Radio

Today on Sojourner Truth:

We continue coverage of our recent trip to Haiti, where the Sojourner Truth team covered the graduation of students from the University of the Aristide Foundation, known as UNIFA. Also, we visited La Saline, in Haiti's Port-au-Prince, where residents say the worst massacre since the brutal Duvalier years took place. The massacres began in November 2018 and are continuing. They are being wrongly reported by mainstream media as resulting from gang warfare and we are told they occur with the knowledge and support of the U.S.-backed Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Our guests are Judith Mirkinson, President of the National Lawyers Guild in the Bay Area, and Seth Donnelly, a human rights campaigner and teacher in Palo Alto, California. They were part of a human rights delegation to Haiti. We spoke to them while on the ground in Haiti about their experiences.

Also, we celebrate National Poetry Month, which is marked in April annually in the United States and Canada. The Academy of American Poets kicked off the month-long celebration in 1996 in order to create awareness and appreciation of poetry. They took inspiration from Black History Month, which is celebrated in February, and Women's History Month, which is celebrated in March. The push to promote National Poetry Month " including the works of Black Women poets like Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks " has proven to be successful. Many educators and librarians in the United States have embraced the initiative, including it in their school curriculums and lesson plans. And according to a 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts conducted by the National Endowment of the Arts, the number of poetry readers in the United States has nearly doubled in the past five years, from 6.7 percent of U.S. adults in 2012 to nearly 12 percent in 2017. That means 28 million people read a poem in 2017, the highest number since the first survey was first conducted 16 years ago.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we hear from Ron Baca, a teacher and Chicano poet who grew up in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles and is now based in El Sereno, East Los Angeles.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

We continue coverage of our recent trip to Haiti, where the Sojourner Truth team covered the graduation of students from the University of the Aristide Foundation, known as UNIFA. Also, we visited La Saline, in Haiti's Port-au-Prince, where residents say the worst massacre since the brutal Duvalier years took place. The massacres began in November 2018 and are continuing. They are being wrongly reported by mainstream media as resulting from gang warfare and we are told they occur with the knowledge and support of the U.S.-backed Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Our guests are Judith Mirkinson, President of the National Lawyers Guild in the Bay Area, and Seth Donnelly, a human rights campaigner and teacher in Palo Alto, California. They were part of a human rights delegation to Haiti. We spoke to them while on the ground in Haiti about their experiences.

Also, we celebrate National Poetry Month, which is marked in April annually in the United States and Canada. The Academy of American Poets kicked off the month-long celebration in 1996 in order to create awareness and appreciation of poetry. They took inspiration from Black History Month, which is celebrated in February, and Women's History Month, which is celebrated in March. The push to promote National Poetry Month " including the works of Black Women poets like Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks " has proven to be successful. Many educators and librarians in the United States have embraced the initiative, including it in their school curriculums and lesson plans. And according to a 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts conducted by the National Endowment of the Arts, the number of poetry readers in the United States has nearly doubled in the past five years, from 6.7 percent of U.S. adults in 2012 to nearly 12 percent in 2017. That means 28 million people read a poem in 2017, the highest number since the first survey was first conducted 16 years ago.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we hear from Ron Baca, a teacher and Chicano poet who grew up in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles and is now based in El Sereno, East Los Angeles.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

We continue coverage of our recent trip to Haiti, where the Sojourner Truth team covered the graduation of students from the University of the Aristide Foundation, known as UNIFA. Also, we visited La Saline, in Haiti's Port-au-Prince, where residents say the worst massacre since the brutal Duvalier years took place. The massacres began in November 2018 and are continuing. They are being wrongly reported by mainstream media as resulting from gang warfare and we are told they occur with the knowledge and support of the U.S.-backed Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Our guests are Judith Mirkinson, President of the National Lawyers Guild in the Bay Area, and Seth Donnelly, a human rights campaigner and teacher in Palo Alto, California. They were part of a human rights delegation to Haiti. We spoke to them while on the ground in Haiti about their experiences.

Also, we celebrate National Poetry Month, which is marked in April annually in the United States and Canada. The Academy of American Poets kicked off the month-long celebration in 1996 in order to create awareness and appreciation of poetry. They took inspiration from Black History Month, which is celebrated in February, and Women's History Month, which is celebrated in March. The push to promote National Poetry Month " including the works of Black Women poets like Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks " has proven to be successful. Many educators and librarians in the United States have embraced the initiative, including it in their school curriculums and lesson plans. And according to a 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts conducted by the National Endowment of the Arts, the number of poetry readers in the United States has nearly doubled in the past five years, from 6.7 percent of U.S. adults in 2012 to nearly 12 percent in 2017. That means 28 million people read a poem in 2017, the highest number since the first survey was first conducted 16 years ago.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we hear from Ron Baca, a teacher and Chicano poet who grew up in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles and is now based in El Sereno, East Los Angeles.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

We continue coverage of our recent trip to Haiti, where the Sojourner Truth team covered the graduation of students from the University of the Aristide Foundation, known as UNIFA. Also, we visited La Saline, in Haiti's Port-au-Prince, where residents say the worst massacre since the brutal Duvalier years took place. The massacres began in November 2018 and are continuing. They are being wrongly reported by mainstream media as resulting from gang warfare and we are told they occur with the knowledge and support of the U.S.-backed Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Our guests are Judith Mirkinson, President of the National Lawyers Guild in the Bay Area, and Seth Donnelly, a human rights campaigner and teacher in Palo Alto, California. They were part of a human rights delegation to Haiti. We spoke to them while on the ground in Haiti about their experiences.

Also, we celebrate National Poetry Month, which is marked in April annually in the United States and Canada. The Academy of American Poets kicked off the month-long celebration in 1996 in order to create awareness and appreciation of poetry. They took inspiration from Black History Month, which is celebrated in February, and Women's History Month, which is celebrated in March. The push to promote National Poetry Month " including the works of Black Women poets like Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks " has proven to be successful. Many educators and librarians in the United States have embraced the initiative, including it in their school curriculums and lesson plans. And according to a 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts conducted by the National Endowment of the Arts, the number of poetry readers in the United States has nearly doubled in the past five years, from 6.7 percent of U.S. adults in 2012 to nearly 12 percent in 2017. That means 28 million people read a poem in 2017, the highest number since the first survey was first conducted 16 years ago.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we hear from Ron Baca, a teacher and Chicano poet who grew up in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles and is now based in El Sereno, East Los Angeles.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

We continue coverage of our recent trip to Haiti, where the Sojourner Truth team covered the graduation of students from the University of the Aristide Foundation, known as UNIFA. Also, we visited La Saline, in Haiti's Port-au-Prince, where residents say the worst massacre since the brutal Duvalier years took place. The massacres began in November 2018 and are continuing. They are being wrongly reported by mainstream media as resulting from gang warfare and we are told they occur with the knowledge and support of the U.S.-backed Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Our guests are Judith Mirkinson, President of the National Lawyers Guild in the Bay Area, and Seth Donnelly, a human rights campaigner and teacher in Palo Alto, California. They were part of a human rights delegation to Haiti. We spoke to them while on the ground in Haiti about their experiences.

Also, we celebrate National Poetry Month, which is marked in April annually in the United States and Canada. The Academy of American Poets kicked off the month-long celebration in 1996 in order to create awareness and appreciation of poetry. They took inspiration from Black History Month, which is celebrated in February, and Women's History Month, which is celebrated in March. The push to promote National Poetry Month " including the works of Black Women poets like Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Gwendolyn Brooks " has proven to be successful. Many educators and librarians in the United States have embraced the initiative, including it in their school curriculums and lesson plans. And according to a 2017 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts conducted by the National Endowment of the Arts, the number of poetry readers in the United States has nearly doubled in the past five years, from 6.7 percent of U.S. adults in 2012 to nearly 12 percent in 2017. That means 28 million people read a poem in 2017, the highest number since the first survey was first conducted 16 years ago.

In honor of National Poetry Month, we hear from Ron Baca, a teacher and Chicano poet who grew up in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles and is now based in El Sereno, East Los Angeles.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

Our team was on the ground in Haiti. Today, we continue our series of coverage. We will bring you the story of tortures and massacres in La Saline. A story reported to be about gang warfare. But, as you will hear in today's report, that is far from the reality of what's going on in La Saline.

What we witnessed and recorded and are reporting on this exclusive today is an extreme humanitarian and human rights crisis and tragedy little known to the world. Ironically, the road leading up to La Saline is named "Crossroads Newly From Africa" in Haitian Kreyol. It was the road close to the port where enslaved Africans were bought and sold.

We visited La Saline, a part of impoverished Port-au-Prince, that has historically been a center of resistance going back to the Haitian Revolution of 1804. Today, it is a stronghold of support for Lavalas, the popular party headed by former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The massacres have been the largest in Haiti since the July 23, 1987 massacre of peasants under the Duvalier dictatorship. Evidence shows that perpetrators of the massacres have a cozy relationship and backing from the present Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Indeed, the methods used to torture and kill are reminiscent of the brutal Duvalier days. People are hacked to death. They're burned alive. Their bodies are left on the street to be eaten by wild pigs and dogs.

It was jarring to hear the stories of the victims. And a reminder: this is happening after a 15-year U.N. occupation of Haiti and under a U.S.-backed regime. The recent mass protests that spread across Haiti were initiated in La Saline. Survivors of the La Saline massacres say they are a pointed attempt to use torture, killings and fear to dampen mass protests, using the people of La Saline as examples to protesters demanding Moise step down. They're also demanding to "overturn the cauldron," meaning ending the entire system of corruption and greed. In the lead up to the massacres, the wife of Moise went to La Saline, distributed money widely and met with the local community leader, reportedly in an attempt to corrupt that leader. Residents took the money, but by the end of her visit, it was clear La Saline residents would not support the Moise government and that they intended to continue their protests.

The Sojourner Truth team went to La Saline and video taped and recorded its residents telling their story.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

Our team was on the ground in Haiti. Today, we continue our series of coverage. We will bring you the story of tortures and massacres in La Saline. A story reported to be about gang warfare. But, as you will hear in today's report, that is far from the reality of what's going on in La Saline.

What we witnessed and recorded and are reporting on this exclusive today is an extreme humanitarian and human rights crisis and tragedy little known to the world. Ironically, the road leading up to La Saline is named "Crossroads Newly From Africa" in Haitian Kreyol. It was the road close to the port where enslaved Africans were bought and sold.

We visited La Saline, a part of impoverished Port-au-Prince, that has historically been a center of resistance going back to the Haitian Revolution of 1804. Today, it is a stronghold of support for Lavalas, the popular party headed by former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The massacres have been the largest in Haiti since the July 23, 1987 massacre of peasants under the Duvalier dictatorship. Evidence shows that perpetrators of the massacres have a cozy relationship and backing from the present Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Indeed, the methods used to torture and kill are reminiscent of the brutal Duvalier days. People are hacked to death. They're burned alive. Their bodies are left on the street to be eaten by wild pigs and dogs.

It was jarring to hear the stories of the victims. And a reminder: this is happening after a 15-year U.N. occupation of Haiti and under a U.S.-backed regime. The recent mass protests that spread across Haiti were initiated in La Saline. Survivors of the La Saline massacres say they are a pointed attempt to use torture, killings and fear to dampen mass protests, using the people of La Saline as examples to protesters demanding Moise step down. They're also demanding to "overturn the cauldron," meaning ending the entire system of corruption and greed. In the lead up to the massacres, the wife of Moise went to La Saline, distributed money widely and met with the local community leader, reportedly in an attempt to corrupt that leader. Residents took the money, but by the end of her visit, it was clear La Saline residents would not support the Moise government and that they intended to continue their protests.

The Sojourner Truth team went to La Saline and video taped and recorded its residents telling their story.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

Our team was on the ground in Haiti. Today, we continue our series of coverage. We will bring you the story of tortures and massacres in La Saline. A story reported to be about gang warfare. But, as you will hear in today's report, that is far from the reality of what's going on in La Saline.

What we witnessed and recorded and are reporting on this exclusive today is an extreme humanitarian and human rights crisis and tragedy little known to the world. Ironically, the road leading up to La Saline is named "Crossroads Newly From Africa" in Haitian Kreyol. It was the road close to the port where enslaved Africans were bought and sold.

We visited La Saline, a part of impoverished Port-au-Prince, that has historically been a center of resistance going back to the Haitian Revolution of 1804. Today, it is a stronghold of support for Lavalas, the popular party headed by former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The massacres have been the largest in Haiti since the July 23, 1987 massacre of peasants under the Duvalier dictatorship. Evidence shows that perpetrators of the massacres have a cozy relationship and backing from the present Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Indeed, the methods used to torture and kill are reminiscent of the brutal Duvalier days. People are hacked to death. They're burned alive. Their bodies are left on the street to be eaten by wild pigs and dogs.

It was jarring to hear the stories of the victims. And a reminder: this is happening after a 15-year U.N. occupation of Haiti and under a U.S.-backed regime. The recent mass protests that spread across Haiti were initiated in La Saline. Survivors of the La Saline massacres say they are a pointed attempt to use torture, killings and fear to dampen mass protests, using the people of La Saline as examples to protesters demanding Moise step down. They're also demanding to "overturn the cauldron," meaning ending the entire system of corruption and greed. In the lead up to the massacres, the wife of Moise went to La Saline, distributed money widely and met with the local community leader, reportedly in an attempt to corrupt that leader. Residents took the money, but by the end of her visit, it was clear La Saline residents would not support the Moise government and that they intended to continue their protests.

The Sojourner Truth team went to La Saline and video taped and recorded its residents telling their story.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

Our team was on the ground in Haiti. Today, we continue our series of coverage. We will bring you the story of tortures and massacres in La Saline. A story reported to be about gang warfare. But, as you will hear in today's report, that is far from the reality of what's going on in La Saline.

What we witnessed and recorded and are reporting on this exclusive today is an extreme humanitarian and human rights crisis and tragedy little known to the world. Ironically, the road leading up to La Saline is named "Crossroads Newly From Africa" in Haitian Kreyol. It was the road close to the port where enslaved Africans were bought and sold.

We visited La Saline, a part of impoverished Port-au-Prince, that has historically been a center of resistance going back to the Haitian Revolution of 1804. Today, it is a stronghold of support for Lavalas, the popular party headed by former President Jean Bertrand Aristide. The massacres have been the largest in Haiti since the July 23, 1987 massacre of peasants under the Duvalier dictatorship. Evidence shows that perpetrators of the massacres have a cozy relationship and backing from the present Haitian government of Jovenel Moise. Indeed, the methods used to torture and kill are reminiscent of the brutal Duvalier days. People are hacked to death. They're burned alive. Their bodies are left on the street to be eaten by wild pigs and dogs.

It was jarring to hear the stories of the victims. And a reminder: this is happening after a 15-year U.N. occupation of Haiti and under a U.S.-backed regime. The recent mass protests that spread across Haiti were initiated in La Saline. Survivors of the La Saline massacres say they are a pointed attempt to use torture, killings and fear to dampen mass protests, using the people of La Saline as examples to protesters demanding Moise step down. They're also demanding to "overturn the cauldron," meaning ending the entire system of corruption and greed. In the lead up to the massacres, the wife of Moise went to La Saline, distributed money widely and met with the local community leader, reportedly in an attempt to corrupt that leader. Residents took the money, but by the end of her visit, it was clear La Saline residents would not support the Moise government and that they intended to continue their protests.

The Sojourner Truth team went to La Saline and video taped and recorded its residents telling their story.

Today on Sojourner Truth:

We've been on the ground in Haiti's capital city, Port-au-Prince. Today, we bring you the first of our in-depth reports.

There has been a long struggle for access to education in Haiti. Following the Haitian Revolution that defeated the French Army and established the first Black republic in the world " leading the way for the ending of slavery in the Americas " in order to trade internationally, Haiti was forced to pay reparations to France. This, for the cost of the revolution as well as for the loss of their slave labor. Haiti continued to pay reparations until after World War 2. Due to that, as well as decades of economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., Haiti was denied the necessary resources to build needed infrastructure in schools. So, for much of its history, it was only Haiti's elite that had access to school.

So, it was particularly significant that on Sunday, March 31, we were able to attend the graduation of the University of the Aristide Foundation, known as UNIFA. The graduates included students from the schools of medicine, nursing, physical therapy and law. In a packed auditorium with overflowed crowds, parents, family members and loved ones gathered. This was more than a graduation. It represented a remarkable milestone.

You will hear the words of student leaders, Dr. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, faculty and also an exclusive interview with Mildred Aristide, the former first lady of Haiti and a member of the Board of Governors of UNIFA.