We’re old enough to remember Félix Morisseau-Leroy and Harry Smith sitting in Allen Ginsberg’s kitchen, in the Spring of 1991, late at night, swapping stories, two old men, curiously delighting in each others company.
Félix Morisseau-Leroy (1912-1998) was a Haitian poet, a heroic figure, a playwright and story-teller, he wrote principally in Haitian Créole, the first significant writer to do so.
‘The Creole Renaissance is your legacy, Morisseau, wrote fellow Haitian writer, Paul Laraque, ‘You were its pioneer, you are its center-pole”
He, virtually single-handedly, established Créole as a legitimate literary language. He struggled, successfully, to make it the literary, educational, and official language of Haiti.
Beginning with Dyakout and Antigòn an Kreyòl (the Créole Antigone, which was performed in Port-au-Prince in 1953 and at the Theater of Nations in Paris in 1959)
Here he is in 1957, speaking of the importance of Créole in Haiti:
Here is his detailed 1983 note for UNESCO on “The Awakening of Créole Consciousness”
Read Jared Spears extensive essay and overview of Morrisseau-Leroy’s life and achievement – here
Listen to a radio profile by Steven Malagodi and Jeffrey Knapp – Félix Morisseau-Leroy – A Portrait of the Poet – here
Here’s Geoffrey Philip‘s memories of Morisseau-Leroy
Here’s a brief note on him at the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History & Culture
Felix Morisseau-Leroy reflecting on his Haitian identity back in 1992: