By Darlie Gervais
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Harvey Girard leaned over her delicate pink and inexperienced kite, her small fingers rigorously adorning and urgent down the ultimate strips of paper. As she stood again to admire her creation, her face lit up. Round her, kids with their mother and father buzzed with pleasure, their tables scattered with colourful paper, string, and glue—a vibrant snapshot of tradition and creativity in motion.
The artistic power got here alive on the Brooklyn Kids’s Museum on December 14, the place households gathered for a kite-making workshop organized by the Haiti Cultural Trade in collaboration with Tètpwav Solèy and PwavKAP (Hold Artwork Poppin). The occasion, now in its second yr, supplied a hands-on alternative to discover Haitian heritage by a craft deeply rooted in Haiti and shared throughout the Caribbean.
“I needed to return as a result of I believed I would love it,” Harvey stated with a large smile, watching her kite come collectively.
Mother and father, children, and instructors buzzed with power as colourful paper, string, and glue became vibrant kites. “Kite-making connects households, builds creativity, and teaches fundamental geometry ideas,” stated teacher Solèy who guided members by each stage, from the body’s skeleton to the ultimate creative touches.
As Tètpwav Solèy led the workshop, he took enjoyment of sharing the cultural significance behind the interpretation of “kite” in Haitian Creole. In Haiti, the phrase for “kite” is kap, and the phrase monte kap actually means “flying a kite.” Tètpwav Solèy playfully defined that kap additionally interprets to Kite Atizay Pale, which means “let the artwork converse.” He additional related the act of flying a kite to the spirit of expression and creativity deeply embedded in Haitian tradition.
“It’s not nearly kites,” stated Kinsley Girard, Harvey’s father, initially from Trinidad. “I cherished flying kites as a toddler. Seeing my daughter introduced again these recollections of operating with kites hovering behind me.” For Kinsley, whose spouse Denicia is from St. Lucia, the occasion was a bridge between generations and cultures.
The expertise resonated with Kerron Gilford, who introduced his two sons, Khrystian and child Kyrie, from Upstate New York.
“Flying kites is a part of Guyanese tradition, too,” he stated. “This was an opportunity for my children to discover creativity, connecting to traditions and coming to Brooklyn the place I grew up. Rising up in Brooklyn, I used to be surrounded by Haitian meals and tradition—I really like griot. It feels pure to have my children right here.”
The workshop wasn’t nearly creating—it was about experiencing. Kids eagerly reduce shapes, pasted vibrant patterns, and watched in awe as Tètpwav Solèy helped them craft their masterpieces, utilizing a bit of fabric to make the tail.
The magic second got here when the kids adopted the trainer and took their kites outdoors to the museum’s entrance plaza to fly them or, ‘monte kap,’ as we are saying in Creole.
A brilliant inexperienced kite, dealt with by the trainer, caught the wind first. Children squealed in delight, leaping and cheering because it soared above the museum, fluttering in opposition to the crisp December sky. Across the Brooklyn Kids Museum, kids dashed in each path, their handmade creations bobbing behind them as proud mother and father clapped and smiled.
For a lot of households, it was a day of joyful studying, an opportunity to expertise Haïtian and different Caribbean traditions proper within the coronary heart of Brooklyn.