Overview:
Brooklyn-based Haitian American placemaker Stephanie Pierre has opened Kafou, a Haitian art-inspired gallery in East Flatbush, that includes seven artists exploring themes of house, place, migration and identification. The gallery operates on a community-centered mannequin, charging artists a lowered fee in alternate for his or her energetic involvement in managing and selling their very own work.
Kafou, a brand new gallery rooted in Haitian and Diaspora artwork, opened in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, final month and has already prolonged its inaugural exhibition. Haitian American neighborhood developer Stephanie Pierre based the gallery, which hosted its opening reception on April 16, 2026. The occasion drew sufficient public curiosity to increase the debut present, “House as Place,” via Might 17.
Fellow artist Roy Clement impressed the gallery’s title when he casually referred to the house as kafou, a crossroads in Haitian Creole, after somebody requested what it needs to be known as.
The house goals to function precisely that — a crossroads and gathering place amid a quickly altering Brooklyn that continues to shift energy dynamics and displace households. When guests enter, they instantly see a transparent assertion of the gallery’s function.
“A House can solely be measured — till it’s assigned a that means. At that second of conversion, an bizarre house turns into a Place: the factor that provides our shared actuality definition and depth.”
The quote, mounted on the gallery wall, greeted guests as they entered. Pierre bolstered that message by guiding attendees via the house and explaining the importance of every piece.
Featured artists included ceramic sculptor Bianca Allen; artivist Marie Medijne Antoine; interdisciplinary photographer Jordan Dubreuil; photographers Wilfrid Ignace, Richard Louissant and Claire Saintil; and political artist Zarita Zevallos.
The gallery inspired energetic engagement, with a number of works commenting on the violence in Port-au-Prince and the displacement that has compelled many individuals emigrate. In Zevallos’ “Manifestasyon,” a tire — generally set on fireplace throughout protests to disrupt every day life — frames a sheet spilling outward, evoking the luggage many Haitians use to pack belongings and flee to security.
Their work spanned images, acrylic portray and sculpture, providing views on migration from Haiti and the expertise of womanhood.
Bodeline “Bo” Dautruche, a Brooklyn native and recipient of Lakou Nou’s Artist Residency attended on the primary public day.
“I actually loved the present as a result of it speaks to the creativity of Blackness and Black individuals, and on this case particularly Haitian individuals,” she stated. “How we will take something, any scenario, any house, and create one thing stunning irrespective of the circumstance. When sure histories and realities attempt to write us out, we write ourselves each single time.”
Pierre sat down with The Haitian Occasions the next Saturday at her studio as a playlist of Black diaspora music — opening with Boukman Eksperyans and ending with Wyclef — performed within the background.
A product of East Flatbush who attended Clara Barton Excessive Faculty simply miles from the place Kafou now stands, Pierre constructed her profession in neighborhood improvement, not the artwork world. However when a trainer as soon as requested her what she needed to be, her reply was easy: “the exception to the rule.”
Opening Kafou, she says, feels just like the fullest expression of that.
“I feel my duty as a curator, gallery proprietor, and placemaker — it’s my duty to carry this place and myself as authentically as potential.”
Pierre didn’t initially plan to open a gallery. Whereas taking yoga lessons close by, a pal requested her to scout the vacant room subsequent door as a possible movie location. The house stayed along with her. Later, when the homeowners supplied her the lease — with paintings from a earlier tenant nonetheless hanging on the partitions — Pierre accepted regardless of having no formal background in artwork or curation.
Her enterprise mannequin units Kafou other than the beginning. Whereas most galleries take a 50 p.c fee, Pierre fees 30 p.c, on the situation that artists tackle a share of the executive and promotional work.
“I don’t should take 50 p.c from you, however I’m going to require extra of you as a result of you need to be investing the time in shifting your individual work,” she stated. “It will assist construct abilities that you could take anyplace. The artists are going to depart with greater than solely promoting their work.”
Pierre additionally plans to accomplice with native companies to offer artists broader visibility and to host workshop days the place artists can get structured suggestions on their work, an extension of the community-building she has practiced all through her profession.
She is equally clear-eyed in regards to the self-discipline that sort of work requires.
“If you don’t take the time to vet your companions, to vet your alternatives, even the individuals placing you onto alternatives, it’s going to harm you,” she stated. “I don’t wish to make it tremendous ‘businessy’ however there’s nonetheless an order to issues.”
Pierre has embarked upon one other second of being “the exception to the rule”, creating new guidelines and alluring others to do the identical.