Lakou NOU – OUR Yard: Artist-led Community Sustainability and Social Engagement + Cultivating DC through Permacounterculture

This session will feature two presentations:

Lakou NOU – OUR Yard: Artist-led Community Sustainability and Social Engagement
Regine Roumain, Executive Director of Haiti Cultural Exchange; Veroneque Ignace, Programs Coordinator of Haiti Cultural Exchange and 2016 Lakou NOU Resident; Diane Exavier, 2017 Lakou NOU Resident; Erika Pettersen, Development and Fundraising Director of Haiti Cultural Exchange

Haitian culture provides a valuable framework for creating collective responsibility amongst neighbors: the Lakou. Former slaves created this communal living system in resistance to the racial and class divides perpetuated by colonial plantations. Through Lakou NOU – “OUR Yard” in Haitian Creole – Haiti Cultural Exchange adapts this traditional model toward uniting diverse community members in Brooklyn around a shared sense of community and mutual aims through neighborhood artist “residencies.”

Cultivating DC through Permacounterculture
Naoko Wowsugi, Nicole Dowd, Sarah O’Donoghue, and Joseph Shaikewitz (moderator)

Taking its namesake from ‘permaculture’—an ecological approach characterized by ethical self-sufficiency—“Permacounterculture” synthesized punk music, urban farming, and diverse communities to advocate for food justice in rapidly gentrifying Washington DC. Through an introduction of the project, its collaborative processes, and its community-driven outcomes, the team will discuss how the work catalyzed local subcultures in addition to strategies for supporting sustainable social practices.