Photo: Carl Stevens/WBZ NewsRadio
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — A new collection of art from local Haitian-American artists is on display at Boston City Hall.
The art comes from the group the Haitian Artists Assembly of Massachusetts. Charlot Lucien founded the group 30 years ago and said the exhibit, titled Who We Art, is a celebration
"We are celebrating creativity, we are celebrating beauty, we are celebrating resilience," Lucien said. "Who We Art is telling folks about the real us and not what they may hear either from politicians or from certain corners of the media."
Photo: Carl Stevens/WBZ NewsRadio
The group exhibits some of its art at city hall every year. City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, Boston's first Haitian-American ever elected to the city council, said she remembers the first time she ever saw the exhibit.
"My first day starting here as a city councilor in 2022 I was coming up those escalators and I had all of these feelings," she said. "I was excited, I was nervous, I had all these jitters and then I walk and I see to my left all this Haitian artwork and it really made me feel peace, like this too is my city hall."
Photo: Carl Stevens/WBZ NewsRadio
She hosted the annual reception for the Haitian Artists Assembly of Massachusetts at city hall to debut the new exhibit. Louijeune said this exhibit helps give a voice to the local Haitian-American community.
"Art is often how we express that mixture of joy and struggle, of jubilee and sadness and of continued struggle," she said. "I'm just so happy that I get to be in my third year of helping to cohost this reception."
The exhibit is open from now through the end of February in the Scollay Square Gallery.
WBZ's Carl Stevens (@CarlWBZ) reports.