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Destine’s Caribbean Festival4kIncludes Voodoo And CalypsoPfUNCKTON - Kvcn the w(irdVoodoo was tabu in Haiti until jVeiy recently - conjuring up. m it did. visions ot cataleptic orjies. blood sacrifices and hypnotic riles-jThe young^ handsome Haitian. Jean-Leon Destine (pronounced DestiNAY) has done more to kill this tabu than any other single person - first by his explorations into his native hills and jungles and later by performing true voodoo publicly on stages in the Caribbean. the U.S. and Eurnpt' and. more recently, in films and television.Voolt;ioo the real thing • will 'he presented on the program of the Caribbean F'estival in which Isadora Bennett and Richard Pleasant will present Destine for one ‘special evening only at the McCarter Theatre. Princeton, Tuesday April 23rd. In the famou star's entourage will be his Trinidadian steel band. Calypso singers. Creoledancers and flaiti*s two greatestdrummers *- Cimber and Calvin.Voodoo (more correctly “vo dun**) had its origin in West Af-Irica as a combination of nature and ancestor worship. Brought toDKSTINE teenier) as the Witch Doctor in one of his most famous numbers which will be on the many-faceted program of Caribbean song, rhythm and dance in Jean Leon Uesllne'i Festival of Calypso and Voodoo at the McCarter Theatre, Princeton, for one single performance, Tuesday evening, April Z.1rd, In the Destine* entourage are Creole dancers, his Trinidadian steel band. Calypso singers — and Haiti’s two finest drummers, Cimber Helt in this picture) and Calvin. “Witch Doctor”, starring Destine,' was the subject of the film short of the same name that won awards at the Kdinburgh and Venice Film Festivals.the New World on the slave ships, .with the plundered natives of Pan-American UnioninIvory Coast, Senegal, Dahomey, the Congo, it survived and underwent changes wherever the Afri-ant sects. Voodoo got Us badname through sensalion-monger-ing explorer-journalisU whose exWashington: then staged a H tian W'eek in New York of whic. lha climax was a Destine performancecans were settled and found itsi aggeralion.s and half-truths were at the elegant Ziegfeld Theater highest development both as a taken up by cheap Iiction wnt-jfrom which thousands were religion and as an art in Haiti, erg. While it became synonymous turned away. Bennett Pleasant the home of Destine. The word Americans and Europeans were engaged by the Governmentfor something shudder-making tnd of Haiti to handle the event and evil, among the educated classes jit was at that time that the seetlof the Caribbean it was something; for the special performance atto be regretted, shunned - and Princeton on April 23 was planted, not even mentioned. “Vodun «tself means “god” or “spirit**. The nature gods or “loas” have dominion over the sky. the earth, the sea — and the soul.On behalf of the worshiper, the deified ancestors intervene with the Loas. Above all of these is the Great Master God—the Christian God—for Voodoo does not supplant, but rather supplements Fto man Ctnolicism, the faith of most Haitians. Thus the transplanted peoples of Africa took on arts,tabou*’ (Voodoo i.s tabui said the upper classes of French-speaking Haiti in Destine*s boyhcKxJ - which was not very long ago.Destine, son of a very propnT family, was born in St. Marc where, even as a youngster, helaws and religions fyf the European play hookey from the ( ath-1conquerors of the New W orld and. Brothers follow :wnthout losing their na*'^e inheri-i^^^ peasanU to their ritual spots' tances of religion or rhythm and f^ watch -- and later take part dance, have conformed the two - their celebrations. I’lr^t it was cultures all-night jamborees (“bamNaturally, there have been '‘^lt;^»'lt;^s**) which were gay celehra-excesses in Voodoo - as rh^reDestine who wears hi^ country s highest decoration (he is a Cheva litr of the Ordre National, Hon-neur et Mente is Haiti's AmbaN-sadeur des Arts. Having visif(d and conquered Paris, Madrid, Bru sels and other Europi'an capitals last year.1have been in the religi m sof Europe. the Orient and Americn in all ages -• whether they be Inqui-Fi',!■nIIhtions; later, diffidently, the hill-folk admitted him to the serious religious observances in the forbidden \*oodoo ’HonnidU''^ ”I-ater, when Destine was an undergraduate at Uie Lyrec Faction in F*ort-au-F’rince. he continued his explorations - aided by cthnolii-gist.s and Mme. I.ina Mathon FJIan-chet, a pioneer enthusiast of Halt ian folk*ways. The school-boy who was punished by the Catholic priests as well as his own paants for “juvcnil edelinquency” ^ mw oecame ostracised by his fellow students in the Caital - for h i s lelvmg into “black magic.*'W'hen the glittering Exposii'-m Internationale was staged a fewyears ago to celebrated the Two Hundredth anniversary of the foun*ling of Port-au-Prince, it was you ip Destine who was chocn as over- ii ill artistic director; .so sen.salion- $ il was the international approval c hat the Republic of Haiti brought \ Destine and a troupe folklonque't(fFIf(afrIeI0VC
Newspaper Details
Doylestown Daily Intelligencer
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, US
Thu, Apr 18, 1957
Page 11
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Susun W.
USA 15 Jul 2018
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