HaitiFest to be held in Columbia, Maryland, on Sunday, Jan. 22
HaitiFest will take place on Sunday, Jan. 22 from 3:30 to 5:30pm at Slayton House, 10400 Cross Fox Lane in the Wilde Lake Village Center. The event is being held in collaboration with The Build Haiti Foundation and CA’s Cap-Haitien Sister City Committee.All are welcome at this free event. Haitian and Caribbean dress is encouraged. The program will include Haitian music, dance and drum performances, art displays, book signings, and information on The Build Haiti Foundation’s Global Leadership Program, which will send teens and adults to Haiti in July 2017.
Cap-Haitien is a community of about 190,000 people on Haiti’s northern coast. It is home to the Palace of Sans Souci and the buildings at Ramiers and the Citadel, which together have been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Howard County, meanwhile, is home to a large Haitian and Caribbean diaspora. Cap-Haitien is Columbia’s fourth sister city, joining Cergy-Pontoise, France (a sister city to Columbia since 1977); Tres Cantos, Spain (since 1990); and Tema, Ghana (since 2014).
The new sister city relationship will provide opportunities to Columbia residents for cultural enrichment, educational exchanges, business relationships and humanitarian contributions. Cap-Haitien is relatively close to the United States, with direct flights to its airport from Miami. It was not directly impacted by the 2010 earthquake that devastated the country’s capital of Port-au-Prince, nor was it harmed by Hurricane Matthew, which destroyed much of southwest Haiti.
A snow date for HaitiFest has been set for Sunday, Feb. 5 from 3:30 to 5:30pm at Slayton House. For additional information, please contact Laura Smit, program manager for CA’s International Exchange and Multicultural Programs, by calling 410-715-3162 or sending an email to International@
CA’s International Exchange and Multicultural Programs foster international understanding and celebrate the diverse cultures of Columbia. The goals of the International Exchange Program include developing new exchanges with Columbia’s four sister cities and creating new sister city relationships in other cities and nations. CA also develops multicultural programs for the community such as the World Languages Café, Culture Fests and the International Book Club. For more information, go to columbiaassociation.org/multicultural.
Columbia Association (CA) is a nonprofit community services corporation that manages Columbia, Maryland, a planned community that is home to approximately 100,000 people and several thousand businesses. Additional information about CA is available at columbiaassociation.org.
