Gangs in Haiti burn beloved Gothic gingerbread hotel that rose to international fame
Hundreds of Haitians and foreigners mourned the news as it spread across social media, with the hotel manager on Monday confirming the fire on X in a brief comment. Even though gang violence had forced the hotel in Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, to close in recent years, many had hoped it would reopen.
'It birthed so much culture and expression,' said Riva Précil, a Haitian-American singer who grew up in the hotel from age 5 to 15.
In a tearful phone interview, Précil recalled how she learned to swim, dance and sing at the Oloffson.
The attack on the community where the hotel was located began late Saturday, according to James Jean-Louis, who lives above the Oloffson. He told The Associated Press in a phone interview Sunday that he observed the flames as he and other residents were chased out while police and gangs exchanged heavy gunfire.
Among those lamenting the fire was Michael Deibert, author of 'Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,' and 'Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.'
He landed in Miami on Sunday only to open his phone and see a flurry of messages from friends in Haiti.
'When you went to the Oloffson, you really felt you were being connected with Haiti's political and cultural history,' he said. 'You went to Haiti and were never the same. And the Oloffson really captured that.'
'It's our home'
The hotel attracted artists, intellectuals and politicians from Haiti and beyond, including Jacqueline Onassis and Tennessee Williams. It also survived coups, dictatorships and the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Isabelle Morse, daughter of Richard Morse, who became the hotel's manager several decades ago, said he loved having writers, photographers and other artists at the Oloffson.
'His sense of community was very important to him,' she said in a phone interview Monday, describing the hotel as 'his whole life.'
'For him, it represented freedom, where people from all walks of life could come in and share that space,' she said.
Richard Morse did not return a message seeking comment. The renowned band he founded, RAM, posted on X early Monday that the hotel had 'burned to the ground.'
His daughter said her parents had hoped to reopen the Oloffson.
'It's not only a business, it's our home. We were raised there,' she said. 'It was more about moving back home rather than reopening the business.'
Haiti's heritage up in flames
The Oloffson served as a presidential summer palace in the early 1900s and then became a U.S. Marine Corps Hospital before a Swedish sea captain converted it into a hotel in the 1930s.
It also served as inspiration for the fictional Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene's 1966 novel 'The Comedians,' set in Haiti under the brutal dictatorship of Francois Duvalier, best known as 'Papa Doc.'
In real life, tourism dwindled under the Duvaliers, and the hotel became a respite for aid workers and foreign correspondents.
In the late 1980s, Richard Morse became the hotel's manager. His band, RAM, played Haitian roots music on Thursday nights that became legendary, as were the Day of the Dead celebrations known as Fèt Gede that drew in Vodou practitioners.
'It was a vessel for so many people to gather and freely express themselves,' Précil recalled. 'RAM really created that culture and that environment, made it a space that welcomed people from all types of denominations and sexual preferences.'
The Oloffson was nestled in the upscale community of Pacot in the southeast corner of the Port-au-Prince capital. It was surrounded by lush gardens and often described as a mythical place, renowned for its intricate latticework, turrets and spires and creaking parquet floors that characterize Haiti's endangered gingerbread homes.
A 1940s advertisement by Haiti's tourism department said that the hotel was situated 'in the coolest section of the town' and noted that English, French, German and Spanish were spoken there.
The hotel closed in recent years as gangs began raiding and seizing control of once peaceful communities.
'A lot of Haiti's architectural heritage is going up in flames right now with so-called leaders stand by with their hands in their pockets,' Deibert said. 'The destruction of the Oloffson is symbolic of the destruction of Haiti's history and culture that we've been watching over the last several years.'
___
Dánica Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Tomorrowland music festival opens after its main stage was destroyed by a huge fire
BOOM, Belgium (AP) — Fans roared in excitement and organizers sighed with relief as the Tomorrowland music festival kicked off Friday — just two days after a massive fire engulfed the main stage and threw one of Europe's biggest summer concert events into doubt. Workers labored around the clock to clear out the debris from the elaborate backdrop that was consumed in Wednesday's fire. Shouting ''We made it!', the festival's opening performers, Australian electronic music group Nervo, were able to take to the main stage Friday after a last-minute scramble and slight delay. Some charred frames were still visible behind them. No one was hurt in the fire, organizers said. The causes are being investigated. Hundreds of thousands of people from around the world attend Tomorrowland's annual multi-day festival outside the Belgian town of Boom. Some 38,000 people were camping at the festival site Friday, Tomorrowland spokesperson Debby Wilmsen said. ''Maybe there are some few people that say, OK, we would like to have a refund, but it's only like a very small percentage because most of them are still coming to the festival,' she told AP. 'It is all about unity, and I think with a good vibe and a positive energy that our festival-goers give to each other and the music we offer, I think they will still have a good time,″ she said. ''We really tried our best.″ Australian fans Zak Hiscock and Brooke Antoniou — who traveled half the world to see the famed festival as part of a summer holiday in Europe — described hearing about the fire. 'We were sitting having dinner when we actually heard the news of the stage burning down. We were very devastated and shattered, quite upset because we travelled a long way,' Hiscock said. Ukrainian visitor Oleksandr Beshkynskyi shared their joy that the festival went ahead as planned. ''It's not just about the one DJ or two DJs you're looking to see, but about all the mood and about the dream being alive,' Beshkynskyi said. ___ Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Discovery ‘Shark Week' has breaching great whites, looks back at ‘Jaws' and starts with some dancing
NEW YORK (AP) — Fifty years ago, 'Jaws' unlocked dread in millions about man-eating sharks. This summer, that fear may be somewhat reduced as they become contestants on a TV dance show. Former 'Dancing With the Stars' host Tom Bergeron steps up for a marketing masterstroke by Discovery Channel's 'Shark Week' — 'Dancing with Sharks,' where humans and 20-foot-long hammerhead sharks do a little mambo. 'I had a decade and a half experience of hosting a dance show, but this one was different,' Bergeron tells The Associated Press. 'I'd often thought on 'Dancing With the Stars,' wouldn't it be great if we could incorporate another species? And here I've finally got my dream come true.' In the show, five scuba-diving shark handlers use bait to twirl and guide various sharks into mini-waltzes, in what's being billed as 'the world's most dangerous dance competition.' One contestant wraps his arms around a nerf shark and spoons it. Another takes off her air tank and does a double backflip. A third — a hip-hop loving shark handler — does an old school head spin on the ocean floor as sharks swirl. 'These are some of the best shark handlers in the world. These are people who know the nuances of sharks, know how they move, know how to behave, know how to safely move with them, and they're guiding these sharks along as you would a partner,' says Kinga Philipps, a TV correspondent and one of the three judges. 'It is so fluid and beautiful, all they really had to do is put a little bit of music to it and they're actually dancing.' It's a shark-a-thon 'Dancing with Sharks' kicks off the week of programing, which includes shows on how to survive a shark attack, why New Smyrna Beach in Florida has earned the title of 'The Shark Attack Capital of the World' and whether a mysterious dark-skinned shark off the coast of California is a mako, mutant or possibly a mako-and-great white hybrid. The seven nights of new shows — and a related podcast — ends off the Mozambique coast with a once-a-year feeding frenzy that turns into a showdown between the sharks and their massive prey, the giant trevally. One highlight is Paul de Gelder's 'How to Survive a Shark Attack,' which he has intimate knowledge about. He lost his right hand and leg in 2009 during an attack by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor. 'If you're in the jaws of a shark, you want to fight for all of your life. You want to go for the soft parts. You want go for the eyeball. You want to go for the gills,' he says. 'But if you're not being attacked by a shark and you're just encountering a shark, then you just want to remain calm.' De Gelder debunks one myth: Punching a charging shark will stop its attack. 'If you really want to hurt your own hand, go ahead,' he says. A better approach is to not thrash about and gently redirect the animal. 'The secret I got taught many years ago was don't act like food and they won't treat you like food.' 'Shark Week' has become a key part of the summer holiday TV schedule, a place where humans safe on land can see ancient apex predators unnervingly glide into view and snap open their jaws. This year's highlights also include the hunt for a 20-foot great white that can leap into the air — 'Air Jaws: The Hunt for Colossus' — and a show about male and female great whites competing in a series of challenges to determine which sex is the superior predator, naturally called 'Great White Sex Battle.' Joseph Schneier, senior vice president of production and development at Discovery, says the shows are born from listening to what the diving and science community is seeing, like pro divers moving artistically with the sharks as they fed them, leading to 'Dancing With Sharks.' 'We realized, well, there's something here that we can go further with,' he says. 'We're lucky that sharks continue to surprise us. Which helps us get kind of new stories and new things to focus on. That's been the mantra for us — the sharks are the stars, not the humans.' As always, there is a deep respect for the creatures and strong science beneath the amusing titles, sharky puns, dramatic music and racy titles like 'Frankenshark' and 'Alien Sharks: Death Down Under.' 'It's like putting your vegetables in a dessert,' says Bergeron. 'You get all the allure of a 'Dancing With Sharks' or other specific shows, but in the midst of that you do learn a lot about sharks and ecology and the importance of sharks in the ecosystem. It's all in your strawberry sundae.' Discovery's 'Shark Week' has a rival — National Geographic's 'SharkFest,' which also has hours of sharky content. There's also the unconnected shark horror comedy 'Hot Spring Shark Attack' and a movie earlier this summer that added a serial killer to a shark movie — 'Dangerous Animals.' Born from 'Jaws' 'Shark Week' was born as a counterpoint for those who developed a fear of sharks after seeing 'Jaws.' It has emerged as a destination for scientists eager to protect an animal older than trees. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. ''Jaws' helped introduce this country and this world to a predator we're all fascinated with,' says Schneier. 'But we also feel 'Jaws' went too far. These are not creatures that are out to hurt humans by any means, but they have had 50-plus million years of evolution to get to this place where they are just excellent predators. It's fun to celebrate just how good they are at their job.' Kendyl Berna, who co-founded the ecology group Beyond the Reef, and is a veteran on 'Shark Week,' says studying the ancient beasts can teach humans about changes to the planet. 'So much of the programming this year speaks to what's happening with the rest of the world — climate change and how much that affects where sharks are and when they're there and what they're eating,' she says. 'As a keystone apex predator, sharks do set the tone for what's happening.' Bergeron says being a part of 'Shark Week' for the first time and meeting some of the divers who interact with sharks has actually made him braver. 'I don't think I'm at a point where I could go down there with them and have the sharks swirling around me without a cage. But with a cage, I think I am ready to do that,' he says. 'Just don't tell my wife.'
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Zarna Garg treats comedy as a business, not an art form
Social Sharing As a comedian, Zarna Garg thinks of herself as more of an entrepreneur than an artist. After spending 16 years as a stay-at-home mom, Garg felt the need to reinvent herself. She tried a few different ventures (such as a vegan chilli business and a matchmaking service), but none of them stuck. That all changed when her kids encouraged her to try stand-up comedy. "People were like, 'Why are you doing a comedy business at all? There's no money in comedy,'" Garg says in an interview with Q 's Tom Power. "And I realized there's no money in comedy the way American people do it. They set it up like an art form. We do it like a business — the Indians. I put my practical hat on. I was like, 'People want to laugh. I want to trash my mother-in-law. Let's go.'" WATCH | Official trailer for Practical People Win: Now, Garg has released a new stand-up special, Practical People Win, which highlights her unlikely journey into comedy and her business-oriented approach to life. "I came into comedy at 44," she says. "I came in with a life full of responsibilities and obligations. And I have no desire to be viewed as an artist." While Garg describes herself as a practical person, she's also taken some big risks in her life. In her new memoir, This American Woman, she writes about leaving home at 14 following her mother's death to avoid an arranged marriage, which came as an ultimatum from her father. "You have to be serious and build your own life," she tells Power. "I am a very vocal, outspoken supporter of women, in particular, using the M word — money. Because somehow, women and money together have been considered vulgar or crass, as if we don't need money to live…. I learned very early in life that you have to be serious, you have to deliver value to people if you want to build something real. And luckily, I learned how to monetize my trauma." When it's suggested that her comedy must be fulfilling to her on a spiritual level, Garg bristles. "No brown person is trying to fulfill their soul, people, we're just trying to fulfill our stomachs," she quips. "Nourishing my soul wouldn't even occur to me." But after years of feeling directionless and financially insecure, Garg is sincerely grateful to have found a successful path that works for her. "I take a moment now to thank God that I found something," she says. "Also, the reality is that I am the main breadwinner in my family now. My husband lost his job three, four years ago. He is still trying to recover. So, even just from a financial point of view, I'm very grateful that I found something that can pay my bills. And for a woman who was a stay-at-home mom for as long as I was, I didn't think I would ever get here."
