On Monday, Haitian Americans like Lucien will be one step closer to this vision during the groundbreaking of the Toussaint Louverture Cultural Center, which is slated to open in the North End later this year. It will serve as a meeting place for community organizations to gather and artists to hone their craft, and as a tourist spot for travelers looking to learn more about Haitian culture.
“This is a first-of-a-kind opportunity for not just Haitians, but fellow Bostonians and people within the region to forge city, state, and even international partnerships,” said Dr. Elizabeth Farrah Louis, a Massachusetts General Hospital psychologist who co-chairs the cultural center’s executive committee.
In the late 18th century, Toussaint Louverture was a formerly enslaved man-turned-general who, in Haiti, led the only successful slave revolt in modern history.
The cultural center’s groundbreaking comes at a pivotal time as thousands of Haitian migrants fleeing humanitarian crises in their home country are arriving in the Greater Boston area at rapid speed. The ongoing unrest has pushed the existing infrastructure to its limits as political, religious, and community leaders scramble to meet the immediate needs of new arrivals. From October 2022 to September 2023, Haitians made up three in four migrants logged in state records, but the numbers are likely much larger. Thus, advocates of the Toussaint Louverture Cultural Center say the influx of Haitian migrants makes the space’s opening even more significant — as a physical reminder of what the nation’s third-largest Haitian community has to offer to Boston.
“What currently is a part of the public narrative in Boston is migrants coming and taking up housing and space and resources in the city,” said Aisha Revolus, a member of the space’s executive committee. “But at this cultural center, we’re going to provide. We’re changing the narrative.”
The Haitian community’s history in Greater Boston spans decades. They have come in waves since at least the late ‘50s, when wealthier families and students fleeing François “Papa Doc” Duvalier’s rule resettled in the metropolitan area. The 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act helped more Haitians emigrate from their home country, and thousands have arrived in Boston in the decades since. Nearly 29,000 Bostonians reported Haitian ancestry as of 2021, according to a Boston Planning and Development Agency analysis of census data.
Despite their long-lasting imprint on the region, their access to political, economic, and social power has only recently materialized, said at-large City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, the first Haitian American elected to Boston City Council, in 2021.
“Better late than never,” Louijeune said. “Physical infrastructure will continue to fortify the infrastructure of the diaspora, and hopefully, this center will help us get there.”
The idea of a cultural center spans several years, but it started to become a reality when, in 2016, the Boston Planning and Development Agency, or BPDA, searched for a civic organization to occupy a 2,000-square-foot brick-and-mortar space at the Lovejoy Wharf luxury condominiums.
The successful BPDA bid comes with a free 25-year lease, to be renewed every five years, and a $50,000 grant for renovations.
Louis said about a quarter of the center will be a visitor’s space with information about Boston’s Haitian community. The rest of the site will include a conference room, cafe, function hall, library, and gift shop.
Lucien, an executive committee member, and Louis said the group set a $250,000 fund-raising goal for its first year. It has collected $18,000 so far, on top of the grant that came from the bid.
“We have to fund-raise for positions like the executive director, program director, and other sort of staff,” Louis said.
Located at 131 Beverly St., at the juncture of Boston’s North End and West End neighborhoods, the Toussaint Louverture Cultural Center will have “huge exposure to tourists,” Lucien said. It will be a four-minute walk for Celtics and Bruins fans attending games at TD Garden, concertgoers and clubbers at Big Night Live, and Amtrak and MBTA commuters at North Station.
Its location will not only help them generate consistent revenue to keep the center’s doors open but also “engage the neighborhood on who we are as Haitian Americans,” Lucien said.
Revolus, who works in communications full time, said the hub will be important for non-Haitians to learn about the country’s rich history; and it will teach generations of their own community about themselves, too.
Revolus, 25, went through Boston Public Schools where Haiti’s contributions were a footnote in her textbooks, and many students were ashamed of being Haitian because of the negative stereotypes that people place on her community.
But through volunteering her communications and graphics skills to the cultural center’s committee, she’s learned from Haitian elders about historical moments like war hero General Francois Capois’ displays of valor in the Haitian Revolution, or demonstrators’ symbolic toss of a Christopher Columbus statue into Port-au-Prince’s harbor.
“My hope is that people like me who are younger can connect with other young folks from Haiti and across the diaspora to talk about our shared heritage and culture,” she said.
The upcoming cultural center follows other Haitian-focused organizations that have popped up in Boston in recent decades. The Haitian Multi-Services Center opened in Dorchester in the late ‘70s to help immigrants secure housing, boost literacy, and find work. Perhaps more well known is the Immigrant Family Services Institute along Blue Hill Avenue, which has led the local response to Haiti’s ongoing unrest. But most of these places’ primary mission is to provide wraparound services to Haitian immigrants, to help newcomers get on their feet.
“Of course, we still need places that respond to these needs,” Lucien said. “But we now need a place that is promoting who we are.”
Tiana Woodard is a Report for America corps member covering Black neighborhoods. She can be reached at tiana.woodard@globe.com. Follow her @tianarochon.
