Liliane Nérette Louis interview, September 16, 2013

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Liliane Nérette Louis interview, September 16, 2013

Liliane Nérette Louis grew up in a large family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, as the daughter of a doctor. When she was a child, her mother used to sit down with the children in the evenings and tell stories in Haitian Creole. As she grew older, Louis herself began to tell the stories to her seven younger siblings and then later to her own three children. She begins all her engaging stories with a traditional formula: "Kric krak. We used to start the all the Haitian kont with krik, and the people listening to the kont will say krak." Louis fled the Duvalier regime by moving to New York in 1964. Looking for a better climate, she settled in Miami in 1977. Louis earned a B.A. in Professional Studies and an M.A. in Human Resource Development and Administration from Barry University. Before retiring from Jackson Memorial Hospital in 1999, she worked for many years as a Health Information Manager. Since the 1980s, she regularly performs the tales at festivals, schools, and other events. Louis has served twice as a Master Artist in the Florida Folklife Apprenticeship Program, and sje has won the Florida Individual Artist Fellowship in Folk Arts twice. She also wrote When Night Falls, Kric! Krak! Haitian Folktales (1999). Louis is also an extremely accomplished cook, frequently offering Haitian cooking courses through Miami-Dade College and other institutions, and is very knowledgeable about the use of plants in Haitian culture. Interviewer: Lucrèce Louisdhon-Louinis Pembroke Pines, FL