Concert by Haitian band Boukman Eksperyans to benefit Florida monument construction

The Miami Herald, by Jacqueline Charles, Friday, 08.03.12

Efforts by the Haitian-American Historical Society to construct a monument in St. Augustine honoring a former slave-turned-revolutionary and decorated Spanish general is getting some help.

(Photo: Theodore “Lolo” Beaubrun, 47, member of the Grammy-nominated Haitian group Boukman Eksperyans. by CARL JUSTE)

Haiti’s Grammy-nominated group Boukman Eksperyans and Bel Jazz will perform at 7 p.m. Saturday, August 11, at the Littman Theater in North Miami Beach, 17011 NE 19th Ave. Cost is $20.

The concert will benefit the Georges “Jorge” Biassou Monument project in St. Augustine by the Haitian-American Historical Society. Born in 1741 in Saint-Domingue, present-day Haiti, Biassou was a leader in the Haitian revolution against the French. He became a decorated Spanish general and eventually moved to St. Augustine, then part of the Spanish colony of Cuba, in 1796. There, Biassou was put in charge of a black militia. He died in 1801 and was buried in Tolomato Cemetery on Cordova Street.

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