Tonight kicks off the 7th annual Patois International Human Rights Film Festival, which will be screening films around New Orleans through Sunday, March 21. To kick off the festival, a benefit concert for the relief efforts of Partners in Health in Haiti is being held at Maison on Frenchmen St. The show will be hosted by local rapper Truth Universal and Valery Jean, and will feature a large lineup of mostly local artists, including Slangston Hughes and Blaze the Verbal Chemist, Luther Grey and Bamboula 2000, DJ EF Cuttin, Bzy Bee, the I’voire Spectacle Dance Troupe, Skipp Coon of Jackson, Mississippi, E-PROPS of Haiti and New York and Wise Intelligent from New York.

The concert starts at 8 p.m. and tickets are $8.

The full schedule for the Patois Film Festival is available here. The first film screening is Friday night, when the documentary Freedom Riders will be shown at Warren Easton High School.