Haitian singer Manno Charlemagne will visit Louisiana this November for a musical residency. Charlemagne is known in his home country as a longtime activist and musical agitator for democracy, and as the one-time mayor of the capitol city of Port Au Prince. The destruction of his home in the January earthquake left him stranded in Miami.

The residency will connect Charlemagne with musicians here in Louisiana. Bernard Pearce of One Man Machine, who organized the residency, hopes Charlemagne will be able to establish a presence here. “I would love to see him find a home, for some record label to work with him and get his music out,” Pearce says.

New Orleans and Haiti have long shared a strong cultural bond, but Charlemagne has a more personal interest in our city. He tells of hearing Louis Armstrong’s voice issuing from his neighbor’s radio as a child. “That beautiful voice was what put me in music,” he says.

Charlemagne will perform with local cellist Helen Gillet on Saturday, November 6 at midnight at Preservation Hall. He will return to New Orleans on Saturday, November 13 as a panelist in the Congo Square Rhythms Festival Symposium and will perform at the festival on the 14th. “I have a lot of history with your music and I will be glad to participate in it,” Charlemagne says.

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