February 6 - May 31, 2005
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library,
4th Floor
The Howard-Tilton Memorial Library is pleased to announce a special exhibit on Haiti, using materials culled from throughout the Library's collections and especially from the Rare Book and Manuscript Section of The Latin American Library. The exhibit begins in the fourth floor lobby area of the library and continues in the fourth floor exhibit space of The Latin American Library.
This exhibit was originally organized to coincide with Tulane's Fall 2005 Reading Project. The Project's book selection was Tracy Kidder's Mountains beyond Mountains. Incoming Tulane freshmen were asked to read Kidder's inspirational account of Dr. Paul Farmer's efforts to improve public health in Haiti and other poor countries worldwide. The students were then to participate in roundtable discussions about the book during last Fall's orientation in the hope that this shared, campus-wide intellectual dialogue would be the first of many thought-provoking challenges during their academic career in New Orleans.
Hurricane Katrina, however, preempted the opening of this exhibit and the Reading Project's Fall events. Nonetheless, the organizers of the Tulane Reading Project modified last Fall's plan to incorporate readings that addressed various aspects of Katrina's impact on the New Orleans region, keeping in mind the relevancy of Farmer's work in Haiti. As former French colonial possessions and centers of slave economies, Louisiana and Haiti share many cultural characteristics. Furthermore, their respective geographic locations make each vulnerable to destructive hurricanes. These similarities alone merit our greater attention to Louisiana's colonial sister in the Caribbean.
