1925-08-03: (A Bridge — The Death of Georges Sylvain and the Sylvain Sisters’ Procession Through Occupied Port-au-Prince, On August 3 1925 Jeanne Yvonne Made…

1925-08-03: (A Bridge — The Death of Georges Sylvain and the Sylvain Sisters’ Procession Through Occupied Port-au-Prince, On August 3 1925 Jeanne Yvonne Madeleine and Suzanne Sylvain Processing in an Open-Air Caravan Flanked by Their Brothers and Mother Next to Their Father’s Body, Georges Sylvain Having Died the Morning of August 2 and by Sunrise Over a Thousand People Lining the Streets to Mourn the “Apostle of Liberty,” Born in Puerto Plata Dominican Republic in 1866 Sylvain Migrating to Haiti and Later Studying and Transcribing Cric? Crac! Fables de la Fontaine — One of the Earliest and Most Famous Books of Haitian Kreyòl Folktales Celebrating the Nation’s Language and Culture, a Poet Attorney and Founder of the Union Patriotique Who Used Juridical and Lyrical Mediums to Experiment with the Possibilities of Haitian Citizenship): Sanders Johnson opens the first dwelling space — A Bridge — with a death. On August 3, 1925, in an open-air caravan flanked on either side by their brothers and mother, Jeanne, Yvonne, Madeleine, and Suzanne Sylvain processed next to their father’s body. Georges Sylvain died on the morning of August 2, and by the next day’s sunrise over a thousand people lined the streets of Port-au-Prince to mourn the Apostle of Liberty who had sacrificed his life for the liberation of his country. Sylvain did not transition in physical combat or as a victim of wanton violence executed by US military forces. He died with family by his side at his home on Rue Christophe. Born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, in 1866, Sylvain migrated to Haiti at a young age and later studied and transcribed one of the earliest and most famous books of Haitian Kreyòl folktales, Cric? Crac! Fables de la Fontaine. This text celebrated Haiti’s language and culture and accounted for the theory and art of the Haitian narrative form. A poet, an attorney, and a politician — founder of the Union Patriotique — Sylvain used juridical and lyrical mediums to experiment with the possibilities, philosophies, and practices of Haitian citizenship. His daughters, who would carry the LFAS into existence a decade later, walked beside his body through the streets of a city still under foreign occupation, absorbing what no classroom could teach: the weight of a nation’s grief channeled through a single family’s loss.