1936-09: (The Letter to Marie-Madeleine Price-Mars — Perez Writing to Her Niece Marie-Madeleine Price-Mars Inviting Her to One Day Climb the Steep Slope of B…

1936-09: (The Letter to Marie-Madeleine Price-Mars — Perez Writing to Her Niece Marie-Madeleine Price-Mars Inviting Her to One Day Climb the Steep Slope of Bonnet-à-l’Évêque to Commune with Their Ancestors, Instructing Her to Stop at the Foot of the Respected Dungeon Raise Her Head and Watch the Heroic Dream of a Black Heart Written in Those High Steps — “A Feeling That You’ve Never Known Will Humble You — Like the Fatherland the Citadel Was Cracked and Wounded by the Storm — Its Wounds May Be Apparent but All Is Magnificent in These Things Forged by Black Heroism That Defies Time and Vultures”): Perez wrote to her niece Marie-Madeleine Price-Mars, inviting her to one day climb the steep slope of Bonnet-à-l’Évêque to commune with their ancestors through reflection and an immense will. At the foot of the respected dungeon, she instructed, stop for a moment, raise your head and watch the heroic dream of a Black heart written in those high steps that have not been destroyed for over a century. A feeling that you’ve never known will humble you. Like the Fatherland, the Citadel was cracked, wounded by the storm. Its wounds may be apparent, but all is magnificent in these things forged by Black heroism that defies time and vultures — the letter was simultaneously a love note to a child, a manifesto for revolutionary memory, and a meditation on the relationship between national wounds and national magnificence.