A Brazilian center, the last cultural breath of Port-au-Prince

Brazil’s highly acclaimed « social diplomacy » comes amid strong political influence in Haiti from countries like the United States and Canada 

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Due to gang violence in downtown Port-au-Prince, the capital has gradually lost some of its vibrant spaces, once bustling with cultural and intellectual activity.

In Pétion-Ville, the Brazil-Haiti Cultural Center (CCBH) now offers artists and the public a refuge where creativity and exchanges survive, through workshops, concerts, debates, exhibitions and meetings.

An official of the institution, interviewed by AyiboPost, mentioned an explosion in requests for partnerships and attendances since 2023.

On August 27, 2025, tree branches, softening the rays of a hot midday sun, distilled a shady freshness into the CCBH grounds.

In the courtyard, there is a constant coming and going: young people, for the most part, come and go.

A photo of the Brazil-Haiti Cultural Center in Pétion-Ville, August 27, 2025. CP: Junior Legrand

Under an arbor, others, sitting in a circle, beat drums and filled the courtyard with a long series of syncopated beats.

At first glance, the center seemed like a new refuge for a group of young people keen on cultural activities.

Wisancha Justin, a geography student in her twenties, has been attending the center since November 2024, the year she began her drumming lessons at the “Atelye Tanbou Plen Minui” (ATPM).

Wisancha Justin, one of the students at Atelye Tanbou Plen Minui (ATPM). Courtesy: Wisancha Justin

Before the atrocities of the gangs in the lower town of Port-au-Prince pushed her towards the CCBH, Justin regularly frequented cultural places like the Art Center, Anba Tonèl, the Maison Dufort or Yanvalou, today inaccessible due to pressure from the gangs.

For the young woman, deprived of cultural activities by insecurity and describing herself as less « fulfilled and relaxed », the CCBH has become a real haven.

It reconnects her with exhibitions, concerts and meetings, while offering her a valuable link with other art and culture enthusiasts.

Wisancha Justin, a geography student in her twenties, has been attending the center since November 2024, the year she began her drumming lessons at the “Atelye Tanbou Plen Minui” (ATPM).

For her part, Nichanda Préval is nostalgic for the Caribbean Cultural Center and the Art Center, spaces that have become unusable since the beginning of the year in downtown Port-au-Prince, due to the insecurity situation.

Préval, a slam poet, has been attending the CCBH since 2022, when she took part in a psycho-theatre workshop there for the first time.

Academically, repeated faculty relocations due to insecurity have disrupted Préval’s studies, with his classes now largely taking place online.

Photo by Dorcas Kemberling Marcelus, administrative assistant and Neno Garbers general manager of CCBH. CP : Junior Legrand.

Established in Haiti since 2012 and administered by the Brazilian diplomatic mission, the CCBH aims to be a player in the dissemination and development of cultural expressions, with a commitment to artistic diversity and education in the cultures of both countries.

Since the end of 2020, without any publicity, attendance at the center – as well as new partnerships between it and other institutions in Haiti for the implementation of various activities – has exploded, according to Werner Garbers Elias Pereira, its general director.

In December 2024, the CCBH carried out a « record » number of fifteen activities in a single month and recorded an attendance of around 5,000 people in its premises, compared to 2,000 to 3,000 in previous years.

Since then, partnerships with other institutions, particularly for the provision of space, have reached more than thirty, according to the official interviewed by AyiboPost.

A photo of Neno Garbers, director of the Brazil-Haiti cultural center in Pétion-ville, on August 27, 2025. CP: Junior Legrand

According to an internal and non-public report shared with AyiboPost covering the period from 2023 to 2025, these institutions include, among others, diplomatic representations, Haitian public institutions, NGOs and international organizations, religious communities – including both Protestant churches and Voodoo associations – as well as civil society associations.

“The demand was so great that we didn’t have the logistical and technical capacity to meet it,” Garbers told AyiboPost. “This forced us to develop other strategies, such as increasing our staff.”

In December 2024, the CCBH carried out a « record » number of fifteen activities in a single month and recorded an attendance of around 5,000 people in its premises, compared to 2,000 to 3,000 in previous years.

For Garbers, this influx and these new partnerships are closely linked to the insecurity currently ravaging the capital and which has forced the population and institutions to abandon their homes and usual premises, creating in the process a greater concentration of activities in the commune of Pétion-Ville.

Since August 2025, the Brazil-Haiti Cultural Center has been providing the Araka Cultural Center – whose premises in the lower city of Port-au-Prince were partly burned down by armed gangs in March 2024 – with a space to store archives that were able to be saved.

Other institutions have also turned to the CCBH.

Created in December 2011, Café Philo – a philosophical meeting initiated by former professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Héléna Hugot, in collaboration with Haitian students – was held at the Café des Copains, in Bois-Verna and broadcast on Télévision Caraïbe.

In December 2023, Café Philo’s activities were suspended due to abuses by armed groups in the vicinity of its last premises, the Caribbean Cultural Center (CCC), on Chavannes Street, in downtown Port-au-Prince, reports the national coordinator, Ralph Jean-Baptiste.

After nearly a year of inactivity, these philosophical meetings are now being held at the Brazil-Haiti cultural center, since January 2025.

This change of location led to a reorganization of Café Philo.

« Our operations have changed. We are now required to hold a single Café Philo every last Tuesday of the month instead of every Tuesday, » says Jean-Baptiste.

The CCBH aims to be a “neutral, secure and culturally open” platform.

The institution does not establish its partnerships on a financial basis.

Only contributions can be considered when the center does not have the services or logistical means necessary for a specific event, Garbers told AyiboPost.

A photo of the Brazil-Haiti cultural center space in Pétion-ville, August 27, 2025. CP: Junior Legrand

For Brazil, the document obtained by AyiboPost reads, « this work with Haitian civil society constitutes a concrete example of social diplomacy, where investment in culture and community cohesion becomes a vector of positive influence, solidarity and South-South cooperation. »

This « social diplomacy » takes place in a context of strong political influence from countries like the United States and Canada in Haiti.

The overall security situation threatens community, cultural and intellectual life in Port-au-Prince.

Two organization leaders contacted by AyiboPost say they have been forced to adapt their operations, or even completely suspend some of their activities.

This is the case, for example, of the Unique Human Social Transformation Mission in Haiti (Mithsou-Haïti) – a platform mobilizing more than 2,000 young people, including 200 active members – created in May 2021, which now broadcasts a large part of its programming online, thus avoiding the need for its participants to travel, according to its co-founder, Abdias Agenor.

The organization, which carried out its activities in the premises of the town hall of Delmas – a town under constant threat from the « Viv Ansanm » gangs – offers free training in sexual and reproductive health, first aid workshops and concerts.

« Between late 2023 and early 2024, we suspended our in-person activities after the Delmas town hall received direct threats from armed bandits, » Abdias Agenor told AyiboPost.

For the past two years, the Salon des Positifs, also based in Delmas, has been unable to organize its annual event called « Dare to be optimistic, » a training course on personal development and leadership that usually brings together 800 participants for a month, its founder, Joassaint Gelin, informed AyiboPost.

The organization nevertheless manages to maintain other activities requiring less logistical means, such as the fourth edition of the Personal Development and Leadership Summit (SDPL), which was held on July 27 in Delmas 75.

Although insecurity has not yet hit it hard, its turmoil sometimes touches the Brazil-Haiti cultural center in Pétion-Ville.

In April 2024, after several murders committed by armed individuals a few meters from the space, the center was forced to close its doors for a month.

« Even the ambassadors of the Brazilian diplomatic representation in Haiti were afraid for us and encouraged us to permanently cease our activities in Haiti, » Garbers told AyiboPost.

But, for the official, [the administration] « stubborn », does not despair of the country and hopes that the center will be emulated.

« We want the center to be seen as a pilot project or prototype. And for cultural exchange and cooperation initiatives of this kind to be replicated across the country, » Garbers concludes.

By :  Rolph Louis-Jeune & Junior Legrand

Cover | A photo of the Brazil-Haiti Cultural Center in Pétion-ville, August 27, 2025. CP: Junior Legrand for AyiboPost