Just down the road in Springfield, final preparations are being made for a party — and you’re invited.
The Haitian Community Alliance, or HCA, is sponsoring a “Celebration of Unity” event, to be held Saturday, Jan. 4, at the Metropolis of Springfield. The event, which is free and open to all, will feature Haitian food, performances by Haitian singers and dancers and Yellow Springs’ own World House Choir, and panelists who will speak on Haitian history.
“We want everyone out of Yellow Springs to come out and support the event,” Jacob Payen, a Springfield business owner and spokesperson for the HCA, said in a recent interview. “That’s all we’re asking — if they can hear the sound of my voice, I want them to be there.”
The event is being held just after Jan. 1, Haitian Independence Day — a holiday that celebrates Haiti’s liberation from French colonization and rule. Haiti’s successful revolution, led by Black Haitians against their white enslavers, marked the country as the first independent Black republic.
Payen said the “Celebration of Unity” is planned as both a recognition of that holiday and an invitation to the wider Miami Valley to get to know some of the traditions of the area’s growing Haitian community.
“Although we are proud to be independent … we thought unity would be the best celebration,” Payen said. “We decided to do a post-independence event where we can celebrate unity, because we feel like Springfield is divided.”
He referred to the rising tensions in Springfield over the last several years as the number of immigrants from Haiti has grown in the city. Though U.S. Census data doesn’t track where immigrants settle once they’ve entered the country, reports from the Springfield News-Sun have estimated between 10,000 and 15,000 Haitian immigrants have moved to Springfield since 2020.
Most have come via Temporary Protected Status, or TPS — an immigration designation that allows people from select countries experiencing political unrest or the effects of natural disasters to emigrate to the U.S. for 18 months, with the option for TPS to be extended indefinitely.
That’s how Harriett Joseph, a professional event planner who has been working to coordinate the “Celebration of Unity,” came to be a resident of Springfield. Initially, she was visiting a friend in 2021 when her brother suggested she file for TPS and stay in Springfield. That was the same year Haiti’s then-president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated — and, as the News-Sun reported, the year Springfield first saw a large influx of immigrants from Haiti.
Joseph said she was initially hesitant to stay in the U.S.; she had already established a successful event-planning business in Haiti and was reluctant to leave it, and her family and friends, behind.
“But my brother said, ‘You better stay — it’s a good opportunity because of how the country is right now, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to come back,’” Joseph said. “And I’m glad I stayed now — I saw a lot of opportunity, and I said, ‘Yeah, maybe I can do what I used to do in my country here, helping my people who need help with decorating and events.’”
Like Joseph, Payen said he saw Springfield as rife with possibility. He and his wife previously lived in Port St. Lucie, Florida, where they owned and operated Milokan Botanica, a spiritual goods and natural remedies store. He said he initially came to Springfield to visit a friend.
“I came for a week — that was three years ago,” he said.
He said he noticed “a lot of abandoned houses” around the city — which he said he didn’t view as a blight, but rather as a kind of canvas for rejuvenation.
By Lauren Shows
