Correction appended.
"Kenbe fem" means "stay strong," Max Clermont '11 said to attendees of an open mic to raise money for aid to Haiti Saturday night.
Clermont, who has worked with Partners in Health, the high-profile international medical organization that the event's funds are going to, used the Haitian-Creole phrase to express solidarity with the earthquake's victims.
The Brown Association for Student Songwriters, Word! and the Haiti Earthquake Relief Effort Committee raised $2,600 from ticket and food sales for Partners in Health, which already had sites in Haiti at the time of the earthquake.
The open-mic event featured a variety of performances, ranging from serious topical poetic readings to songs from a country band and a rap-spoof guitar group.
BASS and Word! independently decided to raise money for Haiti and eventually decided to work together to throw a "super-huge event," said coordinator and performer Nicole Parrish '12, who is involved in Word! and the HERE committee.
"Our goal was to have a collective effort at Brown that brings different people together who leave with a sense that they made a difference," said Addie Thompson '12, who helped coordinate the event.
Participants were not limited to subjects about Haiti, but could prepare unrelated pieces of their choice, Thompson said.
This freedom was evident in the range of performances the show offered. Many contributed light-hearted acts, such as comedic covers of rap songs from the student band Six String Thugs and a routine from Boston University first-year and comedian Nick Peine. Remy Fernandez-O'Brien '12 played his own digitized rendition of "Let it Be" on the piano.
Alec Brownridge '12 chose to directly address the aftermath of the earthquake in a poem called "Mother Haiti, Strong and Caring." The poem called the earthquake victims the children of "Mother Haiti," who envisions a day when "Haiti is strong and providing." The poem also alluded to the benefit of international aid, as Mother Haiti cries, "I can see some hope on the horizon, for my sisters have sent their children to help and heal."
Laura Brown-Lavoie '10 also wrote a themed poem for the event called, "Is it Sunday?"The poem, based on an article Brown-Lavoie read in the New York Times, repeated the refrain, "I never know where to pray or who to pray to. Is it Sunday?" The poem described the earthquake and turmoil in Haiti as "too much thunder. I need a quiet God."
Other performances did not address the crisis in Haiti, but maintained the reflective atmosphere.
Rob Ren-Pang '12 recited a poem about a father and son. The father says, "I hold your hand because many hands make the load lighter," a line relevant to both the poem and the evening's topic.
"I wanted a way to contribute, and this was something I'm good at," Ren-Pang told The Herald.
Thompson said she hoped that the performances were not only moving, but also that the experience could educate students about resources available to Haitians through groups such as Partners in Health, which was co-founded by Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim '82.
"It was really good to see how Brown students came together" even when they were not directly impacted by the earthquake, Melanie Chow '11 said after seeing the show.
"This event is just the beginning of us doing a lot of things at Brown through the semester," Parrish said, adding that recovery is a continuing effort. "Families are suffering, and we need to be conscious of that."
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that "kembe firme" means "stay strong." In fact, it is "kenbe fem."
