- Welcome to "Music Matters".

I am your host, Apolonia Davalos.

We build community through music as we explore how and why music matters to you and our musical guests.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) Haitian performing artist, Inez Barlatier, inspires a spirit of gratitude through her music.

A renowned storyteller, Inez elevates her ancestral traditions and rich history with drumming, singing, and dancing.

"Music Matters" is excited to welcome the wisdom and rhythms of Inez Barlatier.

♪ And to God I give ♪ ♪ All of the glory yeah ♪ ♪ This how I live ♪ - My goal and my music as a person is to constantly look for the things that connect us rather than separate us.

Ayiti is called Little Africa.

Ayitean culture is from the country of Ayiti.

It is a Taino word.

It means land of tall mountains because when the Taino people were there, all they would see was mountains cascading into seas, they go on forever.

It is a mixture of Taino people, the same Taino people that went to Puerto Rico, Cuba, Bahamas, Jamaica.

It's a mixture of African peoples, who were brought to Ayiti and it's also has a French culture with it.

So Ayitean culture has a back doors spirituality and a front.

So we won our revolution with our spirituality.

We evoked spirits to come into our bodies.

We had a ceremony and then our physical bodies, with the help of the religion that was allowed, we were able to free ourselves and then Ayiti helped many cultures become free.

They came to help Latin.

They helped with the Latin Revolution.

They helped with the American enslaved people here.

And so that culture, about breaking barriers, becoming one, is part Ayitean culture.

Many people don't know, but the enslaved people in Ayiti only lasted about seven to 10 years and they would pass away really quickly.

So when the African people were brought there, they came from different parts of Africa.

And what they did was come together, put their culture together, to become one and to fight for their freedom and became the first free Black republic of the world.

The first place in the world where everyone was free and it became a refuge for other people.

People from Ireland came to Ayiti, people from all over the world came to Ayiti because we were the first to have freedom.

And then later on, it took years, decades, for others to follow suit, but also Ayitean culture is about the earth, it's about spirits.

It's about being one with the earth.

It's about so many things.

It's about connecting two worlds in one.

This song has a part for you to sing.

I'm gonna say.

(speaking foreign language) (singing foreign language) (clapping and singing foreign language) Ayiti, Stories and Songs From Haiti is a very special project to me.

It's a project talking about my culture.

And it's an interactive show with drumming, dancing, singing, and stories, where I get to share parts of Ayitean culture that you might not hear in media.

So this show came to be because it was needed.

And now I get to travel the world and share this education of Ayiti and unite people in oneness.

The kind of phrases and themes and topics I teach during my workshops are things, most importantly, mental health.

Mental health is something that we deal with on a daily basis, everyone will deal with it whether you want to deal with it or not.

And it's something that is a missing piece for us to have that connection because we don't know that the person next to us may have the same issues that we're dealing with.

And through that, we can connect and move forward and help others.

I also like to use a phrase from the Tree language.

(foreign words) Which is, are you listening?

And you say, yes, I am listening.

I love doing this because no matter how old you are, you can silence a room with two words, which is the beautiful thing about African Oracle culture.

Also what I teach in the workshops, themes I teach, is how community, how playing a drum, listening to the person next to you, listening for a call and response and playing rhythms together really teach us how to be one.

♪ Mama is a rock ♪ ♪ Mama keeps a'rollin' ♪ ♪ Mama is rolling rocker ♪ ♪ Mama is a rock ♪ "Mama Is A Rock" is a song I wrote for my mother.

Women play a very important role in my life especially my mother because she sacrificed everything for me to be here in this moment.

And I want to pay, make a song for her that told her in a big way that I love you and I honor you and I'm gonna continue your legacy through my vessel.

And I want the world to know how much I love you.

She's a tough woman.

She, I feel like my mom can do anything.

I feel like my mother is the reason why I am here today.

But also, I have many mothers in my life.

I have adopted many mothers and so they have played an important role in my life.

There's a line in the song that says, "If they need something, I have to provide it".

And that's what my mom did for every breath I take, every meal I ate, every time I went to school, everything that she gave is a reason I am here today.

So I wanted a song for the world to know how much I honor my mom and how special she is.

I'm a child, I don't care when, how old I am, but I will always need a matriarch in my life.

Yes, we have, we need the male influence too, but mothers teach us how to care for others, how to be empathetic, how to use our intuition, how to know things without logic.

And mothers play important role because mothers rear us into society.

♪ Coming from a world of magic ♪ ♪ Magic you blew ♪ I would like people to know that there is a way to understand that we are all the same, regardless of where we come from.

The reason the world is like it is now is because we lost sight of that fact.

No matter if I don't look like you, I still have a heart, lungs, I feel things, have emotions, I have a brain just like you.

There's no such thing as us being two separate beings.

And I hope one day that with the help of music, activism and spirituality, that we can return.

Return to a place where we lack hatred and hatred's a thing of the past.

♪ And finally ♪ ♪ You will perceive your reality ♪ - Thank you Inez, for being with us today and being so vulnerable and honest about your musical and personal journey.

- Thank you.

- Learn more, visit her website, inezinezinez.com.

Thank you to our sponsor, the Mortimer & Mimi Levitt Foundation.

Thank you for watching "Music Matters".

I am your host, Apolonia Davalos I love you!

(upbeat music) - We are from Mission-Haiti.

- Yeah.

So we are the Perissien family.

We have been living in Haiti for the past eight years.

- Yes.

- Bethany's from Sioux Falls.

- I'm originally from Haiti and we met in Florida.

- We love the Levitt!

(upbeat music)