This month was a special edition of Big Night in Little Haiti. Big Night celebrated Haitian Roots Month (November) with the US debut of Lakou Mizik, an amazing Haitian musical collective, and brought a taste of the signature monthly event to The Swamp at the 31st Miami Book Fair International. The Rhythm Foundation, producers of Big Night in Little Haiti every Third Friday, was honored to be part of the Swamp line up.

The Miami Book Fair International, produced and presented by The Center for Writing and Literature at Miami Dade College launched The Swamp stage as a new program this year with funding from the Knight Foundation. The pop-up lounge showcased Florida stories with music, spoken word performances, screenings and other fun events. All week long, The Swamp performances explored the beauty, contradictions, uniqueness, and downright “weirdness” of life in Florida.

The Swamp closed out the eight-day long festival with a Big Night in Little Haiti concert featuring Lakou Mizik.

Zach Niles, the band’s producer, formed the band out of multimedia project. He said, “I wanted to create a “musical map of Haiti” that highlighted musicians, musical styles and social issues facing different parts of the country. I also wanted to look at traditional music through a modern lens – how could some of these amazing old songs be updated and reimagined in a modern context.”

Niles is based in Boston, but travels often to Haiti. The band runs a community music studio and rehearsal space in Port-au-Prince. He also is active with a music studio in Jacmel. An earlier project he undertook was the successful world music group The Refugee All Stars of Sierra Leone.

Lakou Mizik enjoyed their trip to Miami very much, which also included a workshop at FIU’s Latin American and Caribbean Center. The live group included percussion icon Sanba Zao; accordionist Allen Juste; and guitar master Steeve Valcourt anchored the band, rounded out by members of a young Haitian rara group. Their performance at The Swamp on Sunday channeled the vitality and beauty of Haiti while blending vodou, twoubadou, rara and funk sounds. Nancy St. Leger’s folkloric dancers opened the show while DJ Mack kept the crowd entertained before Lakou Mizik hit the stage.

The band going back to Haiti after a great weekend in Miami