Holding Haitian Girlhood: On Seeing and Being Seen in Claire of the Sea Light

AFRICAN AND AFRICAN DIASPORA STUDIES PROGRAM 2026-2027 NEW DIRECTIONS LECTURE SERIES: Dr. Régine Michelle Jean-Charles Professor and Chair, Department of Cultures, Societies & Global Studies Dean's Professor of Culture & Social Justice Professor of Africana Studies, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies Northeastern University This talk reads Edwidge Danticat’s Claire of the Sea Light as one of her most deliberate and empowering portrayals of Haitian girlhood. Prof. Jean-Charles focuses on what the character, Claire Limyè Lanmè, as simultaneously present and absent – both visible and invisible. That Danticat’s refuses to separate these binaries invokes a Vodou epistemology that searches for balance, and encourages Jean-Charles to contemplate what it means to “hold Haitian girlhood.”