The Last Poem

Each evening, the festival day comes to a close in the foyer with a moment of reflection: The Last Poem. One poet, one poem – a poetic farewell after a day full of impressions. On Saturday, June 14, the spotlight is on Haitian poet, screenwriter, and rapper Jean D’Amérique (HTI), known for his powerful, image-rich language and rhythmic delivery. Let his words carry you before the night continues in conversation at the bar, or before heading home. 

Jean D’Amérique

Jean D’Amérique is a Haitian-born, Paris-based poet, playwright, rapper and novelist. 

Already with his first poetry collection Petite fleur du ghetto (2015) he caught the attention of the literary world, receiving a special mention from the Prix René Philoctète de la poésie and the Prix Révélation Poésie by the Société des Gens de Lettres. D’Amérique continued this success with his second publication No Way in The Skin Without this Bloody Embrace (2017), winning the Prix de Poésie de la Vocation. After collaborating with the collective Loque Urbaine in setting up the Transe Poétique international festival based in Port-au-Prince in 2019, he published his first novel Soleil à coudre (2021; A Sun to Be Sewn, 2023) for which is he is awarded the Prix Montluc Résistance et Liberté. 

Not afraid to look away from the violence of reality, Jean D’Amérique experiments with new poetic forms and a range of media. He explores political violence and the lives of the marginalized. His intense style is bathed in violence, with the poet himself describing his poetry as created in the red puddle, while also aiming to heal wounds and exorcise pain through his poetry. 

D’Amérique is also a playwright, having received the Jacques Scherer Prize for Theater for his play Opéra poussière (2022). He contributes to several literary magazines, leads writing workshops and released his first rap album Mélancolie Gang in 2023.