Credit: Facebook
Haiti is known as the first Black Country in the world that invented the word “FREEDOM”. However, it’s also known as the actual poorest country of the Caribbean with the percentage of 61% of illiteracy in 2016. How can we expect an illiterate people to change their mentality in order to produce a different type of citizen capable of changing the reality that we are facing for so far? Chevelin Pierre is one among the Haitian creators that decided to use Comic book’s Art as a weapon to communicate and educate the youth proficiently. Let’s get to know him a little more.
Chevelin Pierre is an Illustrator and painter born in the late 70’s in Haiti. He had this passion for drawing since he was a little boy and always wanted to pursue a career in this field even though becoming an artist back in that time wasn’t well seen by the parents because it was very hard to earn a living with it. That’s why he decided to study architecture; Encouraged by his mother because she didn’t want him to surrender his dream of becoming a great illustrator.
After finishing his study, he could finally focus on his career as a professional illustrator. In the 2000s he created his own studio and started later on to work with a bunch of talented artists such as James Bazile, Kendy Joseph and Karl Heins Desroches etc… He started to collaborate with some editor for school manual and other kid’s book such as Henri Deschamps.
Credit: Facebook
His first break out on social media was the publishing of “Bel ti machann” (2016-2017) a short story with no dialogue that went viral even in the international.
Ever since the studio started to fiend attention from some editors in Africa and USA in order to broadcast their comic books worldwide. It’s a big occasion for Chevelin to spread the Haitian culture all over the world and to show a different face of the country.
Being able to trace lines on a paper or on a graphics tablet is an extraordinary gift but having the ability to tell stories that is going to inspire a whole generation it’s something special. Chevelin Pierre is part of this category of artists and as long as he’s active in this industry, we can hope that one day the world is going to value the Haitian people not for what they have done but for who they deeply are via comic books.