Franketienne biography for kids
The Life of Franketienne
Updated April 29, 2013 3:20 PM
Haitian culture's emblematic figure, Franketienne is a Haitian teacher, painter, actor, writer and poet. He has authored 40 books in Creole and French that include names like Ultravocal and Dezafi. His exceptional work has earned him numerous literary awards and prizes. He was born in 1936 and his original name was Franck Etienne. When it comes to painting and art, Franketienne is known for his abstract and colorful work and very often he has been found to be emphasizing on red and blue.
Franketienne is a protagonist - larger-than-life type of protagonist and even during the days when Haiti succumbed to the dictatorships of Papa Doc and Baby Doc, he was never forced by his fear to step down of the National Stage. Franketienne compares a dictator to sado-masochistic relationship where a master is served by his slaves and the very existence of a master depends on the existence of slaves. However, Franketienne never related the historic Haitian slavery with sado-masochistic relationship because even though the master-slave relationship held true in those days, the only problem was that the slaves were considered to be expendable because of excess supply.
Franketienne was declared, by the cultural agency of The United Nation, as Artist for Peace because of the contributions he made to French-language literature and also because of Franketienne's commitment to preserve the culture of Haiti. One of the greatest artists and intellects of Haiti, Franketienne is considered to be a global citizen and belongs to the artistic, cultural and creative vanguard through the length and breadth of Caribbean.
Read more: Haitian Artist, writer, actor, Poet, Franketienne, Theater, Teacher, Culture
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As a cultural area studies graduate, seldom do I feel over my head culturally. Standing in the home of possibly the next Nobel Prize recipient for Literature in Port-au-Prince recently, I found myself way out of my league. One ambassador had cautioned me to "have an intellectual translate" for me. Luckily, when I met the legendary Franketienne, he spoke to me in English. Several weeks later I caught up with him again at the Brooklyn Public Library for an outstanding performance and continued to learn more about this great mind.
Haitian artist and writer Franketienne has been designated UNESCO Artist for Peace.
Franketienne was born Franck Etienne in 1936. He is an author, poet, playwright, musician, and painter. Although he speaks English, he has written exclusively in both French and Creole. As a painter, he is known for his colorful abstract works, often emphasizing the colors blue and red, as I saw first-hand in his home. As Emmanuel Duogene told me, "he's a magician - he works miracles!"
Haunting imagery, surrounded often in red and blue, adorns the walls of his home.
As I delved into his world, I found terrain that was at once foreign and strangely familiar. For example, Franketienne's fascination with the tragic clown. According to one scholar, the author's use of this figure creates for the reader a hybrid creature that combines the semi-tragic circus figure of Giulietta Masina's waif in La Strada, and the "lewd Voodoo (vodou) spirit, the Guede, obsessed with sex and death. In the words of another, "This larger-than-life actor refuses to be silenced." Having several friends in Haiti who are vodou priests, I have some concept of what this means.
Inside the master's study, although he writes in a tiny space in a small bedroom.
Franketienne himself is a larger-than-life protagonist who never stepped down from the national stage in fear of the dictator of the decade. The author likens the artist in a dictatorship to a sado-ma Haitian artist and writer (1936–2025) Frankétienne (born Jean-Pierre Basilic Dantor Franck Étienne d'Argent; 12 April 1936 – 20 February 2025) was a Haitian writer, poet, playwright, and painter. He is recognized as one of Haiti's leading writers and playwrights of both French and Haitian Creole, and is "known as the father of Haitian letters". He was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009, made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Order of the Arts and Letters), and was named UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2010. Jean-Pierre Basilic Dantor Franck Étienne d'Argent was born in Ravine-Sèche, a small village in Haiti. His mother was 16 when she gave birth to him, and his father, a wealthy American, was 63. His father then abandoned the family. Frankétienne later said that he was given his first names by his mother and grandmother to protect him from sorcery. He was raised by his mother in the Bel Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, where she was a respected entrepreneur, owning her own business to support her eight children, managing to send him, her eldest, to school. He grew up to work as a teacher in Bel Air. At the age of 5, he was enrolled in Petit Séminaire Collège Saint-Martial, where he learned French. Although he excelled in mathematics and physics, he failed the entrance exam for medicine, so he enrolled in an American mechanical school. He attended the Institute of Higher International Studies in France, where he was taught by Pradel Pompilus and Ghislain Gouraige. There, he first began writing poetry around 1960. He published his first texts – Au fils du temps, La marche, Mon côté gauche, and Vigie et verre in 1964 and 1965. His first novel, Mûr à crever, was published in 1968. He was known as one of the Frankétienne was born Franck Étienne on April 12, 1936, in Ravine-Sèche, Haiti and died on February 20,2025. He is a Haitian writer, poet, playwright, painter, musician, activist, and intellectual. He was abandoned by his father, a wealthy American industrialist, at a young age and was raised by his mother in the Bel-Air neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, where she worked as a street merchant to support her eight children, managing to send him, who was the eldest, to school. Franketienne is recognized as one of Haiti's leading writers and playwrights of both French and Haitian Creole, and is "known as the father of Haitian letters." As a painter, he is known for his colorful abstract works, often emphasizing the colors blue and red. He was a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009, made a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et Lettres (Order of the Arts and Letters), and was named UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2010. "Etienne's gestural style is apparent in his energetic and forced representations," says Gerald Alexis in his book Peintres Haitiens. Get the book Peintres Haitiens here! Franketienne thus contributes to offering a positive image of Haiti, at a time when the credit of this painful island is totally in deficit due to the irresponsibility and obscurantism of recent governments. Frankétienne received numerous tributes in multiple foreign university centers.Frankétienne
Life and career
Writing
Collection: Franck Etienne- Franketienne (Haitian, b.1936-2025)