Every New Year, and in celebration of their Independence, Haitian families gather together to feast in honor of a line of ancestors that fought for their freedom. The centerpiece of the festivity is the joumou soup—a traditional soup dating back centuries ago. The joumou soup is a concretization of war and victory, oppression and emancipation, and the deeply rooted celebratory traditions of the Haitian culture.

• Edwidge Danticat
• David Destinoble
• Karenne Cadet
• Wislaine Charles Cadet
• Jean Claude Exulien
• Bayyainah E. Bello
• Edwine Thevenin
• Ludlow E. Bailey