Charlot Lucien is a Haitian-born storyteller, visual artist, and lecturer on Haitian culture and history based in Foxboro, Massachusetts. He is the founder of the volunteer group Haitian Artists Assembly of Massachusetts. He has coordinated cultural events in New England to promote Haitian culture and bridge cross-cultural gaps, partnering with cultural, academic, and community groups. He has presented lectures and storytelling performances in the US, Canada, France, Guadeloupe, and Haiti. He is the author of 5 storytelling CDs (in Haitian Creole and French), a poetry book, and two volumes of satirical caricatures.
He relies on Haitian storytelling techniques to engage his audiences - call-an-answers, Haitian riddles as icebreakers, miming, and tropical props.
He received various awards for his cultural advocacy and his promotion of Haitian storytelling. In his professional life, he is a public health administrator for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Read more about Charlot's storytelling trajectory in the key article "My Storytelling Journey: From Rural Settings in Haiti to Urban Settings in New England" (Routledge, 2023)
Travel: CT, MA, ME, NH, NY, RI, VT, Out of Region
Audience: Elementary, Teens, Families, Adults
Genre:Folktales, Historical Tales, Personal Stories, Humorous Tales
Performance Fee: 450-700 Varies
Workshop Fee: 700-1000
Awards:
- 2023 Artist-in-Residence - Norwood Cultural Council/Mass Cultural Council
- 2017 Featured Storyteller at the NEST's annual Share the Fire Conference
- 2016 Haitian Roundtable 1804 List of Haitian American Changemakers
- 2017 West Africa Research Association Lifetime member
- 2005 City of Boston Citation for Contributions to Boston Culture
- 2007 Commonwealth of Massachusetts Cultural Awareness Citation
Testimonials:
I could not have imagined the mesmerizing quality of your performance yesterday afternoon. You lifted us out of that hotel ballroom, out of our manufactured chairs and tired conference-weary bodies, into a new country, a new way of thinking about and feeling story, a welcome delight in the word and the tale. I loved the way you presented the riddles (and tossed the mangoes!). Your embodiment of the folktale creatures was vivid and witty. Your personal stories showed us much about Haiti—and the USA... ~ Jo Radner, League for the Advancement of New England Storytelling (LANES) March 2017
With this second CD, Lucien reaffirms that he is taking this genre very seriously. As the addition of supporting sound effects can testify, he is also thinking about revamping it... From time to time, in his two CDs, we can feel him, unaltered, naked, risking everything, and without the crutches of his illustrious predecessors. ~ Mario Malivert, Haitian Reporter, April 2004
Lucien’s deep and articulate voice draw the listener in and his tempo make each story a joy to listen to. He has a skillful knack for character voices, which only serves to make each story better-rounded. Lucien has so taken the story-telling world that he is being compared these days to the likes of Maurice Sixto, a well-known Haitian storyteller.
~ Charlot Lucien – Artist of all Trades, By Ella Turenne, NetworkHaiti.com