For having been confined too long in the vice grip of the Duvalierist nights, Frankétienne expressed himself through excess, in a creative madness that led him to write, paint, sing, dance, and embody his own character as an actor. On the stage of UNESCO in Paris, a packed auditorium delighted in a performance reflecting the stature of a brilliant megalomaniac—someone whom God Himself had chosen to be a creator fundamentally driven by impulse and organically bound to Haiti.

The Permanent Delegation of Haiti to UNESCO, the Embassy of Haiti, and the Consulate General of Haiti in Paris paid a vibrant tribute to Frankétienne, this man of the arts, on Monday, June 16. At the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, in front of a full house, Ambassador Lilas Desquiron declared that “this jointly organized tribute is the result of a shared commitment to the memory and singular voice of a man who, by himself, embodies Haiti’s creative force.”