MOONLIGHT BENJAMIN - PIOTR PUCYLO ::: art + music + design

Voodoo rhythms and songs are like the umbilical cord that connects the western part of Haiti to the womb of its people, Africa. And it is also a main inspiration for born in Haiti in 1971 singer Moonlight Benjamin.

Moonlight grew up in a protestant orphanage, learning how to sing at church. But quickly she left Church songs and gospel to a more personal musical frame. In a protestant orphanage she felt away from her culture and she had to confront herself, meet the strength of the earth, the strength of her country, this age-old strength that makes Haiti. She sang then with many Haitian artists before leaving to Europe.

Real voodoo priestess (initiated in 2009), she first became known in France with the band named Dyaoulé Pemba, then under her own name, under her own project, following her will to make Haiti and its story and culture be better known abroad.

She worked for several years with major jazz artists like saxophonist Jacques Schwarz-Bart and pianist Omar Sosa who were impressed by her vocal skills.

Not afraid to experiment, she holds soul and fire of all Haitian people. With her new project she offers a journey along a revisited blues rock version of authentic Creole culture which has a history of struggle for its recognition although it was the first "Black Republic" ever established in the world.