Overview:
Boston’s Haitian American community is preparing for the grand opening of the state-of-the-art Toussaint Louverture Cultural Center on May 20, 2025. This first-of-its-kind Haitian cultural institution in the area will kick off with a two-day Haitian products and business expo from May 17 to 18.
The Haitian American community in Boston is preparing for a historic milestone: the grand opening of the Toussaint Louverture Cultural Center (TLCC), scheduled for May 20, 2025. The event, strategically timed with Haitian Heritage Month, will culminate in a weekend-long celebration beginning with a Haitian business and products exhibition on May 17, showcasing authentic Haitian goods, arts, crafts and entrepreneurship. This will be followed by a dance recital on May 18, narrating Haiti’s history from the Tainos— the island’s indigenous inhabitants— until 1804.
Located at 131 Beverly Street in Boston’s Lovejoy Wharf, the 2,000-square-foot center will serve as a permanent home for Haitian art, education, enterprise, and community life. Organizers hope the TLCC will mark a new chapter for the Haitian diaspora in Massachusetts and inspire similar efforts across the U.S.
“We’ve envisioned this space for over 20 years,” the center’s founding board members and executive director, Marvin Mathelier, told The Haitian Times. “Now, it’s a reality—and we’re inviting the entire community to witness this turning point, where we finally have a place we can call home.”
This is exciting. We are just really, really moved and elated about being able to have this incredible opportunity. We expect you [people] to be able to look at some art, to go to the library, find out about some resources or some history about Haitian culture and grab a cup of coffee while you’re doing all that.
Nancy Accime, Nurse Practitioner and Community Member in Boston
Like many in the Haitian American community, Nurse Practitioner Nancy Accime also expressed her joy over the realization of the project. “This is exciting,” she said in an interview with NBC 10 Boston. “We are just really, really moved and elated about being able to have this incredible opportunity. We expect you to be able to look at some art. You’re able to go to the library and find out about some resources or some history about Haitian culture, and you can grab a cup of coffee while you’re doing all that.”
Massachusetts has the third-largest population of people with Haitian ancestry, behind only Florida and New York, which are first and second, respectively.
In 2021, approximately 55,000 residents of Greater Boston identified themselves as Haitian immigrants in a survey conducted by Boston Indicators, a research center of the Boston Foundation. According to the survey, Haitian immigrants make up about 6% of the city’s foreign-born population. Other sources now estimate that the number of Haitians in the city exceeds 70,000. Besides Boston, most Haitian immigrants in Massachusetts are primarily concentrated in Mattapan, Dorchester, Hyde Park, Somerville, Brockton, Everett, Randolph and Cambridge. They represent the third-largest foreign-born group in Boston, following those from the Dominican Republic and mainland China.
Poised for an exciting grand opening
The center’s inauguration on May 20 will feature local and national dignitaries, performances by Haitian musicians, artists, professionals of all walks of life, youth showcases and an official ribbon-cutting ceremony. The date was chosen to coincide with Haitian Flag Day observances, reinforcing the center’s cultural pride and unity mission.
“We’re honoring Toussaint Louverture’s legacy not just in name, but in action—by building a space that uplifts the voices, stories, and achievements of the Haitian people,” Mathelier said passionately.
The grand opening ceremony will be from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST.
“Guests are encouraged to come early to register and take their seats so that everything runs smoothly due to the abundance of people on that evening enthusiastically gracing their presence to witness this exceptional event,” Karma-Syndia Augustin, the program director of the TLCC, said.
“We will be registering guests as they arrive from 5:00-5:30 p.m. while young musicians from the Boston Immigrant Family Services Institute (IFSI) music program play to entertain them. Students from the Toussaint L’Ouverture Academy, a bilingual Haitian Creole-English K1-6 public school in Massachusetts, will also perform. And then we will begin the ceremony with Haitian American lawyer and singer, Rébecca Zama, singing the National Anthem,” Augustin told The Haitian Times, reiterating the TLCC’s goal of fully integrating the community into all activities.
Founded by Karma-Syndia, KS Dance Studio offers a wide range of classes—including Haitian folklore, Afrobeats, and ballet—and will also perform during the ceremony.
In prelude to the occasion on May 18, from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. EST at the nearby Strand Theater on Columbia Rd, KS Dance Studio will present a show that comprises its signature recital, “GENESIS: The Journey from Hispaniola to Haiti.”
The recital pays tribute to Haiti’s resilience, tracing its path from Taino civilization to independence in 1804. Through dance, costumes, and immersive staging, performers will bring to life the journey of the world’s first Black republic.
Fashion designer Edna Chéry will also join the event to showcase her Haitian-inspired style and Edna Chery Designs collection.
Before the grand opening, the center will host “From Haiti with Love,” a two-day expo organized with Ebène and the Haitian Development Institute. Running May 17–18, the event will feature vendors and entrepreneurs from Haiti showcasing handmade crafts, books, beauty items, and more:
- Haitian-made crafts, clothing and jewelry.
- Handmade and plant-based soaps and beauty products.
- Locally prepared Haitian cuisine and spice blends.
- Books by Haitian authors and artifacts.
- Artworks and digital creations.
- Haitian coffee and chocolate.
- Essential organic oils.
Panels and presentations on entrepreneurship, youth innovation and diaspora investment will also occur during the expo.
“The goal is to elevate our local businesses and show the richness of Haitian creativity and enterprise,” said the center’s program coordinator.
“It’s about the marriage of our cultural visibility and economic empowerment,” added Fayola Nicaisse, founder of Ebène.
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Visitors and Haitian exhibitors in conversations during the Washington, DC showcase on May 3- 4, 2025. Photos courtesy of Ebène. -
Visitors and Haitian exhibitors in conversations during the Washington, DC showcase on May 3- 4, 2025. Photos courtesy of Ebène. -
Visitors and Haitian exhibitors in conversations during the Washington, DC showcase on May 3- 4, 2025. Photos courtesy of Ebène. -
Visitors and Haitian exhibitors in conversations during the Washington, DC showcase on May 3- 4, 2025. Photos courtesy of Ebène.
Since 2022, Nicaisse has been a key leader in uniting various cultural and business sectors of the Haitian diaspora and Haiti through a road show featuring different themes on specific occasions throughout the year. “The goal is to help small businesses and show the world the quality that Haiti can produce and offer,” she added.
For this year alone, she and her partners have scheduled about a dozen exhibitions from January to December. Before the upcoming TLCC grand opening, the latest event took place at the Haitian Embassy in Washington, DC, from May 3 to 4, ahead of Mother’s Day. That show attracted over 6,000 enthusiastic visitors daily.
Funding, management of TLCC and moving forward
According to the center’s executive and program directors, the project would not have been possible without generous contributions from numerous institutions and individuals. As Mathelier indicated, the project has been in development for quite some time but did not gain momentum until September 2023 when the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) and Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture (MOAC) selected the TLCC to operate its program in the Related Beal building with a 20-year rent-free grant.
A contest that the project won against several other top candidates. “We can’t wait for TLCC to breathe new life into this space and be a new focal point for the area,” Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison said at the time in a press release announcing the selection of TLCC.
In September 2024, the TLCC project’s initiator and manager, the Mattapan-based nonprofit organization Haitian Americans United (HAU), along with its partners, launched a fundraiser that included a GoFundMe campaign to garner financial support for the project. With significant excitement in the air, the organization raised over $300,000 in just a few months through institutional grants and individual contributions.
The Barr Foundation supported the project by granting $150,000 through the Haitian Artists Assembly of Massachusetts (HAAM). HAAM, an operating partner of the TLCC, will unveil a curated Toussaint Louverture artwork on the center’s official inauguration day. The artistic organization will oversee art exhibits on the center’s walls.
We’ve envisioned this space for over 20 years. Now, it’s a reality—and we’re inviting the entire community to witness this turning point. We are super excited.”
Marvin Mathelier, Founding Board Member and Executive Director of TLCC
Other contributors worth mentioning include Related Beal ($50,000), Chief Executive Artist and founder of SAHMCreative, Bosede A. Opetubo, who donated $15,000 for the flooring renovation and the center’s library, and Radio Concorde, based in the Haitian Boston community, which raised $7,000 through a radiothon.
A 12-member board of directors will directly manage the TLCC, with HAU overseeing the board’s actions. Now that the first two phases of mobilizing resources and construction are complete, the initiators aim to enhance management and establish partnerships and coalitions with Haitian cultural centers across the United States. “And eventually, make it to other regions internationally,” Executive Director Mathelier said.
TLCC’s vision is to create a lasting space for heritage and innovation.
Once open, the Toussaint Louverture Cultural Center will host programs in five key areas:
- Art and performance: visual arts, theater, and music.
- Education: language classes, academic support and youth workshops.
- Business incubation: entrepreneurship training and co-working space.
- Cultural preservation: oral history, archives and storytelling.
- Civic engagement: public forums, immigration clinics and voter outreach.
The center will feature a conference room for community meetings, lecture series, workshops and conferences focusing on Haitian history, language, and arts.
Some Boston residents say the TLCC project is about building more than just a cultural space; it’s also about creating a future where Haitian immigrant children can learn, grow, and lead with pride in who they are. They rejoice at the prospect of having a home that fosters collaborations and a unified community voice.
Following the grand opening, the center plans to launch a summer cultural academy, host a Creole film series, and initiate a mentorship program for young Haitian entrepreneurs.
Boston’s Haitian-heavy community has long called for a centralized institution to anchor its presence in the city. The Toussaint Louverture Cultural Center represents the first step toward realizing that vision—and one that organizers hope will inspire similar projects in Haitian communities nationwide.