To carry the dance of the people beyond: Jean Léon Destiné, Lavinia Williams, and Danse Folklorique Haïtienne

During the week of April 7, 1951, the Haiti Tourist Information Bureau (HTIB) and the city of New York sponsored a series of cultural events celebrating Haiti Week of New York. The festivities not only served as a platform to display the finest in Haitian culture but also functioned as an "appeal for collaboration" for the U.S. government and its citizens to fully participate in the economic revitalization of the Haitian republic. ¹ Key to the bureau's "appeal" was building a sound tourist industry in Haiti that encouraged "Americans from New York and other states of this great Sister Republic [to] get better and better acquainted with this Tourist Paradise that Haiti represents."² The HTIB's reference to the United States as a "Sister Republic" echoed Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy, a U.S.-centered foreign policy that promoted nonintervention and cooperative economic and cultural programs in the Americas. Although there are ample critiques of asymmetrical hemispheric relations between the United States, Haiti, and a number of other Latin American countries, the Haitian government still courted collaborative financial ventures with the United States in order to alleviate Haiti's struggling economy.³.