The Tropical Muse: Ida Salomon Faubert’s Parisian Avant‑Garde

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]She was the daughter of a Haitian president. She held salons in Paris during the roaring 20s where surrealists and feminists gathered. She wrote erotic sonnets that blurred the gender of her lovers.

[00:00:12]Her name was Ida Salomon Faubert.

[00:00:15]This is Ida Faubert, >> [music] >> poet, socialite, and literary pioneer.

[00:00:19]Born in Port-au-Prince in 1882, she spent her early years in the presidential palace.

[00:00:25]But the conservatism of Haiti's elite suffocated her.

[00:00:28]>> [music] >> In 1914, she left for Paris. By 1912, Faubert was publishing poems in Haiti Littéraire et Scientifique under her own name, a rare act for a Haitian woman.

[00:00:42]In 1913, she won a prize for her sonnet Pierre Loti.

[00:00:46]But she needed more freedom than Port-au-Prince could offer.

[00:00:50]The salon.

[00:00:52]In her apartment on Rue Blomet, Ida hosted Thursday salons that became a crossroads of avant-garde Paris.

[00:01:00]The rhythms of the Bal Nègre pulsed just below.

[00:01:03]The collection.

[00:01:05]In 1939, she published Cœur des Îles.

[00:01:08][music] It won the Prix Jacques Normand.

[00:01:11]The volume contained three kinds of heart poetry: >> [music] >> maternal verses for her deceased daughter, musical rondels for friends, and erotic sonnets set in tropical gardens, often addressed to lovers of ambiguous sex.

[00:01:25]The subtext: Je voudrais demeurer une heure au près de vous / Au jardin merveilleux que mon esprit suppose.

[00:01:34]The garden, the jasmine petals on their knees, the setting sun, these are not just romantic. [music] They are sensual, coded, and radical for a woman in 1939.

[00:01:47]The later work.

[00:01:48]In 1959, [music] she published Sous le Soleil Caraïbe, a collection of stories sketching daily life in Haiti.

[00:01:57]She never abandoned her homeland. She simply needed her own space >> [music] >> to write it.

[00:02:03]Present day.

[00:02:04]Impact. Ida Faubert died in Joinville-le-Pont in 1969. [music] Her poetry is now being rediscovered by scholars of Caribbean literature, feminist writing, and others avant-garde history.

[00:02:18]She was a daughter of Haiti and a citizen of the world.

[00:02:23]Ida Faubert teaches us that a Haitian woman can be elegant and radical, >> [music] >> maternal and erotic, anchored in the tropics and soaring through Paris.

[00:02:32]She refused the narrow frames [music] her society offered.

[00:02:36]She made her own.

[00:02:38]Now, we must [music] read her and learn.

[00:02:42]If this history resonates with you, please consider liking, sharing, and subscribing to Haiti Diaspora Voice.

[00:02:49]Check the link in my bio for sources and further reading. Join our movement for historical truth and collective awakening.