Meet The People, Places & Businesses Featured on #ConanHaiti Special

Conan O’Brien recently tweeted he was on his way to Haiti “to explore and make some new friends,” despite President Donald Trump’s very negative Yelp review of the republic. Trump made headlines when he asked members of Congress why the U.S. was taking in immigrants from “sh*thole” countries including Haiti.

The TBS Late night host travel internationally for the eighth time in three years for a “CONAN Without Borders: Haiti,” a primetime special which premiered earlier tonight 10 p.m. In the special he mentioned, visited and highlighted a few people, places, business and things we wanted to share some additional information on.

Design Organization and Training (D.O.T) is an artisan vocational training center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The DOT – Artisan Training Center is a collaboration between Urban Zen, Parsons The New School for Design and Paula Coles, Cine Institute, ENARTS Fine Arts School, Creation of the Urban Zen, Art Center at La Reference Village/PRODEV, Development of new workspaces for Tobacco Leaf Artisans in Jacmel.

The DOT center is a hub for the Haitian artisan community, providing resources and materials. The concept is similar to a co-op system, where becoming a member, artisans have access to hands-on training by designers and educators, modern machinery and tools, a network of contacts and buyers, as well as access to an interest-free loan developed by the Clinton Foundation to provide artisans with start-up capital for orders.

Bijou Lakay

Bijou Lakay by Daphne Karen Floreal is a line of jewelry, accessories handmade by a community of several artisans. These ferocious art workers come from different parts of the country and migrated to the Haitian capital to seek a better life.

Bijou Lakay line combines centuries-old art with a contemporary style that is free and individualistic. Beef horn is one of the most difficult natural materials to work with. Wood, cedar or mahogany, is the second material used to decorate certain accessories. Then come for some limited collections, the addition of gemstones such as turquoise, Jasper, Malachite and even Pearls.