As the Hayti Heritage Center launches its inaugural artistic season—its first formally curated one in fifty years—the institution is stepping into a new chapter shaped by legacy, defiance, and cultural sovereignty. Housed in the landmark sanctuary of St. Joseph AME Church, erected in 1891, the Center stands as the last major structure from the once-thriving Hayti community. In a city that has transformed dramatically around it, Hayti remains a living testament to Black permanence.
A Foundation in Faith, Architecture and Community
The story begins in 1868, when the Rev. Edian Markham—a formerly enslaved AME missionary—arrived in Durham and, with five companions, purchased land from Minerva Fowler. Their first worship structure was not a building, but a brush arbor made up of posts in the ground, branches overhead, earth underfoot.
By 1891, architect Samuel Leary designed a brick sanctuary whose Romanesque arches and Gothic lines still define the building today. That structure has stood through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, urban renewal, and the highway expansion that destroyed more than 200 acres of the historic Hayti community.
It endures because Black women insisted it must.
The Neighborhood Named for a Black Republic
The community surrounding the church took the name “Hayti” in homage to Haiti, the first free Black republic in the Western Hemisphere. Whether through direct delegation or symbolic lineage, the naming was aspirational: a declaration that Black governance, Black creativity, and Black community autonomy were not only possible—they were expected.
The Fight to Save the Building and the Community
During the 1960s–70s, when the Durham Freeway cut through Hayti, the sanctuary narrowly escaped demolition. Community leaders including Lyda Moore Merrick, Lyda Constance Merrick Watts, and Claronell K. Trapp Brown mobilized to protect the building. Their fight preserved not only a structure, but the possibility of a cultural future.
When the congregation relocated in the mid-1970s, the building was reborn as the Hayti Heritage Center, which quickly became a hub for visual arts, performance, civic gatherings, African dance and drumming (rooted in the legacy of Chuck Davis and Bradley Simmons), and intergenerational community life.
From Reunion to Rebirth: Hayti Heritage Center’s 50-Year Arc
As Hayti marks its fiftieth anniversary, it unveils a refreshed identity that visually and spiritually links Durham’s Hayti to its namesake. The Center’s updated mark places a vévé of Ezili—a sacred symbol in Haitian Vodou—above the sanctuary’s spire.
This is not ornamental. It is ancestral alignment.
Ezili (also spelled Erzulie) is a family of lwa associated with love, beauty, protection, creative force, and the fierce tending of what must survive. Her vévé often symbolizes a heart supported by crossroads—an emblem of devotion, clarity, and the power required to safeguard one’s people.
In the context of Durham’s Hayti:
- Ezili honors the women who saved the building during urban renewal.
- She mirrors the community’s creative heartbeat, from dance to jazz to spoken word.
- She embodies sovereignty, insisting on self-determination and resourced futures.
Crowned atop the spire, Ezili’s vévé signals that Hayti is not only guarding its past—it is claiming its future.
The Inaugural Season, “Small is All”
Hayti’s first curated season reflects national-caliber ambition grounded in intimate community scale.
The year opens with harpist Brandee Younger, whose music has reshaped contemporary Black classical and jazz traditions. The season continues with the Branford Marsalis Quartet, expansive programming through the Hayti Film Festival, and the launch of the Hayti Dialogues featuring writers and thinkers including Ta-Nehisi Coates, Brit Bennett, Melissa Harris-Perry, Bakari Sellers, and cartoonist Keith Knight.
Additional performances include YahZarah, John Holiday, Amaryn Olmeda, Monét Noelle Marshall, a co-presentation with the American Dance Festival, and the inaugural Hayti Business Expo, which connects artistic excellence to economic sovereignty.
As author adrienne maree brown writes, “Small is all.” Hayti’s season leans into this truth—demonstrating that scale has never been the measure of impact.
Why This Matters Now
—With Durham’s rapid transformation, the Hayti Heritage Center asserts that Black cultural institutions must not be relegated to relics: they must be active shapers of future trajectories.
—The juxtaposition of its 134-year-old sanctuary and 50-year institutional legacy reminds us that continuity, counter-narrative, and place-based power matter deeply.
—The programming and membership model draw direct links between enduring heritage and emergent civic, economic, and creative futures.
Call to Action
We invite readers and the broader Durham community to engage with the Center’s inaugural season not merely as spectators, but as participants in a living legacy. Your presence—and your support—ensures that this story continues to unfold. Purchase tickets for this season’s headline events, become a monthly “Sustainer”, and make a gift today to keep Hayti’s light burning bright. Join us for African dance, civic dialogues, worship, or simply to bear witness to the power of place. Your generosity keeps this beacon shining in the midst of change.
The Hayti Heritage Center does more than survive—it transforms. From the brush-arbor beginnings of St. Joseph’s, through battles over urban renewal, to today’s vibrant cultural renaissance, the Center embodies what is possible when Black communities anchor and own their institutions. As we step into the next chapter, we do so with gratitude for those who built, saved, and sustained this sacred space—and with a call to you to help carry it forward. Give today, and be part of Hayti’s next century of transformation.
For fifty years, Hayti has held memory. For the next fifty, it aims to shape possibility.
More information and tickets here.
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