[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 43 (Sunday, March 21, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E430-E431]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     A TRIBUTE TO MARIE LILY CERAT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. EDOLPHUS TOWNS-

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Sunday, March 21, 2010

  Mr. TOWNS. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Marie Lily 
Cerat, for her service to the Brooklyn community, commitment to 
education and promotion of Haitian language and culture.
  Marie Lily Cerat came to the United States in 1981, and made 
Brooklyn, New York her adopted home away from her native Haiti. She has 
been an educator with the New York Public education system for over 
eighteen years. At present, she works as a Resource Specialist with the 
Haitian Bilingual/ESL Technical Assistance Center (HABETAC) at Brooklyn 
College where she is responsible for planning and conducting 
professional development sessions for teachers working with Haitian 
English language learners in the public schools and Haitian parents. 
She is co-founder and Advisory Board member of Haitian Women for 
Haitian Refugees (HWHR), a thriving and respected community-based 
organization in Brooklyn. The organization was created by Ms. Cerat and 
Ninaj Raoul, in 1992, after the two returned from working with the U.S. 
Department of Justice as a Haitian Creole language specialist in 
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They assisted in translation and other human 
services with the Haitians housed on the U.S. base after the 1991 coup 
d'etat against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. At its 
beginning, HWHR provided English as a Second Language (ESL) and adult 
Literacy programs, but its services have since extended to advocating 
on behalf of Haitian refugees and immigrants, defending worker 
exploitation, and lobbying against anti-immigrant policy.
  Cerat has huge interest in literature, writing and the arts, and is a 
doctoral student in the French Doctoral program at the CUNY Graduate 
Center where she will pursue a specialization in francophone literature 
and international human rights. She holds a master's degree in English/
Creative Writing from the City College of New York and a bachelor's 
degree from the College for Human Services. The respect and promotion 
of Haitian language and culture, human and girls/women rights are among 
some of the issues she is most passionate about.
  In 1997, she published a West African folktale, Do Toti), The 
Turtle's Back, in Haitian Creole for children. She has written a 
commentary for National Public Radio, which was aired in 2001 as part 
of the Racism Conference in South Africa. Over the years, she has 
contributed writing to a publication on Haiti by the Network of 
Educators on the Americas (NECA), two biographical essays on Vodou are 
part of the 1998/2005 Ten Speed Press book, Vodou: Visions and Voices 
by the photographer Phyllis Galembo. She is a regular contributor to 
Haiti Liberte, a weekly Haitian newspaper in New York. Most recently, 
one of her short stories was selected to appear in an upcoming (2010) 
anthology by the Haitian-American writer/editor Edwidge

[[Page E431]]

Danticat. Marie Lily Cerat is currently at work on a novel, In the 
Light of Shooting Stars.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing Marie 
Lily Cerat.

                          ____________________