About istwa

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Roth$child in a worn canvas work jacket, locs falling past the shoulders, against pale clapboard siding.

Rothschild's life is defined by art in all its forms: music, writing and photography. Mawon Freedom Arts is home base for all three.

Artist · Producer · Storyteller

Hailing from the 509 (Haiti) and the 305 (Miami), Roth$child's (born Rothschild J. Toussaint) creates worlds with lyrical brevity and dynamics instrumentalism. A rap aficionado and historian, Roth$child sees his talent as omnipresent in the genre. Fixated on being versatile, Roth$child infuses a plethora of genres in his music and allows mind to wander and create worlds within sonic measures.

The house

Mawon Freedom Arts is a multimedia house founded by Roth$child. Music, writing and photography sit side by side here, like drums in the same set.

96 EYZ

The music arm of Mawon Freedom Arts. Listen →

From

Haiti (the 509) and Miami (the 305).

Practice

Music · Writing · Photography

Roth$child at a row of three congas, eyes closed, hands blurred mid-stroke.

Why mawon

Roth$child standing in front of the Nèg Mawon statue in Port-au-Prince under a clear sky. — Roth$child at Nèg Mawon, Port-au-Prince. Christmas Day, 2019.

In Haitian Kreyòl, mawon means maroon. The maroons were people who freed themselves from slavery and built their own communities in the mountains.

In Port-au-Prince there is a statue called Nèg Mawon, the Unknown Maroon. He blows a conch shell, a broken chain at his ankle, calling people to freedom. Mawon Freedom Arts takes its name from that call: make the work on your own terms, and break every chain.