PÒTOPRENS by Jean Venel Casséus: A Fiery and Radiant Song

A city is often described, recounted, denounced. More rarely, it enters into a direct address. In PÒTOPRENS, Jean Venel Casséus doesn't place the city before him; he speaks to it. « Pòtoprens, pase pran m / M’a pase chèche w ». This exchange forms the basis of the narration. The singer and the capital enter into a pact: each carries the other. Taken from the album Pa gen mizik pase peyi m, released in 2025, the song Pòtoprens progresses through stations, like an urban walk: 𝑃𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑛 𝑏𝑒̀𝑙𝑒̀, 𝑀𝑎𝑑𝑎𝑛 𝐾𝑜𝑙𝑜, 𝑑𝑒̀𝑦𝑒̀ 𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑒̀. No picturesque scenery; each place acts as an emotional landmark. The city circulates in memory before appearing in space. Day falls, journeys continue, ascents and descents punctuate the phrase. The capital is inscribed in a bodily experience. The music accompanies this movement. The compas rhythm forms the backbone. Above it, the guitar introduces a dry, almost plaintive flamenco tension. The brass instruments glide in salsa spirals, inviting an imaginary crowd. Three traditions, one single breath: the Caribbean in conversation with the Latin Atlantic. Nothing ornamental. The combination reproduces the sound reality of Port-au-Prince, a crossroads rather than a stable center. The chorus fixes the essential image: « ou se flanm yon flanbo, yon kat pwen kadino ». The torch illuminates, guides, and transmits. The city preserves what archives ignore: daily commutes, purchases of fresko, dreams bartered at the market, rides in a pickup truck. « Tout bwat sekrè ki san listwa » refers to these memories without administrative records. Casséus's Pòtoprens is a repository of anonymous experiences. Despite everything, despite ourselves, the city is maternal: « yon manman ». Not a patriotic abstraction. A concrete presence, capable of carrying through the rain, sharing fatigue, keeping secrets. The relationship excludes neither pain nor attachment. The song embraces both in the same phrase. To cry, to fall, to start again. The city accompanies, never still. The verses multiply movements: ascending, turning, descending, crossing. The narration rejects fixity. Port-au-Prince appears as permanent circulation, a collective body in motion. The melody follows this logic, turning without definitive closure, restarting each cadence. The capital is inscribed in duration rather than in landscape. In the outro, words become sparse: « Se ou ki la pou banm lebra ». After the places and memories, what remains is the affective function: to support. The song keeps the city standing as much as it keeps the singer. PÒTOPRENS by Jean Venel Casséus is a relay-song. Neither a complaint nor a naive celebration. A writing that walks with the capital, at human height, and entrusts to music the task of maintaining the light during the journey. NB: The album Pa gen mizik pase peyi m is available on all online platforms (YouTube, Spotify, Deezer, Amazon…). February 05, 2026
JV