Spearheading much of mainland Miami nightlife's response to the tragedy in Haiti is a man known as the Haitian Hillbilly. Born Alain Maximilien, this hipster redneck (of sorts) not only spent many of his more formative years on the island nation, but also his father runs Maison des Anges, a 120-child orphanage just outside Port-au-Prince. And while (thankfully) everyone there survived the quake, the structure itself did not fare as well. Both children and staff are all living in tents set up on the orphanage's grounds.
That's the good news. The bad news is that Maximilien lost a half-brother.
But, as you might suspect, this is not Maximilien's first rodeo in that perennially crippled nation. He has been involved periodically with (and remains a staunch advocate of) Project Medishare, a University of Miami School of Medicine group that has brought health care to the Haitian hinterlands since 1994. And his persona was actually born in that country, after a chat in a Port-au-Prince bar led to a spot on Radio NBC. To read the full piece about the Haitian Hillbilly on Crossfade, click here.
