Artist Info: Beken

The Haitian singer Beken, whose government name is Jean Prosper Dauphin, was born in Port-au-Prince in 1956. When he was twelve he lost a leg in a car accident. In Haiti, a cripple without means is condemned to the life of a malere-one of the permanently wretched of the earth. Luckier than many, Beken attended Sainte Eternité School, which serves disabled children, and managed to complete high school by the age of nineteen-more education than most Haitians can win. [read more...]