About Carole
Daughter of
Kiskeya,
Voice of a People
Carole Demesmin Arty — known as Carole Arty Manbo Kalala — is a Haitian-born multidisciplinary artist, author, singer, actress, painter, and cultural producer whose five-decade career has made her one of the most revered guardians of Haitian cultural heritage in the world.
Born in the coastal city of Léogâne, Haiti — birthplace of Rara music and deep pre-Columbian tradition — Carole immigrated to the United States during her high school years, bringing with her the oral traditions, spirituality, and folk music of her homeland. She went on to become one of Berklee College of Music's earliest Haitian students, where she forged a signature sound: Haitian folk roots fused with jazz-inflected vocal freedom, guided by the legendary poet-lyricist Jean-Claude Martineau.
Her 1979 debut album Carole Maroule announced an innovator. As Charlot Lucien, cofounder of the Haitian Artists Assembly of Massachusetts, described it: the music "just mesmerized. It was something brand-new." Returning to Haiti in the early 1980s, she deepened her study of Vodou and was ultimately initiated as a priestess — earning the sacred name Manbo Kalala — grounding her artistry in the spiritual traditions of her ancestors.
A prolific recording artist with albums including Min Rara, Lawouze, and Kongayiti-Afrika, she has also acted in film, painted since childhood, lectured at universities, and organized cultural-exchange concerts across the Caribbean, North America, Europe, and beyond. In 2004, she founded United Haitian Artists (UHA) to protect and elevate Haitian artists globally.
Today, as Founder and President of Bel Ayiti Corp, she produces landmark cultural productions — including Ayiti Bèl Nanm at Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center — while writing trilingual literary works bridging the Haitian diaspora across French, English, and Kreyòl Ayisyen.
