Sony Ton-Aime believes stories can shape a community

For Sony Ton-Aime, executive director of Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures, devotion to literature extends beyond mere passion and career. It constitutes an intrinsic element of life itself.

“Stories for me are everything,” he says. “It is the way I make sense of the world.”

Ton-Aime, 33, is a native of Ouanaminthe, Haiti, and a published poet, essayist and translator. He came to Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures last October after three years at the historic Chautauqua Institution as Michael I. Rudell Director of Literary Arts.

Launched in 1991 as the Three Rivers Lecture Series with a reading by Point Breeze native and Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard, Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures today annually presents 30-40 national and local authors in lecture and workshop programs that promote public discourse on topics from racism and climate change to homelessness and the latest medical discoveries.

The series resumes March 25 with author Tracy Kidder, whose latest nonfiction work, “Rough Sleepers,” documents the dedicated medical team that created Boston Health Care for the Homeless. 

Ton-Aime began writing poetry and fiction in his teens. After earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Kent State University in 2014, he returned to Haiti to work as an accountant.

The ever-present allure of stories — his own and others — drew him back to Kent State two years later to pursue an MFA degree in creative writing and poetry.

NEXTpittsburgh spoke with Ton-Aime on the role he believes Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures can play in the city’s ongoing cultural conversation.

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NEXTpittsburgh: Were you an active reader at an early age?

Sony Ton-Aime: Yes, very early on. I’m so grateful for the environment where I was raised, where storytelling is important. In Haiti, we call our poets and storytellers samba. They were the wise people in our community, and as a child, I could not get enough of it. To tell stories myself and facilitate others to tell and share their own stories is what I’ve dedicated my life to. And I think it’s a noble calling.

NEXTpittsburgh: The importance of storytelling in shaping society is getting new recognition.

Ton-Aime: We need stories. We need to tell better stories. We need to tell stories that will stick with people and connect with people. And then people will see themselves in the story, right? We need to tell stories with all of our flaws along with our strengths, too, so they can guide us to a better future.

NEXTpittsburgh: So, the public discussion of stories Arts & Lectures provides is a way to promote connection among Pittsburghers?

Ton-Aime: We think of reading and writing as solitary occupations, but they are also communal occupations done in solitude. When we read, we are in conversation with the author, with the characters and also with potential other readers we may be in conversation with later.

That’s what I mean by it being communal. We may sit in our room reading by ourselves, but we are in conversation with the past, the future and our present right now. If you’re reading a book and you’re enjoying it, you have in your head a group of people you are looking forward to discussing this book with.

NEXTpittsburgh: The Arts & Lectures series transforms reading a book into something much bigger.

Ton-Aime: It makes the whole experience of reading a book complete. The individual feels like, “I cannot wait to share what I’ve learned and expand this experience by meeting with my family, my friends and my community.” You have not only read the book and discussed it with others, but you have also heard the author and have your theories about the book validated by the author.

NEXTpittsburgh: As a poet, how have you gone about finding a “voice” that conveys on the page what you’re feeling as a person?

Ton-Aime: My poetic voice has changed, and that is something I have to be very aware of. First, I would say that I have three different personalities. I am one person, but three different personalities based on the three languages I speak.

When I’m speaking Haitian Kreyòl, I’m very at ease. I can be funny, I am completely myself. When I’m speaking French, I have a different personality. It is the “literate Sony.” It is the Sony that is very aware he is educated, because when I was growing up in Haiti, every time I spoke French, it was for something very official, either at school or for an important meeting. So this Sony speaking French is one that is a little bit pompous, I should say.

Then there is the English-speaking Sony, where I am very self-conscious because this is a language I know I’m still mastering. It is one where I feel there’s a lot of growing yet to happen.

NEXTpittsburgh: What language are you writing in currently?

Ton-Aime: I’m writing in English right now. Most of my poetry is in English. Yet, I am a Haitian poet, and I want that to be the case no matter where I am. The reason I want that to be the case is, in Haiti we still have Haitian poets writing in French.

NEXTpittsburgh: But you’ve chosen to write in English while in the U.S.

Ton-Aime: My voice is a constant translator when it comes to writing our poetry. I am constantly translating the Haitian experience into English, and I do that for two reasons. The first one is I truly believe it is important for English speakers to be familiar with the Haitian experience.

The second one is a way for myself to be connected with my homeland of Haiti that I haven’t seen in six years now. I’m connected to these people, although I haven’t seen them in a long time. In poetry I bring them with me. I bring all of my friends, the ancestors, all the people who will come later with me. I want to be seen as a Haitian poet writing in English.

NEXTpittsburgh: You’ve also helped relate stories of marginalized people.

Ton-Aime: While I was doing my master’s at Kent State, two friends found a grant to start a book club at the state prison in Conneaut, Ohio. Every Wednesday we would have 30 minutes of book discussion and 30 minutes of writing poetry. I saw people who were in prison for life, and they had never lost hope. I was impressed by that. I started talking more and more with them and asking them to write more about their world as they experienced it.

NEXTpittsburgh: How important is it for us to hear stories from people who, in many cases, will be locked away from society for years, maybe the rest of their life?

Ton-Aime: I do believe that we are all poets, and the only thing that I offered was a form for them to look a little bit deeper to what they were seeing all around themselves and put it on paper. I don’t think they learned that much from me, but I learned so much from them and am so grateful for that experience.

Those are the things I try to keep with me and bring with me every time I talk with people. To talk about the idea of hope, the change that can happen. Not hope just for oneself but for everyone when we shift our perception to see the things we take for granted.

NEXTpittsburgh: Are there new directions you and your team might be developing for future Arts & Lectures series?

Ton-Aime: What we want to accomplish is giving folks the ability to come together and discuss very important topics, sometimes very uncomfortable topics. We want to create a sense of empathy so that our conversation is a way to broaden what we call our community. We’re going to get informed about other people’s way of life, right? What they cherish. What they fear. It’s a point of departure.

And then, how do we sustain this moment of realization a person has that “I, too, can write my own story?” How do we sustain this? How does Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures assist those future writers as they write their own stories? What better ways can we encourage them so that someday they might be our next speakers?

I believe that in 10 years we’re going to have a speaker whose first contact with writing was through Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures. I truly believe that, and it’s something I’m very excited about.

NEXTpittsburgh: It seems Pittsburgh and Arts & Lectures is taking a very active role in the local literary scene.

Ton-Aime: We want to provide more support for writers because Pittsburgh cares about writers. Pittsburgh is such a vibrant city, and there are so many opportunities. We have the most generous community here in Pittsburgh. What we’re doing right now is connecting writers with the different local bookstores. A writer can come to this bookstore and give a reading, and we will be there with you and support you.