MIWA | Talie and Lunise Cerin
SHOWTIMES • NOV 6 @ 7PM | NOV 7 @ 7PM | NOV 8 @ 7PM
ICEBOX PROJECT SPACE • 1400 N American St, Philadelphia, PA 19122
about the show
MIWA, Haitian Creole for “mirror,” is a powerful new musical and visual experience from Haitian-American sisters Talie Cerin and Lunise Cerin. Talie and Lunise blend music and film into a transporting exploration of everyday and sacred rituals of care passed through generations. Through this mirror, MIWA asks:
How do we carry cultural legacies—both spoken and unspoken—into the present?
Rooted in both ancestral memory and contemporary life, MIWA traces the threads that connect Haitian women across geography and time. Filmmaker Lunise Cerin gathers stories and visuals in Haiti and the U.S. and interweaves them into a five-part film collage, while singer/songwriter Talie Cerin mines personal and diasporic influences—Haitian folk, spirituals, and soul—for a musical portrait of Haitian spirit.
The sisters’ creative dialogue will become an evocative live performance premiering in Philadelphia in November 2025. MIWA audiences will wander through an unfolding series of small, immersive worlds crafted by artist/maker Nia Benjamin to house and highlight Lunise’s film in five distinctive experiences, leading to a culminating performance of MIWA’s music featuring Talie on vocals and guitar, alongside a stellar ensemble.
Amid ongoing displacement and cultural disconnection, MIWA offers a space of reconnection through song, ritual, and story. This living project invites us to see ourselves, clearly and tenderly, through the lens of our culture, and each other.
about the artists
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about the artists •
Talie (Nathalie Cerin) is a Philadelphia-based singer-songwriter and cultural worker originally from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her music, a mixture of Haitian folk and soul music, is a testament to the two cultures that have shaped her as an artist and woman. Accompanied by her trusty guitar, Talie sings to honor a rich and difficult past and to present hopeful visions for the future for anyone searching for peace. In 2019, Talie released “Solèy Midi,” a twinkling collection of original compositions and Haitian folk songs chronicling a journey to find the sun. Solèy Midi is available on all major music purchasing and streaming platforms.
Talie is also the Lead Editor and co-founder of Woy Magazine, an online platform that aims to serve as a meeting place for Haitians in Haiti and abroad. Woy's content is available in Kreyòl and English, exploring history, politics, and the arts through its blog, weekly newsletter, and multimedia projects.
Connect with Talie through Instagram, stream her album “Soléy Midi” and read Woy Magazine.
Lunise Cerin is a Writer, Director, Editor, and Story Producer from Port-au-Prince and Philadelphia. Cerin began her film career in Los Angeles at SVOD Black and Sexy TV, where she worked for seven years as a writer, director, editor, and producer across multiple seasons of web series produced by the network. In 2018, she moved back to Haiti and began working as a feature documentary editor and story producer, most recently on “The Fight For Haiti” (2024), directed by Etant Dupain. Cerin returned to the US and received an MFA in screenwriting from Columbia University in 2024, where she was accepted with the Bridges Larson Fellowship. Her portfolio film VICTORINE is currently touring the festival circuit.
Cerin is currently in post-production for her directorial debut, the documentary film "Miwa," a project that received support from the William Penn Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and IPMF. After graduating from Columbia, Cerin began to pursue her second passion, education and community media making.
Stay up to date with Lunise on her Instagram, and visit the Miwa project’s website.
Nia Benjamin is a Black agender, queer director of experimental theatre and multidisciplinary artist— working in film, projection and installation designer, video arts . Their work uses the synthesis of dance, poetry, live music, theatre and video arts to create live performances about the sovereignty, liberation and interiority of Black and Brown, queer and trans* people. Nia is the Co-Artistic Director of Ninth Planet, a Philadelphia based experimental theatre company that makes original works of performance that centers people of color, women, queer and trans* people. Recent credits include: Fallawayinto (2025, Director) On Buried Ground (2024, Director/Co-Creator), Esto No Tiene Nombre by Denice Frohman (2023, Projection and Production Designer), high noon (2024, Director, Co-Creator).
You can follow Nia on their Instagram page.
meet the band
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Mollie Ducoste began taking violin lessons at three years old in group Suzuki classes. She studied classically until college at Hampton University, where she began pursuing jazz violin while completing a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. She has spent summers playing her jazz violin in New Orleans with Ellis Marsalis, Wendell Brunious, Carl LeBlanc, Charmaine Neville, and Tonya Boyd-Cannon. A North Carolina native, Mollie relocated to the Philadelphia area in 2017, where she has since released two EPs, Voices and Taste under her artist name, Mollie Rose.
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Veronica MJ is an instrumentalist, DJ, educator, and curator based in Philadelphia. She is drawn to sound involving the intersection of experimental, improvisational, and traditional practice; has a passion for creating and realizing diverse types of artistic programs and communal art experiences; and is an active member of the creative and Latin music scene in Philadelphia. A versatile musician, Veronica shape-shifts as both a violinist and violist as well as between different genres and languages within music. Most recently, Veronica is an active DJ on the Afro-Latin dance scene in Philadelphia, producing and organizing salsa and bachata events throughout the area.
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As a young musician in Philadelphia, Dariel Peniazek had the great privilege to be surrounded and inspired by some of the most prolific Jazz, R&b, and gospel players on the scene today. As his career progressed, his love for Latin-American and afro-caribbean music led him to his own musical crossroads, combining the grit and soul of Philadelphia with the captivating rhythms of Latin America. Dariel has shared the stage with a plethora of artists from a variety of musical worlds, including Alain Perez, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Javier Colina, Perico Sambeat, John Swana, David Rivera, Arturo Stable, Braxton Cook, Roman Filiu, Fernando Costa, and others.
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Timothy Ragsdale is an accomplished bassist and influential educator. Hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Timothy is a versatile musician proficient in electric and upright bass with a repertoire spanning from jazz, R&B, soul, gospel and beyond. Timothy's musical journey began playing in churches in Philadelphia, later studying at West Chester University where he earned a BA in Classical Music Performance. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with a diverse array of artist and ensembles including but not limited to The Sun Ra Arkestra ,The Black Pearl Orchestra, Marvin Sapp, Denise King and many more.
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Born and raised in New York City and now based in Philadelphia, Stephanie Rose crafts music that is both raw and vulnerable. Her songs explore self-love, desire, and the freedom of choosing oneself, offering listeners a safe space to feel whatever they need in the moment. With an honest sound that flows and shifts like water, her music invites you to return again and again, each time finding something new to hold onto. Stephanie Rose is currently working on her first EP with her leading single, little bird (ti zwazo) out on all streaming platforms.
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Arturo Stable is a Grammy-winning percussionist, composer, and creative visionary whose career bridges continents and cultures. Originally from Cuba, he has performed and recorded with many of today’s leading jazz and world artists while releasing five acclaimed albums as a bandleader. Arturo’s music blends jazz, Afro-Cuban traditions, and contemporary sounds into a distinctive voice that is both innovative and deeply rooted. Beyond the stage, he has directed international festivals, produced documentaries, and taught at UCLA, Berklee College and the University of the Arts among others. With every project, Arturo inspires audiences through rhythm, creativity, and a commitment to artistic excellence.
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Mervin Toussaint is a Philadelphia-based saxophonist, composer, and educator whose music blends jazz, church music, and contemporary influences. A Haitian American artist, he grew up in the Haitian church and, since moving to Philadelphia in 2016, has performed with The Temptations, The Four Tops, Mike Boone, and V. Shayne Frederick. As a bandleader, he has appeared at South Jazz Kitchen, Chris’ Jazz Café, and the MAAS Building, often collaborating with poets and spoken-word artists. His 2022 debut album, LAKAY, explores themes of home, identity, loss, and spirituality. Beyond performing, Toussaint is deeply committed to music education, using his experience to mentor the next generation of artists.
Lead funding for MIWA was provided by the William Penn Foundation, with additional support from the Independence Public Media Fund, and development support from the National Endowment of the Arts.