Interview with Yolande Thomas

Interview with Yolande Thomas, a singer, actress, community leader, and activist in New York and Miami. Thomas enjoyed singing and performing in school productions as a child in Haiti before moving to New York in 1954. There, she studied office management at City College and social work at Adelphi University while raising four children. Along with Reverend Father Guy Sansaricq, and other concerned citizens, Thomas helped found the Haitian Americans United for Progress (HAUP) in the late 1970s. She served as the executive secretary and bookkeeper for HAUP and also worked with migrant workers in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. During this time, she was also very active in the Haitian choir at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Queens, and in 1982, she joined Sosyete Koukouy in New York. In 1985, Thomas moved to Miami and was involved in founding the Miami branch of Sosyete Koukouy. She served as an Administrator at the Pierre Toussaint Haitian Catholic Center at the Notre Dame d’Haiti Catholic Church from 1985 to 2004. Thomas was named the 2013 Mother of the Year for her devoted work within the archdiocese of Miami and the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Queens, and she continues to work to disseminate Haitian culture.