Riva Nyri Précil

Haitian culture and its beauty

Riva Nyri Précil was born in Brooklyn, New York, but moved to Haiti when she was 5 years old.  Her mother—a journalist and Brooklynite of Irish and Russian background decided to relocate with her daughter and Précil’s father—a lawyer from Haiti—after she was offered a job working as Haiti’s foreign press liaison.  Living in Haiti, Précil said, definitely awakened the artist inside of her. She started beading, dancing, singing, painting. She even took classes with the legendary Haitian sculptor Tika.  Précil’s mother moved her back to Brooklyn when she was 15, after the political situation in Haiti began to grow dangerously unstable.

Today, she is gigging locally with her new band in small venues across the city. After releasing her her first album “Perle De Culture”, she is constantly gigging around the world to promote Haitian culture and its beauty. She has performed at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival —alongside Emeline Michel —Carifesta XII hosted in Haiti, the Haitian Flag Day Celebration at Brooklyn’s Borough Hall, and various other ceremonies. Recently, she has been working with a label, “Strictly Rhythm” to musically expand her horizon and work in different styles of music such as Afro House and dance music. She describes her music as kind of like if Sade or Erykah Badu were to have a Haitian album.