Urim Hong: City Soleil: a melody of hope | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

MonoVisions Black & White Photo Contest 2025

City Soleil is a small village within the Port-au-Prince in Haiti. Unlike its name–City of the Sun–however, it seems as though there is only a glimpse of light remaining. The city has become poor as its history of rebellion and conflict extorted its economic power. What is more, because the people were not able to have proper drainage system, their home was crammed with unfiltered waste and sewage. Overall, this part of the city today is experiencing extreme poverty and hunger, unemployment, formation of armed gangs, violations under violence, as well as various diseases and, for this reason, the United Nations has announced City Soleil as one of the most dangerous villages of the world. Ironically, though, the majority portion of the population of City Soleil consists of children; that is, 65% of its population is under the age of twenty five. Wherever you turn your eyes, you will see children in this little village–children who are familiar with living amidst trash and pigs. The children in this village are exposed to poverty and violence; they watch and learn from the adults, following their footsteps.
As City Soleil Project made progress, I began to wonder what one can actually do to make change for the children in this little village where hope and despair coexisted. It was around that time I got to have a casual conversation with musicians from Kansas City who were also visiting to support the children. We discussed about establishing a music school and, to our surprise, we were soon able to receive a donation of great number of musical instruments which enabled us to actualize our little talk. We initiated humbly and it did not take long to see a great crowd of children gathered at the door of the music school.

‘City Soleil: a melody of hope’ was the Black & White People Series of the Year 3rd place Winner in the MonoVisions Photography Awards 2019.