RALEIGH -- In Haiti, the tap-tap cabs are everywhere.
The colorful and elaborately decorated buses, pickups and vans provide public transportation between cities and villages - often a pleasing contrast with the urban blight of some urban neighborhoods, says Raleigh artist Sean Kernick.
Kernick is using that hopeful image as an idea to raise money for earthquake relief in Haiti. Kernick made a dozen wooden replicas of the tap-taps - named for the sharp taps passengers make on metal panels when they want to be let off - and shipped the models to 12 artists from this area and outside the state to customize.
The resulting works of art will be auctioned off at his Haiti Tap-Tap Benefit from 7 to 10:30 p.m. Saturday at 135 S. Wilmington St., Raleigh. The venue is a former bar upstairs above the restaurant Gravy at the corner of Wilmington and Hargett streets downtown.
The little tap-taps will be the main attraction of the evening, but there will also be a sampling of traditional Haitian food, traditional and popular Haitian music and Haitian artwork that will be auctioned. Several local businesses have also donated products and services.
Besides the silent auction of the tap-taps, Kernick will make a few of the pieces available in an online auction. Artists include Paul Friedrich, Matt Scofield, Amy Richards, Clark Hipolito, Andre Leon Gray and Kernick.
There will be a $5 donation requested at the door. All of the money will go to The Haiti Connection, a Raleigh-based nonprofit. That organization's Web site is thehaiticonnection.org. Bonnie Elam, director of The Haiti Connection, said The Haitian Connection supports children's medical needs. Elam, a physician assistant, said Kernick approached her about the benefit.
"He said he didn't have any money and he wasn't a doctor but he had art, could he help?" Elam said. "I said 'absolutely.'"
For more information on the benefit, see www.taptap bus.com .
