Postcolonial Lab Project Gives UAlbany Students Taste of Local Haitian Cuisine

Students are seated at a table in a restaurant eating plates of Haitian food.
Students recently visited the local A.J.W. Caribbean Restaurant for a taste of Haitian food as part of the Postcolonial Lab Project at UAlbany. (Photos by Bethany Bump)

By Bethany Bump

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 11, 2025) — Parnel Boyer Jr. got a rare taste of home during a recent class outing to A.J.W. Caribbean Restaurant, a Colonie establishment specializing in Haitian fare.

It was a special moment for the UAlbany sophomore, who was born in Haiti and moved to Long Island with his family when he was 10. Haitian cuisine is not always easy to find in America outside the family home, Boyer explained. When he transferred to UAlbany this semester from St. John’s University in Queens, Boyer found himself further from home and the food that reminded him of it than ever before.  

Students are seated around plates of food at a restaurant and listen as a woman in the front of the room speaks to the group.
Ermione Clement, owner of A.J.W. Caribbean Restaurant, discusses popular Haitian food dishes with visiting UAlbany students.

For Boyer, it wasn’t just the food at A.J.W. Caribbean Restaurant that reminded him of home. It was the women preparing it, as well as the communal experience he got to enjoy with his fellow students.

“You see how we’re all sitting down here, everybody’s mingling? That would be dinner at my house,” he recalled. “The family would come. The neighbors would come. Any little excuse for a gathering we would take and it would be centered around food, because that’s how we kept the community alive.”

The Postcolonial Lab project, which is open to students across various humanities courses at UAlbany, will be hosting other events this semester, including some with a continued focus on food, identity and culture. On April 10, students will have an opportunity to hear directly from recipients and organizers of a program in Hudson, N.Y. that provides culturally appropriate meals to Latinx, Caribbean and Asian immigrant communities.