This gorgeous mermaid, which now hangs on my wall, was cut from a steel drum by the Haitian artist Nanu, who lives in a Muñoz batéy (Haitian refugee village) in the Dominican Republic. In July of 2012, while visiting the DR for two very short weeks, I became fast friends with his daughter Esmaylove, a jewelry designer in the same batéy. Esmaylove - pronounced Is My Love! - runs the Haitian art shop there. Housed in a tiny tin shack with a dirt floor, its walls and a rustic wooden shelf or two covered with Nanu's steels cuts, Esmaylove's bracelets, earrings, and necklaces, a few paintings, and some darling miniature bottle cap and tin chairs by their friends and neighbors, the art shop serves as both a spirited public gathering place, and an austere gallery which provides a small but essential income for the artists of the batéy.