Emerante Morse

Emerante Morse was born Emerante de Pradines in Haiti on 24 September 1918. The daughter of Haitian entertainer Auguste de Pradines (better known as Ti Candio), de Pradines is a singer, dancer and folklorist.

De Pradines went to Washinton, DC, in 1941 as a featured singer and dancer in a troupe led by Lina Mathion Blanchet. After her return to Haiti, de Pradines performed in a regular concert series at the Rex Theater in Port-au-Prince. She often sang renditions of traditional vodou songs, "then a novelty in Haitian social life".

De Pradines sang Vodou songs in Creole on the radio when it was dangerous to do so, and was the first Haitian singer to sign a recording contract with a record company. She married Richard M. Morse, a Latin-American scholar and writer from the United States who she met while studying in New York with Martha Graham. Her albums were released internationally, including by Smithsonian Folkways in the United States.

She and her husband had one daughter and one son, Richard A. Morse, who also became a musician and prominent public figure in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

De Pradines Morse was one of six women profiled in a documentary film by director Arnold Antonin entitled Six Exceptional Haitian Women (Six femmes d’exception).