In a place of worship no bigger than the room of a funeral parlor, the sweet chorus of 200 Haitian-Americans sing “I have a song in my heart” with enough grief to make the walls shake.

On River Street in Mattapan, in the heart of Boston’s Haitian community, sits the Haitian Church of the Nazarene. The converted former health clinic also serves as headquarters for the faith-based Greater Boston Nazarene Compassionate Center.

Photographs by Andrew Phelps. Sound by David Boeri.