Zarita Zevallos — CANARSIE

Zarita Zevallos’s project invites members of the Haitian diaspora to read Gouverneur de la rosée by Jacque Roumain and create photographs inspired by the passages that resonate with them, using provided reusable cameras and film. This project aims to generate a living archive that interweaves Haitian literature, philosophy, and personal experience.

Through workshops, creative production, and a community exhibition, participants examine how Roumain’s work continues to echo across distance and generations, affirming diaspora voices as integral to Haitian identity.

Zarita Zevallos is a Haitian photographer, conceptual artist, and architect based in Brooklyn, New York. Her work blends photography with powerful materials—such as thread, bullets, glass, and barbed wire—to explore themes of identity, gender, political injustice, non-conformism, and authoritarianism. By hand-editing and superimposing images of darker-skinned bodies, she creates layered, immersive works that invite viewers to engage with both personal and collective subconscious impulses. For Zarita, art goes beyond the gallery, it is a tool for shaping identity, sparking dialogue, and inspiring transformative action. Her practice seeks not only to educate and raise awareness but also to ignite movement, challenge norms, and envision change through thought-provoking visual narratives. Zarita holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from CUNY and a minor in Engineering from the Inter-American University, reflecting her academic journey in Puerto Rico. Her work has been exhibited at venues including Steven Kasher Gallery, Chashama, Haiti Cultural Exchange, Photoville, ICP Museum, and the University of Illinois Chicago, among others.