Laurie ‘Zamí’ Germain | CROWN HEIGHTS

Zamí’s project is informed and motivated by the culturally “deviant”, gender dynamic, and generationally displaced. Engaging in contemplative storytelling through oral history practice, Germain will hold the space for narrators to guide us through their contemporary experiences of our familial and ancestral culture, as experienced through their Lakou.

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Zamí is a Haitian-made, African-grown, non-binary cultural worker. They grew up in  Southern and Eastern Africa before moving to the U.S  at  fourteen, and attended boarding school in Rhode Island before graduating from NYU.  Zamí believes that growing up in different countries is part of what has made them a storyteller: learning from an early age how to observe, to listen, and take the time to unravel the narratives that give explanation to culture and reason to experience. As a writer, they know that their most honest & impactful work, at its core, is also a study of self. This is how Zamí has developed work that stems from their center: 2NDGENders, a multimedia home for queer & trans, second generation immigrants to gather at the intersections of our stories. Based in Brooklyn,  they can be found in conversation with their community in their day to day life, and on the 2NDGENders Podcast. Zamí is a Future Voices Fellow, pursuing their masters degree in Oral History at Columbia University.