LAKOU SEKRÈ // SAKRE is an altar to the queer Haitian experience in Brooklyn. The participatory, oral history installation is inspired by el secreto abierto, or the open secret ~ a phrase coined by Rosmand King to articulate the ways that queerness is the Caribbean moves as something seen but unsaid, resulting in a mandate of discretion around what is perceived as culturally transgressive approaches to love and sexuality.
LAKOU SEKRÈ // SAKRE makes undeniable what hides in plain sight in terms of the queer diasporic Haitian experience: the laughter, the love, the invisibility, the tension, the tenderness, the care, the things that our Lakou’s house but often refuse to home. The installation denies that refusal through an embodied encounter with the open secret, and the invitation to step into its embrace and listen to the life worlds alive within.
LAKOU-SEKRE-__-SAKRE-_-A-Spiralist-Methodology-PaperLaurie Germain is a Haitian-made, African-grown, Brooklyn-based, cultural [&] memory worker. With their collaborators, they explore questions around queer diasporic experience under the intention of [remembering] [imagining] pathways towards personal and collective liberations. As a writer and artist, they know that their most honest & impactful work, at its core, is also a study of self. As an oral historian, they work with the oral history encounter, and the archive generated from it, as prompts for creative reflection through mixed mediums. Based in Brooklyn, they can be found in conversation with their community in their day to day life, and on the 2NDGENders Podcast. Laurie is a 2023 OHMA Future Voices fellow and 2024-2025 Artist in Residence with Haiti Cultural Exchange.