Kamee Abrahamian

Kamee Abrahamian is a queer SWANA artist, storyteller, and producer whose work summons ancestral reclamation, diasporic futurism, and justice. Their creative practice is collaborative and oriented towards generative, visionary world-building. They have degrees in cinema, poli-sci, art therapy, and a PhD in community and liberation psychology, and their work spans across narrative/documentary film, visual/media art, multimedia storytelling, staged/immersive performances, and workshop facilitation.

Kamee’s projects have been supported by several organizations across Canada, USA and Armenia. Kamee is also a Pushcart nominated writer, literary alumni at VONA and Banff Center for Arts, Lambda-awarded theatre maker, Creative Capital and DocX fellow. They recently published a children’s book and organized a 4-day arts program for a gathering of 4000 global-south feminists in Bangkok for AWID (Association for Women’s Rights in Development). Kamee’s most recent short documentary “Symptom” (2024) premiered at the San Fransisco Doc Fest (of which Kamee received an Artist Fund grant to attend), and they are now developing multiple projects for the screen.

This month, Kamee is facilitating a 5-week Visionary Futures course at the County Arts Lab. Taking place on Wednesday evenings from 5:30-7:30 PM starting May 7th, this course is ideal for those who are keen on developing their storytelling skills in a group setting, and those who are inspired by genre-bending, science/speculative fiction, experimental memoir, and creative non-fiction genres. With a flexible format to allow for collaboration and sharing, or working more introspectively, the course explores the questions: What does it look like to imagine ourselves and our communities into the future? And how do we conjure alternatives that explore and expand our current realities?

With so many incredible projects on the go, we were delighted to have Kamee give us a glimpse into what we can expect from them in the near future, as well as recent projects, inspiration, and the perfect place to relax and work.

Tell us about any projects you have going on this month:

In addition to facilitating the Visionary Futures course, I’m also working with Emily Sanders and Cristina Meillon to launch a pop-up artist residency at the Picton Farmers Market called Common Grounds. And, very soon, I’ll be launching a creative studio with my creative partner, Emily Mkrtichian. It’s called Cazimi Studios and we’re really excited!

What have you worked on recently that has you excited?

It’s been a very busy year! My children’s book “The Brighter I Shine” was published, my short documentary Symptom premiered at SF Doc Fest and continues to circulate at festivals, and my latest visual art collection “Flesh, Immemorial” debuted at the Maxim Gorky Theater in Berlin. I also wrote a personal essay that was featured in Al-Hayya Magazine, received the Creative Capital Award for a film anthology called Portals, published a community zine called Interrupture with Emily Sanders, and organized a multi-day arts program for a gathering of 4000 global-south feminist activists in Bangkok for the 2024 AWID Forum.

Tell us about another artist’s artwork/artistic project you’ve experienced recently that made an impact on you:

I just got back from the DocX Residency at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, where I had the pleasure and privilege to be part of a cohort made up of some of my favorite filmmakers. The theme of the residency was “Another World is Possible.” It was such a beautiful experience, to come together with a group of folks that I admired so deeply, and whose work intersects with my own in such urgently profound ways (visionary world-building, radical archival work, etc.). On the other side of it now, I really feel like our gathering became, in many ways, akin to generating an-other world.

Where is your favourite place to work on your art?

Although this is an imaginary place, various elements of which I have surely experienced but never simultaneously, I still think it counts as my favourite place to work on art:

I’m sitting in a brightly-lit room overlooking the mountains of my homeland, the fog is rolling in. On my desk, there is burning frankincense, a bowl of fruit, a pot of tea made with flowers and herbs I just picked that morning. My cat is curled up on my lap, purring. On my headphones, I’m listening to Sayat Nova, a famous Armenian composer. Nearby, my child is playing, reading, or spending time with my mother or partner.