1804 Books is a not-for-profit bookstore and press housed within The People’s Forum. Its name honors the year of the Haitian Revolution’s victory, a milestone that redefined liberation movements throughout the Americas. The store serves as a hub for socialist literature and revolutionary theory.

As a community bookstore, 1804 Books curates accessible, internationalist resources that support political education, organizing, and movement building. Drawing inspiration from 1804, when the Haitian people overthrew colonial rule and white supremacy, the bookstore brings together the histories and theories needed to advance ongoing struggles for freedom.

As a press, 1804 Books publishes works created by and for those committed to a world free of oppression and exploitation. Its catalog reflects a broad spectrum of global movements and radical thought.

Visitors are encouraged to stop in, explore the collection, attend events and classes at The People’s Forum, and engage with the Political Education Resource Platform. All bookstore proceeds directly sustain The People’s Forum’s educational and cultural programming.

Jazmine Arelis Catasùs is an artist and educator primarily working with print and papermaking. Her practice is concerned with the intersections of ornamentation, materiality, spiritual practices, and Black Subjectivity.  She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Jazmine has taught printmaking and papermaking workshops at several institutions, including Dieu Donné, the Center for Contemporary Printmaking, the International Print Center of New York, The Museum of Modern Art, and the Noguchi Museum. Her work has been exhibited nationally, most recently at the National Arts Club (NYC). She is the Artistic Director/Master Printer at  EFA-Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop and serves on the Board of  Handpapermaking Inc. Jazmine has attended residencies at The Bard Graduate Center, The Penland School of Crafts, and the Morgan Conservatory.

Lunise Cerin is a Writer, Director, Editor, and Story Producer from Port-au-Prince and Philadelphia. Cerin began her film career in Los Angeles at SVOD Black and Sexy TV, where she worked for seven years as a writer, director, editor, and producer across multiple seasons of web series produced by the network. In 2018, she moved back to Haiti and began working as a feature documentary editor and story producer, most recently on The Fight For Haiti (2024), directed by Etant Dupain. Cerin returned to the US and received an MFA in screenwriting from Columbia University in 2024, where she was accepted with the Bridges Larson Fellowship. Her portfolio film VICTORINE is currently touring the festival circuit. Cerin is currently in post-production for her directorial debut, the documentary film Miwa, for which she received William Penn, NEA, and IPMF grants. After graduating from Columbia, Cerin began to pursue her second passion, education and community media making.

Jazy Cintron is a Bronx native, seasoned Yoga Educator, Teaching Artist, Photographer, and Community Wellness Advocate. She is the founder of Lofty Heights Movement, an initiative that cultivates joyful, creative spaces through movement, literacy, and visual arts. The organization empowers BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities to reclaim their bodies and build networks of resilience. Passionate about movement, social justice, and accessibility, Jazy provides supportive spaces where individuals can explore their bodies at their own pace, fostering self-awareness, healing, and empowerment through mindful practice.

tasha dougé is a Bronx-bred & based, Haitian-infused conceptual visual and performance artist, activist, and cultural vigilante. Her practice leans on experimentation with different mediums that excavate and examine the nuances of the human experience. She has been featured in Sugarcane Magazine, Essence, and The New York Times. Her work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at The Apollo Theater, Harlem, NY; Rush Arts Gallery, Philadelphia, PA; BronxArtSpace, Bronx, NY; The Shed, New York, NY; and RISD Museum, Providence, RI.

Laurena Finéus is a Haitian-Canadian artist born and raised in Ottawa, Ontario. Her practice explores representations of Black geographies, maroon ideologies, and migratory patterns. She investigates themes of statelessness, land, and emotional fugitivity, beginning with the Haitian migration crisis that has unfolded from the 1980s to the present.

Finéus holds an MFA from Columbia University (2024) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Ottawa (2020). Her work has been exhibited at The Shed, New York (2025); the Brooklyn Museum (2024); the Hudson River Museum (2023); the Ottawa Art Gallery (2021); Karsh-Masson Gallery (2021); and Art Mûr (2019), among others. Her work is part of several private and public collections internationally, including the  Canada Council Art Bank, RBC Bank, the City of Ottawa Art Collection, Manulife Global, and Google. She has received numerous awards, including the 2024 Saunderson Prize, the 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation Grant, the 2022–2023 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, the 2022 Ottawa Arts Council IBPOC Emerging Artist Award, and the 2019 Ineke Harmina Standish Memorial Award.

Finéus’s work has been featured in Juxtapoz, Essence, Hyperallergic, Forbes, and Sheer Worldwide Magazine. She is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.

Ruth Jean-Marie earned her Master’s of Science degree in Human Rights and International Law from New York University. She founded The August Project, a non-profit that leverages objective storytelling to do good, better. Her opinions on the geopolitical relationship of Haiti and the rest of the world have been published in Ebony, TravelNoire, Blavity, The Haitian Times, America Hates Us, and more. She is on the Forbes List Next 1000 Upstart Entrepreneurs and has been named an American Express Founder of Change. Most recently, she completed the Global Social Impact House with CSIS at UPenn. 

From co-creating a sneaker with Nike (that sold out!) to hosting workshops on how giving technically works, The August Project’s goal is to create better do-gooders, an archive of thoughtful narratives, and more empowered people on the ground. The Brooklyn-born daughter of Haitian immigrants, Jean-Marie says she wants to reframe how poverty is treated and looked upon. She is currently working on a coffee table book that features stories of Haitians worldwide. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to literacy projects. 

Kinfolk Tech is a nonprofit using immersive technology, public art, and community-led design to help displaced and excluded communities tell their own stories—and shape their own legacies. We believe every community deserves the tools to preserve its past and imagine its future. Through co-creation and cutting-edge storytelling, we transform memory into a force for justice, belonging, and possibility.

Wynnie Lamour-Quansah is an Educator with a focus on Language & Communication. She founded the Haitian Creole Language Institute of New York in 2013 and, in 2017, co-founded Jaden Timoun (Kreyòl for Kids) with Early Childhood Education Specialist Darnelle Champagne. Wynnie has a BA in Linguistics from Cornell University and an MA in Urban Affairs from CUNY Queens College. Wynnie’s philosophy of teaching is rooted in the idea of “Mindfulness”, which promotes community and connectedness, while establishing a sense of pride and respect for both the Haitian language and culture. Wynnie’s work includes Rakontay Vèdi: Verite sou Tanbou nan Jaden Timoun, a co-authored collection of original short stories written entirely in Haitian Creole. She is a contributing editor to The Haiti Reader: History, Culture, and Politics and is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor of Haitian Creole at NYU Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

David Jean Philippe is the founder and creative director of From the Arxhive, a streetwear brand rooted in storytelling, cultural memory, and archival aesthetics. He continues to explore the intersection of fashion, community, education, and art, and how those elements can live meaningfully in physical spaces. Utilizing the power of storytelling, David produced branded content to highlight the next generation of artists, creators, and leaders who are reclaiming their sense of identity. In 2022, David launched a core curriculum called Inner Child Blues - a youth impact initiative that promotes emotional intelligence, cultural impact, and leadership development.

S. “PhaFa” Roy is a Haitian-American artist, illustrator, and maker from Brooklyn, New York. Her work blends cultural narratives, personal style, and fashion into vibrant visual storytelling. Using watercolor, colored pencil, ink, marker, acrylic, gold leaf, wood, and felt, she explores identity, heritage, and community with meticulous craftsmanship. Alongside her creative practice, PhaFa serves as Assistant Dean of Academic Operations & Community Engagement at Parsons School of Design, where she fosters an inclusive culture and manages strategic initiatives that enrich academic life. Whether in the studio or educational leadership, PhaFa is dedicated to inspiring connection, creativity, and collaboration—bridging artistic expression with the structures that sustain it.

Zamí 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. 

Zamí is what Gloria Anzaldúa would call a nepantlera, meaning their assignment within nepantla is to aid others through it, to hold the space as they unravel the particularity of navigating identities from multiple borders and many betweens. They are leaning into the role of the nepantlera and griot for their community: the role of diasporic historian, record-keeper of deaths and rebirths, preserver of queer genealogies, and witness to 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 an OHMA Future Voices fellow and 2024-2025 Artist in Residence with Haiti Cultural Exchange.

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