Pronouns: They/Them
New York native LaMar Thompson-Hightower has an innate passion for service, having found a strong desire to “help others to help themselves” at an early age. Growing up in the marginalized and oft-undeserved Brownsville community in Brooklyn was a significant contributor to their passions and informed their educational pursuits. LaMar received a BS in Applied Psychology and a BA in Sociology at New York University and an MSW focused on Community Organizing, Communities, and Social Systems at the University of Michigan. They seek to make critical thinking skills and resource navigation knowledge accessible to people of all backgrounds. This access must be available to people of color and those who identify as LGBTQ, two communities that mirror LaMar’s most salient identities.
LaMar entered digital communications after serving in a community organizer role on Warren for President's Michigan team. That's where they learned that digital is organizing. Using their social work background and digital training, LaMar’s work centered around three objectives: building communities, engaging communities, and activating communities. With the use of storytelling, social media, and content creation. LaMar describes themself as a meme queen as they use Pop-culture and current events to engage low propensity voters, specifically young Black and Brown voters. LaMar has served as Deputy Digital Director and Social Media Strategist on National Campaigns and in battleground states.
As a social worker, LaMar help's the most marginalized folks in Detroit, Black and Brown queer people struggling to navigate health systems. They transitioned this work into portraiture with hopes of connecting people to community resources and mutual aid like They do as a social worker. They continue that work in their artistry by telling stories to humanize the other. Black/brown, Queer, fat, woman, disabled, poor, and other marginalized bodies in the status quo. They hope that people use those stories to not only understand the complexity of the other but as a way of staying away from the dangers of a single account. Their joy is conversing about power, privilege, and access to hope to lead to lasting change. They are inspired by shit starters like James Baldwin and Marsha P. Johnson. Visually, They enjoy artists like Mary Ellen Mark, who focused on humanizing people in struggle. Artistically, I’m inspired by Mary’s environmental photography technique, including crisp natural light and high contrast black and white portraiture.
