Life, Values & Legacy: Our Chat with Agajuan Culmer

We’re looking forward to introducing you to Agajuan Culmer. Check out our conversation below.

Hi Agajuan, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What battle are you avoiding?
The battle I’ve been avoiding is the one with myself the version of me that still doubts, still shrinks, still questions whether I’m worthy of taking up space.
Releasing Village Van Gogh taught me that hiding from that battle only delays my freedom.
So instead of avoiding it now, I’m learning to face it with softness, truth, and unshakeable belief in the artist I’m becoming.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Ajaewan, and I’m a Bahamian singer-songwriter, creative director, and visual storyteller. I create from the intersections of music, culture, identity, and lived experience blending soul, R&B, and artful narration with the textures of home. What makes my work unique is that it’s deeply rooted in community; everything I create is connected to “the village” that raised me, challenged me, and shaped my voice.

I’m building a world where music, visuals, and storytelling exist together — from photography to performance to cultural commentary. Right now, I’m celebrating the release of my debut album, Village Van Gogh, a project that explores resilience, queerness, faith, and Bahamian identity through honest, cinematic storytelling. My mission is to use my platform to open doors for other creatives from small places with big dreams and to show that our stories deserve to be seen on a global stage.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
As a child, I believed I had to shrink myself to make other people comfortable.
I grew up thinking that being quiet, small, or contained was safer that hiding parts of who I was would make life easier. I also believed I was only “allowed” to be one thing: either the singer, or the creative, or the good child, or the dreamer. Never all at once.

But as I’ve grown — especially through creating Village Van Gogh I’ve unlearned that completely.
I no longer believe I have to make myself smaller for anyone.
And I no longer believe I have to choose a single box to live in.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
It taught me how to sit with myself, how to listen to my own voice, and how to rebuild from places I didn’t think I could come back from. Success is beautiful, it celebrates you. But suffering? It shapes you.
It taught me resilience.
It taught me compassion.
It taught me patience with my own becoming.

Most importantly, suffering taught me the truth about who I am when nothing is clapping for me — when it’s just me, my faith, my calling, and the quiet. It showed me strength I didn’t know I had, and it taught me that light is something you learn to create from inside, not something you wait for the world to hand you.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Where are smart people getting it totally wrong today?
I think a lot of smart people get it wrong by confusing intelligence with wisdom.
There’s so much focus on being “right,” being ahead, being logical or strategic but very little focus on being human.

Smart people today often overlook
compassion, emotional intelligence, community care, cultural awareness,
and the simple act of seeing people as people.

My moral compass always brings me back to this:
If your brilliance costs you your empathy, it’s not brilliance anymore — it’s ego.

Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I hope people say that I was someone who made room for honesty, for softness, for courage, and for anyone who felt unseen.

I want the story they tell about me to be that I showed up as myself, fully and unapologetically, and that by doing so, I gave others permission to do the same.
I hope they say I carried my village with me. That I loved loudly. That I created fearlessly.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Cameron Thompson, Dorien Rose, Brent Fox, Roberto Charitable, Agajuan Culmer

Kejuana Edwards, Casey Cargil, Mel-Lisha Babb, Shanton Williams, Alexis Russell

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