Cliford St. Laurent, or Clif as he is affectionately known, is a Louisiana Creole, born and bred in the heart of the state’s capital, Bâton Rouge. He is a former American Idol contestant and now has a successful career in the entertainment industry. As an international singer/recording artist, musician, songwriter, producer, A&R, Actor/Acting Coach and Dancer/Choreographer, Clif’s involvement in the industry is constant and his love is ever-growing.
As a teenager, he came across several reasons for decline of Louisiana Creole and French speakers in Louisiana. More particularly, he discovered the reasons the two languages cease to be spoken in his immediate family. As a result, he began teaching himself Louisiana’s only indigenous latin-based language: Kouri-Vini, using the small amount of resources that were available.
Today, Clif is a fluent and completely self-taught speaker of all three of Louisiana’s Latin-based heritage languages. He hosted the first and only Louisiana Creole leisure course at LSU, and has worked for CODOFIL (The Center of Development of French in Louisiana) as the official Creole translator for “Les Patates Nouvelles”, a quarterly tri-lingual newsletter for the Francophone and Creolophone community. He has also spoke annually at mandatory foreign French Teacher’s orientation for Louisiana’s French-language immersion programs through CODOFIL.
He has translated and transcribed everything from telephone operator prompting scripts to advertisements for major medical companies into Louisiana Creole and still finds time to teach and encourage others to speak it. He is truly one of the pioneers of Creole culture activism in the new millennium.
In addition to his passion for “toukishoz kréyol” he enjoys learning new languages and cultures, kayaking, swimming, movies, shooting pool, and whooping your hind parts in Spades!
Contact: mister.st.laurent@gmail.com
Speaks: Kouri-Vini, French, Spanish, English