They don’t just give us facts about other humans, they teach us to empathize with them. They don’t just describe our lives, they save them. In my opinion, stories are how we make sense of the world. The arts were my escape and my salvation. And so were comic books, which are of course books. But so were movies (I’ve been obsessed with Old Hollywood films from the age of 10). I felt deeply out of place and spent virtually all my free time immersed in storytelling. But in the suburbs of the United States, I was thrust into a new kind of loneliness. Before moving to the United States when I was 10, I was usually with my cousins, so I didn’t feel very alone. But the lack of consistency, and the feeling of always being an outsider in a new culture, made it very hard to make friends. It taught me multiple languages and gave me a global perspective on the world. The constant moving of my childhood is something I’m grateful for in many ways.

What role did books play in navigating your childhood, considering you grew up in several countries? You were born in Tehran and moved to Paris, then Toronto, and eventually spent much of your childhood in New York City. Nazemian also discusses the impact that book ban efforts could have on students and why it is so important for young people to have access to diverse media that reflects their identities, as well as stories that feature protagonists and heroes from other backgrounds. In honor of Pride Month and National Immigrant Heritage Month in June, One Day spoke with Nazemian about how experiences and narratives from his community still remain untold or suppressed. His works include “ Like a Love Story,” a novel about an Iranian boy grappling with his gay identity amid the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York City, which won the Stonewall Honor Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature in 2020. That’s why Nazemian has devoted his career to telling the stories he wishes he had access to as a child. As a child, Nazemian looked to the arts as his “escape and salvation,” but never saw a single protagonist in any book, film, or TV show who represented his identity, values, or experiences as a gay immigrant from Iran.

Abdi nazemian like a love story