Nicki Pombier

Nicki Pombier is a Brooklyn-based oral historian, writer, educator, and dramaturg. Her work explores the intersections of oral history and the arts, with a focus on collaborations across ability and oral history beyond speech. She teaches in Columbia University’s Oral History MA Program with Liza Zapol, where their course, Serious Play, reimagines oral history as an embodied, creative practice—engaging movement, sensory memory, and improvisation to expand toward joy, inclusion, and decolonial possibility. Pombier is the founding editor of Underwater New York and was an organizing member of Works on Water, supporting artists working in, on, and with water. She collaborates with Temple University’s Institute on Disabilities, most recently on File/Life: We Remember Stories of Pennhurst. A recipient of the 2021 Distinguished University Teaching Award from The New School, she shares more of her work at www.nickipombier.com