Lamonte Bombay (pronouns he/him/his) is a multifaceted creative who uses art mediums such as songwriting, poetry, beat making, graphic design and event curation to advocate for self expression and community building.

At the age of six, Lamonte used sketching as his first outlet of expression to compensate for his comprehension deficiency. Even though he wasn’t diagnosed for autism, he started grade school a year behind due to cognitive difficulties. As he got older he gained a passion for music, joining his school and church choir performing various concerts between his 3rd, 4th and 5th grade school years. At the age of 12 he began writing his own songs (with hip-hop influences such as Jay Z, Ludacris, Nas, Lil Wayne, Lil Bow Wow and Lil Romeo to name a few) in order to continue practicing self expression since he stopped sketching. At that time Lamonte used his newfound songwriting ability to contribute verses for his 6th grade choir at Garfield Elementary School named “Peace Choir” and performed his material at multiple school pep rallies and concerts.

Throughout middle and high school, Lamonte researched ways to record his own music by self teaching himself how to use digital audio workstations such as Audacity and Cool Edit Pro. After graduating Oxon Hill High School in 2012 he self taught himself how to use the beat-making software Fruity Loops Studio to create his own music compositions. He attended Prince George’s Community College for the Winter 2012 and Spring 2013 semesters through the Associate’s Degree program majoring in Mass Communications and gained experience with Intro to Radio, reinforcing his self taught knowledge while working on radio projects that included programming and using broadcast boards.

Although he didn’t complete his Associate’s Degree program, Lamonte began his freelance creative career while working full-time jobs to support himself. He used his downtime to continue learning different ways to create utilizing the internet and mobile applications such as PicsArt. Between 2012-2015, Lamonte performed as an independent artist on multiple open mic and showcase platforms throughout the Dc-Maryland-Virginia tristate area. In 2015, Lamonte collaborated with grassroots organization Community Forklift to co-curate his first event courtesy of Community Forklift’s “Forklift Fridays”. In 2016, Lamonte curated his own events hosted by Washington DC’s Culture Coffee, beginning his curation journey specializing in underground music showcases. Between the years of 2018-2023, Lamonte performed at the Adams Morgan Porchfest, a seasonal festival based in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in Washington DC that showcases dozens of local musicians and bands.

In 2024, Lamonte launched a safe space community driven creative hub called “Butterfly Gardens”, dedicated to creating workshops and pop up events advocating for creatives interested in finding inspiration and common ground with others. Lamonte was a 2024 Artist Scholarship awardee and attended the Maryland Arts Summit, gaining newfound insight through workshops hosted by multiple professional creatives. His experience at the Arts Summit as well as attending Oh To Dream LLC’s songwriting workshop inspired him to host his own workshop named “AUDIOtherapy”.