SLAM 1: LISETTE LOMBÉ feat. JOËLLE SAMBI (FR)
Multitalented and ground-breaking artist Lisette Lombé expresses herself through poetic, scenic, plastic, activistic and pedagogic practices. Her writing and her battle are centred around her mixed background and her own evolution as a woman, mother and teacher. Her struggles become collages, performances, books and workshops that function as couriers of rage and love.
As a co-founder of the collective L-SLAM, she was awarded honorary citizenship of the city of Liège in 2017 for her approach as an activist-artist and as an ambassador for slam in every corner of France. In this slam session, she will perform texts accompanied by projections.
Joëlle Sambi, born on the linguistic border somewhere between Brussels and Kinshasa, screams out her message. Through short stories, novels, slams, poems and documentaries it finds its way to activist spaces, where it resonates. She interweaves struggles, desires and needs, like a nomad challenging, illuminating and removing layers of normative thinking. She scrapes text, pastes images onto your cornea and lathers the stage.
She translates ‘where am I going’ to ‘where should we go?’ With her fiery and profound work, she intrudes the world and blends its languages, from postcolonial soil to country of origin. She works from intuition and wants to elicit reaction. She uses her voice as a migrant, lesbian, afro-feminist, permanent exile – not to make a living, but to bring her voice to life. She mixes rage and creation. Since 2013 she has been enchanting the world with solo creations and collective titles including Je ne Sais pas rêver; Religion Ya Kitendi, Le Monde est Gueule de Chèvre, Mots en bouche, mots sur la touche; L’agenda des femmes: Héroïnes imaginaires; Le Paria Club; Africalia; Devine in Créer en post colonie. Voix et dissidences belgo-congolaises & On ne s’excuse de rien/L-Slam; La Monstre – in Sorcières, les femmes vivent. Several of these titles were lauded with both audience awards and institutional prizes. In 2021 she published her first collection of poems, Caillasses (at L’arbre de Diane).
SLAM 2: Lisette Ma Neza (NL/EN)
Those who frequent the KVS programme will recognise the name Lisette Ma Neza. She previously treated us to her slams and music at Mindblowers and graced the stage during SLOW#03 KIN<>BRU, Rise Up, try-outs of Afropean//Human Being, and the marathon performance The Light That Never Goes Out. Lisette Ma Neza was born in the Netherlands, but has been living in Brussels, where she is studying film, for a few years. In 2017 she was the first Dutch-speaking woman to win the Belgian Poetry Slam Championships. Lisette will be joined by a number of musicians for her slam session.
