Ototeman

Stéphanie Melyon-Reinette

Stéphanie Melyon-Reinette, also known as Nèfta Poetry (as a poet and artist), is a performer, dancer-choreographer, cultural activist, independent scholar, filmmaker and above all researcher. As such, she has developed, as a filmmaker, shorts—never-screened and experimental films—and video performances. She accentuated this work during the Covid period, facing the impossibility to travel and perform. Her works—artistic or in social sciences—explore the sociologies of the French Caribbean and the Americas. As a performer, she has developed a series of experiments or performative experiences, some of which have been presented in her exhibitions, such as Toloman at the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art (June 2023) in Gimpo, South Korea. As an activist, she has been curator of the Cri de Femmes festival for 12 years and as a sociologist, she has authored several essays and collective books since 2009. She focuses on black bodies in performance; Afro-diasporic/black music and dance, gender and sexuality studies, masculinities, migrations and identities, Caribbean/Haitianities, etc. She was awarded the Bridget Jones Travel Award 2023 by the Society for Caribbean Studies (London) at the University of De Monfort, Leicester (July 2023).