Joëlle Sambi Nzeba

Born on a linguistic border between Brussels and Kinshasa, Joëlle Sambi says, shouts, writes short stories, novels, slams, poems, documentaries, radio spaces, militant places. This is a non-exhaustive list of the traces she surveys. Mix of struggles-desires-necessities. A woman-nomad who lifts, raises, removes layers from the boxes of normative identity by sanding the text, oiling the image, soaping the scene. The where am I going translates into where shall we go ?

From post-colonial soil to lands of origin, Joëlle mixes languages, penetrates the world in fervor and rigor of work. Viscera and reaction. The where do I grow towards the we will. In 2020, she co-organizes the great demonstration of June 7, 2020 against racism and police violence which gathered 20 000 people in front of the Palace of Justice of Brussels. Her voice of migrant, lesbian, afrofeminist, permanent exile writes not to live, but to abuse it, until she hears herself living. Anger and creation. Joëlle is an associated artist of the Theatre National in Belgium, director of different pieces : Fusion, Koko Slam Gang, Angles Morts and Maison Chaos, and part of duo « Caillasses Live » with the beat and sound maker Sara Machine, they talk about lesbian fights, hopes, lust and love. Since 2003, her titles in solo or collective starting with : le monde 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 – Currently: « Fusion » a slam and krump performance (W/Hendrickx Ntela) >> Avignon – July 2021 « Angles Morts » a slam and electronic music (W/Sarah Machine) – Work in progress « Caillasses », poetry book – Ed. L’arbre de Diane (Août 2021) « Congo Eza » with Lisette Lombé (slammer) and Badi (rapper) – A poetic, hard-hitting show with samples of Congolese rumba, soul, and electro, with soundscapes that dress up the texts, raps, and presences. Pinkshasa Diaspora – A poetic and political documentary that draws the landscape of the homosexuals of the Congolese diaspora. « Koko Slam Gang » – a creation that weaves together two generations of women: Lisette Lombe and herself, and a group of Congolese grandmothers aged 65 to 88.