Chair poétique, où la poésie s’incarne et se transmet

Driven by a hybrid approach, Nana Quinn creates intimate and poetic worlds in which words are always in dialogue with gestures, sounds, images, and objects. They have published *Le reste grandit* (Noroît, 2023) and *Mauve est un verbe pour ma gorge* (Poète de brousse, 2021).

Elya Verdal is a poet, author, and cultural curator based in Brussels. She explores the body as a territory of desire, identity, and memory—a realm shaped by her Amazigh roots. Her first epic poem, *L’amour en creux* (Éditions Bleu d’Encre, 2024), explores what love leaves within us: seeds that sprout when we encounter another. She regularly contributes to publications by Éditions Edwarda (Amazuz 2025, *Palpitations urbaines* 2026), reflecting this precise evolution—in harmony with the publisher’s ethos—from the sensual toward the embodied. For her, poetry is not confined to the page: it inhabits space, the voice, sound creation, and curatorial practice. As the founder of *La Chair Poétique* and the *Matrimiel Festival*, she creates spaces where poetry exists outside academic frameworks—vibrant and present.

Nelly Slim is an author, performer, and therapist. Published in 2025, her first novel, *Between Here and Before There Is the Sea*, explores the themes of migration and uprooting. It was awarded the Gouincourt Prize for Lesbian Literature. She is also co-author of the collection *It’s Been Lovely but I Have to Scream Now*—an anthology of a queer and feminist fanzine—and served on the editorial board of the decolonial journal *Comme nous brûlons*. Her writing also appears in short-form pieces published in magazines such as *Censored*, *Woman Journal*, and *Foehn*. Her performances extend her artistic practice with a focus on ritualistic practices.

Olivier Terwagne est auteur compositeur interprète et musicien. Son travail se situe à l'interstice de la poésie, des sons et la musique. Il aime porter les textes des autres et les siens sur scène lors de performances, concerts et tissages entre les arts (peinture, cinéma, pièce radiophonique). Il a sorti cinq albums et quatre ouvrages aux Editions Traverse qui explorent entre autres le rapport à la mémoire et à l'histoire.

Injonge Karangwa is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans music, writing, and performance. She is also a researcher in cultural history at KU Leuven, where she is pursuing a Ph.D. focused on the connections between access to cultural heritage, colonial legacies, and the construction of well-being. Her work combines research, writing, and stage performance, with a particular focus on issues of memory, health, and social and cultural justice. In 2025, she published *Faits Divers* with MaelstrÖm ReEvolution as part of the *Bruxelles se conte* collection. This debut work traces the arrival and journey of an African immigrant in Brussels, navigating exile, memory, and self-reinvention. She is also the author of *Amazing Grace*, a play performed notably at the Théâtre de la Parole in Brussels. In May 2026, she presented *Devenues filles de sirène* at the Matrimoniales Festival. Injonge Karangwa is also involved in several curatorial projects in Europe and Africa, including the exhibition *Pursuit of Knowledge* at M Leuven (Belgium, 2025) and *Dissonant Heritage* for the University of Bologna (2026). Throughout her work, she builds bridges between artistic creation, critical research, and lived experiences.