ALESSANDRA MARTINS
Writer |Visual Artist|Cultural producer
My artistic practice moves across literature, photography, and audiovisual, exploring themes of memory, identity, the body, ancestry, and the connections between personal and collective histories.
Love Saves Lives - Beyond the Atlantic
Ser Livre - Short Film
O Sol Brilha para todos - eBook
Between Places
Between Places is a photographic series that explores the physical and emotional experience of displacement, movement, and belonging across different countries and cultures. Developed through experiences in Brazil, the United States, Ireland, and other territories, the work reflects on the spaces we inhabit, the places we leave behind, and the memories we carry with us.
Through images of landscapes, transitions, everyday moments, and encounters, the series investigates the relationship between place and identity, exploring how geography, migration, and cultural experiences shape our understanding of home, revealing that belonging can exist in more than one place.
Territories of Memory
Territories of Memory is a photographic series that explores spaces as guardians of stories, identities, and cultural heritage. Through images of places marked by collective memory, the series reveals the invisible layers that remain embedded within the territories we inhabit and traverse.
The work is grounded in the understanding that memory also resides in spaces—in streets, walls, monuments, landscapes, and symbols that preserve the narratives of different generations. Each image captures traces of enduring histories, revealing connections between past and present.
By photographing territories shaped by cultural and ancestral experiences, the series reflects on belonging, resistance, and the ways in which places preserve voices that cannot be forgotten.
Beyond the Atlantic is a photographic series that explores the Atlantic Ocean as a space of passage, connection, and memory. Through images of boats, landscapes, people, and elements related to the sea, the work reflects on the relationships between distance and proximity, departure and arrival, movement and permanence.
While the Atlantic separates territories, it also connects histories, cultures, and shared human experiences. The series investigates the visible and invisible crossings that shape our lives, revealing the ocean as a territory of memory, encounter, and transformation.
Beyond the Atlantic
Selected Publications
My literary practice explores poetry, memory, identity, ancestry, and the intersections between personal experiences and collective histories.
Voa, Sankofa, voa!
Voa, Sankofa, Voa! is a spoken word poetry collection that explores ancestry, identity, memory, and resistance. Through poetic narratives, the work reflects on the connection between past and present and the importance of reclaiming ancestral voices.
O Sol Brilha Pra Todos
A short story that explores human experiences, emotions, and the search for hope and connection. Through a sensitive narrative, the work reflects on resilience, transformation, and the moments of light found throughout life’s journey.
Cadernos Negros, Vol. 43
Anthology — Poetry, 2020
Poems published in Cadernos Negros, Volume 43, as part of a collective anthology celebrating contemporary Afro-Brazilian poetry.
Cadernos Negros, Vol. 44
Anthology — Short Stories, 2022
Cadernos Negros, Vol. 45
Anthology — Poetry, 2024
Short story published in Cadernos Negros, Volume 44, exploring themes of memory, identity, and contemporary Afro-Brazilian experiences.
Poems published in Cadernos Negros, Volume 45, contributing to a collective anthology of contemporary Afro-Brazilian poetry.
