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.
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
Ser Livre (2018) is a poetic short film that explores freedom, identity, and the affirmation of Black bodies and voices through poetry, image, and performance. Inspired by the poem of the same title, the film challenges the historical stigmas and stereotypes imposed on Black bodies while celebrating their strength, beauty, diversity, and humanity.
Transforming poetry into a space for reflection and resistance, Ser Livre invites viewers to reflect on representation, belonging, and the creation of new narratives surrounding Black identities.
RISING is a poetic short film currently in development that investigates memory, identity, and ancestry through image, the body, and audiovisual storytelling. The film explores processes of reconnection with inherited histories, ancestral voices, and experiences that resonate across generations.
Moving between presence, silence, and movement, RISING reflects on resistance, transformation, and the act of reclaiming one's own voice. The film understands memory as a living force, embodied in our experiences and shaping the ways we relate to ourselves and the world.
Private screener available upon request.
Espelho (Mirror) is a poetic short film that explores memory, identity, and intergenerational transmission through the relationship between image, voice, and remembrance. Rooted in a deeply personal experience, the film reflects on the bonds between generations and the traces left by those who came before us.
Through a dialogue between the body, presence, and the voice of familial memory, Espelho explores how stories, emotions, and lived experiences continue to resonate across generations. The film invites viewers to reflect on recognition, belonging, and the ways we carry—and become reflections of—those who shape our histories.
Private screener available upon request.
Private screener available upon request.
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.
