In this session, Michèle Stephenson reflects on diasporic movement—marronage, exile, and fugitivity—as a living tradition of black resistance across the Americas. Drawing from her own family’s journey from Haiti to New York to Quebec, she shows how our personal histories live in the body and unconsciously shape the stories we tell. 

 

With Joe Brewster, she co-directed documentary shorts including The Changing Same (2018) and Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games (2023) and the features American Promise (2013) and Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (2023). Her solo directorial efforts include the feature Stateless (2020) and her latest film, True North (2025).