bio
Michèle Voltaire Marcelin (born in Port-au-Prince in 1955) is an actress, painter and writer who has lived in Haiti, Chile and the United States. She currrently lives and teaches in New York. Her first novel “La Désenchantée” was published by Montréal’s Cidihca (2006) – Her work is also featured in a 500 page anthology of Haitian Literature by the French Revue d’Art, Littérature et Musique in Spring 2009. This artist of diverse means of expression writes in 3 languages.
She has a BFA from the Leonard Davis Center for the Performing Arts at CUNY and a MS from The New School for Social Research. She staged “Walking on Fire”, a monologue performed at the Alliance of Resident Theaters, based on Beverley Bell’s stories of survival and resistance of Haitian women. She performed at the Ubu Repertory Theatre and was Marie-Ange in Simone Schwartz-Bart’s play “Ton Beau Capitaine”, directed by Francoise Kourilsky; in “The Vagina Monologues”, at the Brooklyn Museum, directed by Chuck Patterson, in director Raoul Pecks’ features: “Haitian Corner” and “The Man on the Shore” (as Madame Janvier) , in Patricia Benoit’s “Se Met Ko”. Other credits include Saroyan’s “The Time of Your Life”, staged by Robert Macbeth and Israel Washington, and “Comings and Goings” by Van Italie, directed by Rhea Gaisner. February 2009, she played the role of the Republic of Haiti in “Entrées et Sorties”, Carmelle St.Gérard-Lopez’s play at the Producer’s Theater in NYC.
She has performed her poetry live with Buyu Ambroise and his Blues in Red Band , with Tiga and his group Tchaka, with Goussy Celestin’s all women Afro-Jazz group Sekonsa , in universities and clubs such as Solomon’s Porch, Tamboo, Brecht Forum Café, Lond Island University, Howard University, Toukouleur among others.
This visual artist’s paintings have been exhibited at the OAS Museum in Washington D.C., at the Cork Gallery in Lincoln Center and Broome Street Gallery in NYC, at the African-American Museum in Hempstead, L.I. and at the Museum of National Patrimony in Haiti. Some of the paintings can be seen here.
