LENELLE MOÏSE
Lenelle Moïse—a feminist poet, playwright and performance artist—says she loves “telling a truth on purpose, tempting with exactitude and making the work I need. I love solving the puzzle of a new poem, play or song.” Her critically acclaimed book “Haiti Glass about “around-the-way girlhood, immigration, earthquakes, queer grace, race relations, guts, funk and memory,” garnered Moïse a 2015 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for excellence in literature. The book was also a Lambda Literary Award finalist in Lesbian Poetry. “Poetry is my calling, my truest love, my artistic first language,” she tells GO. “If you read my book, you’re reading pages of my heart—what quickens its beat, what makes it crack, what keeps it going and what connects it to yours.” Moïse also keeps her creative juices flowing as a playwright. In addition to developing “K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” she’s rehearsing her one-woman show, “Where There Are Voices”—a synthesis of original musical compo-sitions, video and the poems of “Haiti Glass.” –SLO
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