Road to my Roots

Road to my Roots is a stage performance combining slam, poetry, and sound art that explores Black memory through a journey spanning the past, present, and future.

Driven by the voice of a Congolese slam poet, the production sets out to encounter major figures in Black history—from Patrice Lumumba to Thomas Sankara, Rosa Parks to Harriet Tubman, Frantz Fanon to those whose names have been erased or forgotten. However, it isnt’t merely about telling their stories, but also about questioning the significance their struggles still hold for us today.

Through poetic, socially conscious, and at times intimate writing, Road vers mes Roots explores Black identity, memory, transmission, colonial legacies, and the need to reclaim one’s own narratives. The performance thereby becomes a space for dialogue between ancestors and present-day generations, between the wounds of history and the possibilities of tomorrow.

The spoken word is complemented by an original soundscape combining sound effects, percussion, voices, songs, ambient sounds, and sonic textures. Sound becomes a dramaturgical element in its own right; it recalls violence, exile, resistance, and revolt, but also beauty, spirituality, and rebirth.

Designed as an immersive experience, the performance is based on a minimalist staging where voice, body, light, and sound gradually construct a landscape of memory.

With  Road to my Roots, Jordydctionnaire aims to make slam poetry a tool for memory, transmission, and cultural reappropriation; to tell the story of Black people through a Black voice, from the heart of Africa, and to create a work capable of echoing this memory across borders.