Crisálida, Laurine Rousselet’s unique voice

Photo: Elizabeth Waltegny,

Photo: Elizabeth Waltegny, “For Crisalida”

GENEVIÈVE GUETEMME (edited by)

French poet and writer Laurine Rousselet, has been injecting in her writing – from the very start – an inexhaustible energy to give to the words, sounds, rhythms and her unique voice a momentum leading to an “elsewhere” removed from our western society (Moroccan, Syrian, Congolese…), non-French (Spanish, Cuban, Catalan, Arabic…) and sometimes non-verbal when inserting the white of the paper into the words or creating alliterations that sound almost like cries.

Born in Dreux, she lived for a long time in Paris and then in Brest (facing the sea). She is now based in Angouleme. Her strong interest for foreign languages and cultures brought her to Havana (Cuba) with a Stendhal mission. Her texts have been translated and published into several languages. She has been collaborating with musicians and actors. She has been producing poetry programmes for the radio station France Culture and is publishing quarterly bilingual brochures of poetry for Les Cahiers de l’Approche.

The text titled Crisálida was published by The Inventory Editions in 2013. It has been performed by French actor Denis Lavant and his performance was filmed in 2018 by Jorge Amat.

“It all starts with a cry, the voice carried up to breaking point: Laurine Rousselet launches her genesis in the world of sound – and there was music, the music or stridency of harmony to be born. Crisálida means pupa in Spanish. […] Because it tells about the present moment as continuous orgasm, created by all range of sensitivities, all bodily orifices at the limit of lightning force that is finally revealing the truth.”
Hubert Haddad

Crisálida in English by Alexis Bernaut

Anaël-Chadli

Anaël-Chadli

(The picture is by artist Anaël Chadli)

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