Nnenna Loveth Umelo Uzoma Nwafor (they/them) is a queer Igbo poet, dancer, facilitator, who descends from a powerful ancestry. Nnenna’s matrilineal history of survivorship has led them into deep inner-healing and ancestral veneration work. This healing journey has been nurtured and catalyzed by Nnenna’s studies of Black feminist thought and Odinala (Igbo Cosmology), which they have been studying since 2016. In this process of healing the inherited pains of patriarchal violence within their lineage, Nnenna has also been teaching, dancing, and facilitating since 2016 for the ultimate purpose of addressing the disconnect that white-hetero-patrichal-coloniality has created between us and our sensual nature; between us and our pleasure-compases. Nnenna brings these frameworks of Odinala, Black feminist thought, and Somatic exploration with them into their daily art-making practices of poetry / spoken word and sensual dance movement. Their work explores Nonbinary Black gr*lhood, Black queerness, Igbo Cosmology and Spirituality, Sensual play and rituals of healing. Nnenna believes in using art as a conduit for healing and that healing is political. They speak to reconnect to their authenticity; they speak reconnect to traditions of Igbo orature. When they speak, their ancestors are pleased.

Nnenna is currently based in occupied Massachusett // Pawtucket land, colonially known as Boston, MA. Nnenna holds a B.A in Women’s and Gender Studies from Wellesley College (Class of 2020); they are a National Collegiate Poetry Slam Champion (2018) the author of Already Knew You Were Coming, a poetry collection published with Game Over Books in 2022, and a recent recipient of Mass MoCA’s Capacity Building Grant Program.