Keynote Speaker

Michèle Stephenson 

Filmmaker, Artist, and Author 

Michèle Stephenson pulls from her Haitian and Panamanian roots to think radically about storytelling and disrupt the imaginary in non-fiction spaces. She tells emotionally driven personal stories of resistance and identity that center the lived experiences of communities of color in the Americas and the Black diaspora. Her stories intentionally reimagine and provoke thought about how we engage with and dismantle the internalized impact of systemic oppression. 

Stephenson draws on fiction, immersive and hybrid forms of storytelling to build her worlds and narratives. Her feature documentary, American Promise, was nominated for three Emmys and won the Jury Prize at Sundance. Her work, Stateless, was nominated for a Canadian Academy Award for Best Feature Documentary. Stephenson collaborated as co-director on the magical realist virtual reality trilogy series on racial terror, The Changing Same, which was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Interactive Media Innovative category and premiered at Sundance Film Festival. It also won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Immersive Narrative at the Tribeca Film Festival. Most recently, her co-directed documentary Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Documentary at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. Along with her writing partners, Joe Brewster and Hilary Beard, Stephenson won an NAACP Image Award for Excellence in a Literary Work for their book, Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, a Guggenheim Artist Fellow, and a Creative Capital Artist awardee. 

The 2023 LIC Keynote Speech is currently scheduled for 11:30 - 1:30 on March 15, 2023. 

 Learn more about Stateless/Apátrida film screening event

The Latino/a/x Issues Conference is proud to contribute to BGSU's Beyond "The Dream" Speaker Series. For more information, their website can be found here.