Gina Athena Ulysse was born in Petion-Ville, Haiti. She is the middle child of three sisters. In her early teens, they all migrated to the East Coast of the United States. Her family has lived there ever since. Trained as an anthropologist, she is also a poet/performer and multi-media artist. Haiti is the main focus of her works.
 
After receiving her Ph. D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 1999. Ulysse began to teach. On the side, she has been pushing the boundaries of cultural anthropology with her spoken word, which she considers an “alterednative” form of ethnography. She uses this medium to capture the visceral that is often absent in structural accounts. With this genre, she dramatizes and addresses issues of social (in)justice, her intersectional identities, spirituality and her rage at the dehumanization of Haitians and other marked bodies. Her performance work clearly outlines the persistent impact and horror of colonialism.  

Some of her poetry publications include: “A Poem About Why I Can’t Wait: Going Home Again and Again and Again: Why I Prefer the Term Incarcerated When Talking about Agency” in The Butterfly’s Way: Voices From the Haitian Diaspora in the United States, edited by Edwidge Dandicat; A series of her poetry entitled “I Came of Age Colonized Now my Soul is Tired and I am Feeling All this Rage” was published by Jouvert: Journal of Postcolonial Studies; “Homage to Those Who Hollered Before Me” in Meridians: Feminism, Race and Transnationalism; “Water Spirits and Revolutionary Barbies” and “Ode to the Metres: On Going Home and Learning How to Glide” in Ma Comere, Journal of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars. Her work has also appeared in several anthropological anthologies: “Concepts of Home” in Women on the Verge of Home, edited Bilinda Straight (SUNYPress) and “My Country in Translation” in Resisting Racism and Xenophobia: Global Perspectives on Race, Gender, and Human Rights, edited by Faye V. Harrison  (AltaMira Press).  

A dynamic performer, described as “a powerhouse and a whirling storm,” she has performed at conferences including the American Anthropological Association Meetings, American Ethnological Association Meetings, PRISM conference and in colleges and universities including Bates College, Berry College, Brown University, Emerson College, New School for Social Research, University of Florida among others. She recently began to perform in Europe. She was invited to close the Berlin’s House of World Cultures Black Atlantic Project in 2004 with a performance of her poetry. Her first book, Downtown Ladies was recently published by the University of Chicago Press. Gina Athena Ulysse is also a professor of Anthropology and African American Studies at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. 

In the works:

Gina Athena is currently working on a project titled "Voodoo Doll Or What if Haiti were a Woman"