odyssey . . in utero

odyssey . . in utero

odyssey . . in utero

Odyssey in Black Utero (OIBU) is an ongoing artistic,pedagogical and research platform that explores the uterus as a vessel of memory, regeneration and transformation.

Situated at the intersection of performance, installation, moving image, sound and participatory practices, the project investigates how individuals and communities can reclaim agency by reconnecting with embodied knowledge, ancestral memory and speculative imagination.

At its core, OIBU begins with a simple but fundamental question: “How do we stop navigating through maps imposed upon us ; social, historical, political and colonial maps, and begin navigating from our own inner cartographies?”

The project proposes the body as a site of knowledge, memory and orientation. Through ritual practices, collective storytelling and embodied inquiry, participants are invited to reconnect with their own capacity for self-determination, regeneration and transformation.

T.I.E x Allie Rozetta -OIU Fresnes-2021

T.I.E x Allie Rozetta -OIU Fresnes-2021


“How do we stop navigating through maps imposed upon us ; social, historical, political and colonial maps, and begin navigating from our own inner cartographies?”


“How do we stop navigating through maps imposed upon us ; social, historical, political and colonial maps, and begin navigating from our own inner cartographies?”

T.I.E

OIU first emerged through workshops developed with marginalized women in France, conducted during two months within Fresnes Women’s detention center in 2022. These early encounters were shaped by questions of confinement, visibility, trauma and repair. Rather than approaching healing as a therapeutic outcome, the project explored ritual as an active gesture capable of reawakening imagination, agency and the ability to envision alternative futures.

A major transformation occurred during T.I.E's Villa Albertine residency in Atlanta in 2024 and become Odyssey In a Black Utero ( OIBU) .There, the project entered into dialogue with Black diasporic communities, artists, scholars and knowledge keepers.

Through collaborations with Aku Kadogo (Chair of the department of theater and performance at Spelman College) , T. Lang (Associate professor and former inaugural department Chair of Dance , performance and Choreography at Spelman College ) Kebbi Williams (Atlanta contemporary music’s whirlwind improviser ), Ifetayo White (Healing practitioner end Reiki master, St Helena Island ) & Tamika Walker ( Doula and founder of Energy Evolution Holistic Health and Wellness, St Helena Islands) and many others.

OIBU expanded into a transatlantic inquiry into memory, belonging, embodiment and collective futures.

OIU first emerged through workshops developed with marginalized women in France, conducted during two months within Fresnes Women’s detention center in 2022. These early encounters were shaped by questions of confinement, visibility, trauma and repair. Rather than approaching healing as a therapeutic outcome, the project explored ritual as an active gesture capable of reawakening imagination, agency and the ability to envision alternative futures.

A major transformation occurred during T.I.E’s Villa Albertine residency in Atlanta in 2024 and become Odyssey In a Black Utero ( OIBU) .There, the project entered into dialogue with Black diasporic communities, artists, scholars and knowledge keepers.

Through collaborations with Aku Kadogo (Chair of the department of theater and performance at Spelman College) , T. Lang (Associate professor and former inaugural department Chair of Dance , performance and Choreography at Spelman College ) Kebbi Williams (Atlanta contemporary music’s whirlwind improviser ), Ifetayo White (Healing practitioner end Reiki master, St Helena Island ) & Tamika Walker ( Doula and founder of Energy Evolution Holistic Health and Wellness, St Helena Islands) and many others.

OIBU expanded into a transatlantic inquiry into memory, belonging, embodiment and collective futures.

From these experiences emerged The Portal, a ritual device and textile cosmogram inviting participants to cross a symbolic threshold before engaging in acts of reflection, testimony and collective imagination. The Portal became both a methodology and a living artwork through which participants could momentarily step outside inherited narratives and reconnect with their own inner maps.

Initially centered on the experiences of marginalized women and later on dialogues with Black women and diasporic communities in Atlanta, the project gradually evolved toward a broader collective framework. Through the pedagogical collaborations developed in 2026 with students from Spelman College and Emory University, OIBU opened new spaces of exchange across gender, discipline and lived experience while remaining rooted in questions of care, transmission and self-determination.

From these experiences emerged The Portal, a ritual device and textile cosmogram inviting participants to cross a symbolic threshold before engaging in acts of reflection, testimony and collective imagination. The Portal became both a methodology and a living artwork through which participants could momentarily step outside inherited narratives and reconnect with their own inner maps.

Initially centered on the experiences of marginalized women and later on dialogues with Black women and diasporic communities in Atlanta, the project gradually evolved toward a broader collective framework. Through the pedagogical collaborations developed in 2026 with students from Spelman College and Emory University, OIBU opened new spaces of exchange across gender, discipline and lived experience while remaining rooted in questions of care, transmission and self-determination.