Lisa Maria Bellano

I am a writer, performer, and lawyer currently studying clowning and Grotowski-inspired physical theatre. I sing in folk-jazz and gospel traditions and write poetry, short fiction, and creative non-fiction. I am heavily influenced by my Roman Catholic upbringing and Italian ancestry, and have been researching and writing about my family for over a decade. My curiosities have led me to investigate relationships between the living, the dead, and the supernatural; family hauntings and inter-generational trauma; bodies as keepers of knowledge; dreams, intuitive knowings, and inherited remembrance; and violence and the forgiveness of it. Most fundamentally, I am interested in creating space wherein healing may occur and release may be found.