Biography

Raquel Lima is a poet, art educator, performer, essayist, curator and transdisciplinary artist. She has a degree in Artistic Studies and she is a PhD candidate in Post-Colonial Studies. Her research focuses on orature, slavery and Afrodiasporic movements, and she co-organized the Conference Afroeuropeans: Black In/Visibilities Contested (ISCTE, 2019), and co-edited the book Afroeuropeans: Identities, Racism, and Resistances (Routledge, 2025). She has presented her academic work at various international conferences, most notably the Conference Authoring Human Rights in West Africa and beyond: Expressions of slaveries in Literature (texts) and the Arts (visuals) at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana (2023), and the Conference Decolonial Remains: Scrutinizing African Studies in Africa and the Unfinished Business of Decolonization at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria (2022). In 2022, she was invited to the Venice Biennale as a speaker at the event Loophole of Retreat, invited as keynote speaker to the opening session of the World Congress of Women in Mozambique, and invited to the event Literature Talk: Poets from Black Europe at BOZAR in Belgium. In 2023 she was invited to the 35th São Paulo Biennial, curated the Conference 'Reformulating Authority and Authorship in the Arts' in Lisbon, and was elected one of the 100 most influential Black personalities in Lusophony by Bantumen magazine's annual Power List. In 2024 she was invited as a keynote speaker to the Race in Iberia Symposium at The Ohio State University. ​​She published the poetry books Ingenuidade Inocência Ignorância (BOCA e Animal Sentimental, 2019) and ÚLULU (Andarilha Edições e Facada Records, 2025) and co-founded The Black Union of the Arts in Portugal.