Since 2003, Na Hassi has enjoyed experimenting with her writing in all its forms and media. Na Hassi is a Malagasy poet, slammer and author living in Antananarivo, Madagascar. She often combines her writing with other forms of expression such as yoga, theater, rap and music, which she has brought together in her new stage and female project, Marao.

We met Na Hassi in Antananarivo in December 2024 to discuss her first novel, Deux coeurs dans mon corps , to be published by Éditions Project'ïles in May, and Marao, which will become the visible, scenic part of this novel.
This scenic work directed by Na Hassi was preceded by an adaptation, Kintantara, which was wound up in the time of the novel. No one knows which came first, the novel or the show. But what we do know is that it brings together three women to tell "certain stories, falsely isolated, unfortunately known and painfully common, that deserve to be broken by the silences that inhabit the hours. Existence is not a verb, it's a right."
Marao, directed by Hoby Rajoelison, performed by Na Hassi, Arizara, Fanasina Manitra, with music by Lalah Rasetamalala and sound by Djette Valiha, will be premiered and broadcast from March 2026 with the support of theInstitut Français de Madagascar and Paysages Humains.

A prolific writer, Na Hassi loves nothing more than sharing and exploring relationships with art and people.
Indeed, with Na Hassi, it's all a question of words, as when, in March 2025, as Madagascan referent, she hosted the coming of Poetry from 4 Horizonsa poetic journey around the world that began in October 2024 in Douala, Cameroon, and will cross several continents before ending in Marseille, France. Five days of encounters with children, high-school students, improvisation enthusiasts, poets and writers.
Since 2019, she has also been writing for Indigo Le Mag and, from 2020, will become the senior editor of the international Indian Ocean cultural magazine Mozaik.

While she displayed a fascination for Charles Beaudelaire from an early age, she also discovered an early passion for slam poetry. For Na Hassi is a performer. She likes to say words loud and clear, and declaims her poems off the beaten track: up a tree, in a vintage car, on stilts, on a circus aerial hoop, on scaffolding. An enthusiastic slammer for many years, she has performed at Alliances françaises in Madagascar, Rencontres des Poètes de l'Indianocéanie, Festival Slamer Un Pied sur La Lune, Lectures Scéniques du Marché des Arts d'Abidjan and, of course, Madagaslam. From this passion for slam, she has written a memoir: Restez vivants. Restez vivantswhose subtitle is "Carnet de bord d'une poéte slameuse", takes us from Chicago to Madagascar and sheds light on the very essence of slam, inseparable from the open stage, the tournament and the show.

Finally, in 2024, for the first time, Na Hassi begins to explore the plastic and visual arts through three installations: Resilience du Vorombola on the occasion of the exhibition Ravorona-2e édition de Antson'ny Tontolo Miaina / Interpeller le vivant; Text'îles and Moulin à Paroles as part of the Vavy festival and exhibition in Antananarivo. Moulin à paroles is an organic work that literally exposes the words of often hidden or invisible women, to whom Na Hassi appeals: " Woman of Africa, child of the world, keep your roots in your entrails. Whoever dares to force you to show them in order to prove them, you will ignore them. That's how you'll survive.

Na Hassi has published two books: Zana-bolana Femme Lunairea collection of poems (Ranjasoa Publishing, 2021) and Restez Vivants (Éditions Karné, 2024). Her poems and writings are also featured in collective works published in Madagascar, La Réunion and France: Les mots d'une île à l'autre (Éditons UDIR), Takelaka Tsara Soratra (Ranjasoa Publishing), Catalogue Madame Zo(Fondation H), Project'îles Revue Spéciale Madagascar(Project'îles), La poésie de Madagascar-Anthologie to be published on March 27, 25 (Éditions Seghers).
In 2025, she was selected with 7 other leading Madagascan artists for The Lunar CodexSamuel Peralta's crazy project. The two poems of Zana-bolana Femme Lunaire will be sent to the moon in December 2025, among 250,000 works of contemporary art from all over the world.

Drinking
Moonlight
And receiving
Between her cracks
Of woman
The pieces of hope
To bring

Into her womb The Power

Na Hassi continues to explore how far words can carry us.

We should be seeing her again at the Étonnants voyageurs festival in Saint-Malo from June 7 to 9, 25 and at the Cabane à côté in Uzès on June 13, 25.

Sandrine Maricot Despretz

Photo © Antsa Rambeloson
Photo © Tsilavo Rapiera