Nicole Peyrafitte

Nicole Peyrafitte was born in Luchon (French Pyrenees) into the 5th generation of a family of restaurateurs and received her early cooking training from her grandfather Joseph Peyrafitte, a renowned chef. Later she perfected her skills, interning at several award-winning restaurants in France. She moved to the United States in 1987, where she developed her career as a collagist, painter, action-painter, singer, poet and filmmaker. She lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn with her husband poet Pierre Joris, where she moved in 2007 after 15 years in Albany, New York. She has two sons: colorist & producer Joseph Mastantuono and award winning director Miles Joris-Peyrafitte.

Her work in visual art and action painting, research and poetry, film and video art, music and cooking draws upon her eclectic history and the experience of negotiating her identity across two continents and four languages (French, Occitan, Spanish, English).

Peyrafitte's work has been presented nationally and internationally. In New York, she has performed in venues such as The Poetry Project, Zinc Bar, Bowery Poetry Club, Borough of Manhattan Community College, The Vision Festival, Poets House, & upstate at Bard College & numerous locations in & around Albany.

National venues include San Francisco State University, University of California San Diego, Berkshire Community College, the Walker Art Institute, Boise State University & Naropa University as artist/teacher in residence.

Internationally, Birkbeck College, University of London, University of Edinburgh, Université de Bordeaux, Festival les Voix de la Méditerranée in Sète, Festival de San Luis Potosí and Festival International de las Lettras, Durango (both in Mexico) are some of the venues that have showcased her performances.

In 2019 she was part of the exhibition The 11 Women of Spirit, Part 1, March 2 - March 8, 2020 during the Armory Show.[1]

She and her collaborator and husband Pierre Joris show & perform at Gallerie Simoncini in Luxembourg: a first domopetic exhibition took place in 2017 & another one in 2021. [2]

• Carnet 2 (RedfoxPress Ireland, 2018)[3]
• Landsc0pes (Plaine Page, 2018)
• The Book of U / Le livre des Cormorans, poems by Pierre Joris and drawings by Nicole Peyrafitte (Galerie Simoncini Editions, 2017)[4]
• Bi-Valve (Stockport Flats, 2013 & Plaine Page, 2016)[5]
• Liminal Line (Editions les Venterniers, 2016)[6]
• Carnet (RedfoxPress Ireland, 2014)[7]

Occitan to English

• Bernat Manciet, Ode to James Dean, Mindmade Books, 2014 [8]
• Marcella Delpastre & Bernat Manciet selections for Jacket 2, 2014 [9]

French to English

• Cesar Vallejo, La Mort, co-translated with Pierre Joris, Wesleyan University Press, 2015 [10]
• Nicole Brossard, "Wildly", in Theory, A Sunday, Belladonna, 2013 [11]
• Matoub Lounes, "Kenza" & Mustapha Benfodil, "I Conned Myself on a Levantine Day" in The University of California Book of North African Literature, edited by Pierre Joris & Habib Tengour, UCP, 2012 [12]

English to French

• Pierre Joris, The Book of U / Le livre des Cormorans, Editions Galerie Simoncini, 2017[13]
• Jerome Rothenberg/Ian Tyson: Delight/Délices et autre Gematria Ottezec Press, 1997[14]
• George Quasha and Charles Stein, Gary Hill: HanD HearD/Liminal Objects, Station Hill Press of Barrytown, 1997[15]

• "The 11 Women of Spirit" Salon Zücher New-York March 2020 details here

• Peyrafitte/Joris Domopoetic Works, Galerie Simoncini, Luxembourg, 2017[16]
• Orgaginal, solo art show & concert at Maison, Luchon, France, 2016[17]
• “Sun of a Beach 2” group show curated by Denis Brun at OÙ & Galerie Paradis, Marseille, France, 2015[18]
• Waltzing in Quicksand: Poets in Collage, curated by Bruce Weber at A Gathering of the Tribes, 2010[19]
• Premiere of The Bi-Continental Chowder at Firlefanz Gallery, Albany, 2007[20]
• The Mohawk–Hudson Regional Invitational at The Albany Center Gallery

• Bi-Valve (Plaine Page, 2015)[21]
• Whisk! Don't Churn! with Michael Bisio (Ta'wil Productions, 2009)[22]
• Sax Soup Poetry & Voice w/ Pierre Joris & Joe Giardullo (Sanctuary for Independent Media Productions, 2007)[23]
• The Bi-Continental Chowder (Ta'wil Productions, 2006)[24]

• Paul Celan by Pierre Joris: A Reading [25]
• Robert Kelly: A Celebration [26]
• Things Fall Where They Lie (2018)[27] [28]
• Pierre Joris Flash Interviews #1 to #6[29] & Colchique (2016-2017)[30]
• Basil King: Mirage, co-directed with Miles Joris-Peyrafitte on painter, poet & Black Mountain student Basil King (2012).[31]
• You Lie[32] & Anhalter Bahnhof [33] for “Celan/Joris 50 years of translation” (2012)

Concerning her work, poet/performer Anne Waldman has written: "Nicole Peyrafitte is a brilliant and most original performer. Her vocalizations, her songs, her gestures are provocative: both stunningly beautiful and powerfully unnerving at times. She is the chthonic goddess come to tempt you, scare you, transform you. She is in the poetic lineage of Greek tragedy, Café Voltaire antics, of dada and surrealist play but with a post-modern, hip sensibility. I am transfixed when she's on stage."[34]

Greg Hayme: "Yes, Peyrafitte's masterful multimedia performance of "The Bi-Continental Chowder" is a feast for the senses"

• Best Performance Art Venue: Times Union · Best of 2006 · The top choices in the capital region Nicole Peyrafitte's Experimental Cabaret at Tess’ Lark Tavern.[35]
• Best Performance Artist: Times Union · Best of 2005 · The top choices in the capital region.[36]

• Official website
• Collectages/Recordings of Foods & A®titudes