Arts & Empowerment in Brazil

Resources and Information
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Skid…

In 1967 he published Politics in Brazil: 1930-64, An Experiment in Democracy.[1]
No time for tears = We cannot remain silent opposition to Brazilian Military Dictatorship in US James N Green.
The Americas PBS documentary series
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Ma…

This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia’s quality standards. Please help by adding relevant internal links, or by improving the article’s layout. (November 2008)

Carolina Maria de Jesus (1915-1977) was a Brazilian peasant who lived most of her life in the favela (slums) of São Paulo, Brazil. She is best known for her diary, which was published as Child of the Dark in 1960 after coming to the attention of a Brazilian journalist. This work remains the only document published in English by a Brazilian slum-dweller from that period.
 http://www.alibris.com/search/books/isbn…

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Shouma…

The Capital of Hope (1978)
 http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/

The National Security Archive George Washington University

I. Postwar experiment with democracy (1946-64)
A. International context
B. Domestic Changes/Challenges
1. Urbanization and Informal Sector
2. Bottlenecks for industrialization – competing economic model
3. Rural underdevelopment
4. Population boom
5. Competitive party system

II. Return of Vargas (1951-54) and suicide
A. Petrobras
III. Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira (1956 to 1961)
A. Automobile industry and Brasília
IV. Troubled Presidency of João Belchior Marques Goulart was a Brazilian politician and the 24th President of Brazil until a military coup d’état deposed him on April 1, 1964.
A. Agrarian reform
B. U.S. Role
C. military coup d’état
V. Military Rule (1964-85)
A. Repression and Resistance – book on subject is Four Days in September and Memorial da Resistência in São Paulo
B. Economic Policies
1. Economic “miracles” (1969-74) – agribusiness, industry
2. Infrastructure and telecommunication
3. Development of Amazon
C. Broader Social Changes
VI. Transition to Democracy
A. Military abertura (1974- )
B. Role of the Catholic Church
C. Amnesty of 1979
D. Constitution of 1988
VII. Democratic Brazil (1985- )
A. Changes and Challenges
1. Debt crisis, inflation, neoliberal reforms (1990- )
2. Multiparty system
3. Crime and its costs
4. Political liberties vs. civil liberties
5. Poverty remediation
6. Racial inequities and affirmative action policies
VIII. Case Studies
A. Presidency of Fernando Cullor (1989-92)
B. Presidency of Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1994-2002)
C. Presidency of Lula (2002-2010)

Check out renowned grafiteiro Zezão talking to our group about his technique during a visit to Choque Cultural in São Paulo:

After a yummy lunch of a HUGE pastel do bacalau (kind of like salty codfish inside puff pastry) and passion fruit juice in the Mercado Municipal, we were off to see more street art, as well as a couple of galleries.  Our first stop was Nina  Pandolfo’s Gallery.  She is married to one of the Gemeos whose work we had seen in the morning at our first stop.

An artist in her own right as well, her art was displayed on bare concrete walls–perhaps paying homage to her roots in street art?  I liked the effect of her colorful and playful art against this simple, rough background.  Her art reminded many of us of anime characters.  Innocent looking girls with big eyes.   http://www.galerialeme.com/artistas_bio….).  Very colorful–I liked her pieces, but unfortunately did not have $17,500 USD on me, so I couldn’t take one home.

Afterwards we proceeded to an area of Sampa (that’s how those in the know, like us, refer to SP) called Vlla Magdalena.  This area is known for its hippie, artsy feel and, as some of us had experienced the night before, comes to life at night–full of bars and places to listen to music and dance.  We walked around inside a walled area where grafitti artists basically take turns painting.  Apparently there is some sort of unwritten agreement as far as whose turn it is and how long what they paint stays on the wall before it is covered with something else.  We were pleased to find a number of people actually working on their masterpieces as we walked through.  They really get into their art–both literally and figuratively, as we ran into one artist who had paint splattered all over himself.  There was some really great stuff there!

The last stop was the Choque Cultural gallery  choquecultural.com.br) where there was an exhibition from graffiti artist Zezão   http://www.flickr.com/photosa/zezao).  Zezão was actually there in the gallery and told us all about himself and about his artwork.   He was born in 1971, had some personal and professional challenges in life and used art as an outlet for self expression. He did have some run-ins with the law because graffiti used to be and, to a certain extent, still is, considered a crime.

His signature is light blue wavy lines.  He also creates what I can best describe to be  collages made from wood planks and some metal street signs.  He puts them together in somewhat of a haphazard way, analogous to to the way in which favelas arise.

More interesting than what he paints, though, is where and why he paints.  He is known for descending into the sewers of the city, interacting with sewer dwellers and creating art installations for them.  He believes everyone deserves art.  He mentioned he would sometimes have to step over homeless people to get into his own home, so he decided to offer to paint the area around where they slept.  Certainly the highlight of this visit for John was having Zezão decorate his cast with his signature wavy line design.

I think most members of our group would concur that the Graffiti and Market tour was one of our favorites both because of where we went and what we saw, but also because it was nice to have a laid back kind of day.

Alisa Warshay

Our day started with a tour of SESC in the neighborhood of Pompeia. This particular site used to be a barrel factory in the 1930’s and before it became a cultural center it was also a refrigerator factory. We learned that up until the 1940’s Brazil was still very rural and it wasn’t until war immigrants began arriving that there was a concern about developing the country. At the time they proposed to President Vargas the creation of services for workers in the trade and service industries. SESC was the result of this proposal. The way it works is that employers of these companies pay a 1.5% payroll tax that is passed through the government and then distributed to respective SESC sites. Because São Paulo is the most developed of the states SESC is the most predominant here. There are a total of 32 branches in the state, 16 of which are located in the city of São Paulo.

After learning a little bit about the history of SESC we toured the facility and discussed what this particular site has to offer. It opened in 1984 and the main idea was that all people have the “right to leisure” and therefore the services here are centered around that concept. They offer art exhibitions, workshops, theater, internet, concerts, food, recreational sports, and dental services, among many other things. The particular exhibition we observed was called “As palavras e o mundo” (Words and the world) which was geared towards teaching kids about the connections between languages. The majority of the services are free with the exception of concerts and other performances. But even these, which include world-class performances, are available at very little cost to the public. Anyone can take advantage of their services, but if you are a commerce employee your membership guarantees an even cheaper cost for these services.

Later on that day we met to discuss our reactions to São Paulo and to make connections between the social projects we have observed throughout the entire trip. One of the highlights for many people this week was Samba da Vela and seeing the strong sense of community expressed through music. Several people commented on the relevance of our lectures and how it seemed that the trip was strategically planned to open our eyes to these reoccurring themes. Ultimately I think that everyone will leave Brazil with an educational focus specific to our subject area, but we all seem to agree that the notions of citizenship and empowerment will be a major focus of our curriculum. I guess only one very important question remains: when is the graffiti tour???

Dianne Russo

My feelings on the museu afro brasil are very similar to Mary’s. The museum staff and our guide were very accommodating to our group’s needs. John got a rascal to ride around on! The guide made the tour very enjoyable and interesting. I loved all of the costumes for the festivals and particularly those of the Orixas. We finally got to see what an actual sugarloaf container looks like. The photographs of Salvador were wonderful and those of Haiti were powerful. I was impressed with the way the guide described the African religions and the African influence on Brazilian culture. She repeatedly said that the religions were beautiful. When she explained that people today often hide their African religious roots because it is called macumba, or black magic, it reinforced some of what we heard at the Pierre Verger foundation and presented new information. It was a really fascinating museum and an excellent guide.

The rest of the day was pretty good. In the morning, we had our last Portuguese class with Vivian. She had assigned skits. She put us in 4 groups of 3 or 4, and each group was assigned a city we had visited. Each skit was clever, poking fun at various events and people who have played a role in our journey from Salvador, to BH, to Rio, to Sampa.

The museum is located in Ibirapuera Park. It is one of the few tree filled, grassy areas in Sao Paulo. There are multiple museums in the area, and people are all over lounging under trees, riding bikes, walking dogs, and jogging. It was a beautiful day!

Emily VW

Saturday, July 24

We boarded a tour bus for one last group tour today (our dream time in Brazil is too rapidly coming to a close!).  The focus of the day was graffiti art, and our first stop was to view the work completed on two opposite walls along a city highway by several of Sao Paulo’s most known and accomplished graffiti artists.  The artists had completed the wall on one side of the highway in 2002 and the mural on the facing wall in 2008.  Our tour guide assisted us in the task of noticing the skill development during the 6-year time span and what stood out as patterns unique to the individual artists.  The pixie-like females of Nina Pandolfo had the large doe-eyes with long lashes, while Nunca’s bold lines were his artistic signature.  Our tour guide challenged us to “train our eyes” to spot what was typical of the work of Nunca, Pandolfo, Osgemeos, and Titi Freak as we continued with our exploration of viewing street art.

The word graffiti comes from the Latin and means “writing on the walls”–but we learned that the actual writing on the walls, referred to as pichachao or pixacao in Sao Paulo,  is distinct from graffiti art.  Both are a means of expression in the urban landscape, and both usually are manifested in a spontaneous way, but the pixacao is more of a written code.  The group visited an art museum featuring a current show of pixacao generated by various Sao Paulo groups and then continued walking through various streets, catching views and snapping pictures (lots of pictures!) of graffiti art along walls and on the rolling doors of storefronts.

One particularly interesting area for spotting graffiti was the section of the city known as Liberdade (freedom).  This is a predominantly Japanese part of the city–we’ve heard in several talks that there is a greater population of Japanese in Sao Paulo than in any other city outside Japan.  Japanese immigrants first arrived in Brazil in 1908 and have continued to greatly contribute to the economic and cultural life of Brazil.  On this Saturday morning, the community was bustling with activity, and booths were set up for a special festival.  Long paper streamers attached to large crafted baubles floated above our heads, and good-luck wishes written on colorful paper and tied to trees decorated the street.  Some in our group plan to return here tomorrow to shop and enjoy the food and also tour the Japanese Immigration Museum located nearby.

The bus deposited our crew at the main city market for lunch–another cultural experience!  This was not a market for the shopping of souvenirs–but an expansive space for a multitude of Paulistas to buy every variety of fruit, or meat, or cheese, or even fish for making bacalhau.  The market also offered quite a selection of lunch options, and everyone found something to satisfy before we got on the bus to head to more city streets to explore.

Dorothy (Alisa will continue to write about our Saturday afternoon…)

Here is my take on the Museu Afro Brasil — Emily will also be posting her thoughts.  I think of all the museums and exhibits I have visited so far in Brazil, this is my favorite.  African history and culture intrigue me and I envy the Paulistas who live here and can spend time whenever they want in this beautifully arranged tribute to African culture in Brazil.

As our guide said, most Brazilians do not seem to value the African heritage that has had such a tremendous influence on Brazil’s history and culture and I think this museum is certainly making a great effort to change that mindset.  The museum has both permanent and temporary exhibits and we made a brief trip through four of the six themes, with a little time at the end to retrace our steps and also visit the temporary exhibits, one of which highlighted Haitian art forms.

I was particularly impressed with the museum’s emphasis on the ingenuity and skills of Africans brought to Brazil as slaves — everything from machinery and tools to musical instruments and incredibly intricate jewelry.  Our guide also helped me understand the importance of some of the African religious beliefs in Brazil — I had a vague idea of Candomble from our time in Salvador, but her explanation of how African religions are not filled with witchcraft and black magic, and of the belief that there is a combination of good and evil together in one person, making it our choice to go one way or the other, was very helpful — I can definitely use this to help my students understand the similarities and differences in religions as we study world cultures this year.  Fabulous museum!!

Mary Smith

Here’s a clip from our visit to the 10th Anniversary performance of Samba da Vela:

Monday July, 19th

At 7:00 p.m. last night a van picked up half our group and transported us an hour across town (welcome to commuting in a city of over 11M) to the working-class neighborhood of Santo Amaro and it’s community center.  As luck would have it, we arrived on a special night, the 10^th anniversary of Samba da Vela (samba of the candle). Apparently a group of local musicians have been gathering for years to play samba.  They used to get loaded and play late into the night so for the past decade the candle has served as a check on bad behavior with the evening concluding as the candle burns out.

Roughly 10 musicians played percussion, guitar and ukulele as the crowd, seated in concentric circles behind the musicians, quickly swelled to standing room only.  Bulletins listing song lyrics were circulated and one by one the composers joined the inner circle to sing their tunes as the crowd sang and shimmied along.  Were a genie able to grant me Portuguese fluency for one night, this would’ve been it as the banter between musician and crowd was light-hearted and fun.

By far, the most impressive aspect of the night was the way traditional samba brought together such a wide audience.   As frequently as multi-culturalism is promoted in the U.S., this was the real McCoy.  This was the musical version of what those old Benetton ads aspired to be.  It wasn’t music for blacks, whites, the young and hip, goths, metal heads, old people, etc…  This was music genuinely embraced by people of all ages and ethnicities  in a way that is unequaled in the U.S.  In a cool kind of way it seemed like the band belonged to the community center.

Chris

7/14—Today we had both halves of team Flanzer-Garfield.  In the morning Vivan continued her enthusiastic attempt at pounding Portuguese into our brains.  Some stuff is actually sticking and I’m able to butcher several key phrases while wandering the streets.  I have no idea as to anyone’s response but I appreciate the opportunity to learn and can at least make an effort.  Later, Seth continued his exploration of Brazilian history, focusing on the 1^st rule of Vargas (1930-1945).  Though a dictator, Vargas was a modernizing & transformative figure whom current Brazilians have cited in one poll as the nation’s most significant historical figure.

Chris Forney

Often terraced into several of the steep hills overlooking Rio,  favelas (Brasil’s version of the barrio or slums) are home to roughly 30% of the cities population and have a compelling mystique  nurtured by a violent past, popular film and their precarious aesthetic.  While police often refuse to go into many favelas,  Professor Mariana Cavalcanti did, conducting research for her dissertation there.  Her discussion centered on the recent trend of ” favela pacification” or government efforts at implementing  presence while ending the drug trade and reducing violence.

Lonely Planet describes attending a soccer match at Maracana as a psychedelic experience.  While that seems a stretch, the place is cavernous (capacity is 120,000!!) and attending a game at this “temple of soccer” was pretty cool.  I suppose it’s Brazil’s Yankee Stadium and the fact that we pulled it off was a minor miracle which John should tell as his language skills were instrumental in getting us there.