ROOTS Exhibition – CAAA, Guimarães

Mulheres do Atlântico, a reading and discussion club focused on African and Afro-diasporic literature produced by women, is planning a meeting between two black diasporic writers: Beatriz Nascimento (Brazil) and Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida (Portugal). The space for the conversation-action will be Ôrí, the Yoruba word for “head” or “conscience”, which, in the Atlantic mirror, becomes “Black Consciousness”.

The proposal for this transdisciplinary workshop is based on texts by both writers and excerpts from the film Ôrí, directed by Raquel Gerber and based on the writings of historian Beatriz Nascimento, who also acts as the film’s narrator. The intention is to articulate the theoretical and artistic production of these authors with a reflection on the construction of Afro-diasporic consciousness, in dialogue with the question: does the subject in transit have roots?

Book 1: “What it is to be a black writer today, according to me”, Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida.

Book 2: “The black man seen by himself”, Beatriz Nascimento.

Movie: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PBQutmbrgakx63IUUD8qOgIM2wKVId4n/view

In this way, we want to open up a space for listening, exchange and joint construction of thought, where the boundaries between theory, art and experience can be blurred. For the workshop, the basic texts for the conversation will be made available digitally in advance, as well as a reading guide with key questions that will serve as a guide for creating paths between the texts and the film.

Hannah Bastos
Hannah Bastos é natural da Paraíba, Nordeste do Brasil, e vive na cidade de Guimarães, Portugal. É mestranda em Literaturas de Língua Portuguesa pela Universidade do Minho. Criadora e moderadora do Mulheres do Atlântico, clube de leitura dedicado às literaturas africanas e afrodiaspóricas produzidas por mulheres, e livreira independente na Lojinha Mulheres do Atlântico. Produtora cultural no Minha Poetry Slam, campeonato de poesia falada, e também do evento Mulheres do Atlântico — Nossa Literatura. É autora do livro Sereias-Anjos Nadam ou Voam? (Urutau, 2024) e tem contos e poemas publicados em antologias e revistas literárias no Brasil, Cabo Verde e Portugal.

The “Come Here” workshop-visit is an informal and playful encounter with an exhibition. An interactive experience that assumes that we all have a new layer to add.

This session will explore the ROOTS exhibition, reflecting on colonialism and slavery in today’s eyes. ROOTS evokes the roots we establish with where we come from, but also the new roots created with where we are going. Everyone is welcome!

ondamarela is an artistic structure that finds inspiration for the development of its projects in people and places. We believe that provoking the experience of creating a totally new and original artistic object with the effective participation of people, their stories, their anxieties, their desires, in the relationship with their places, generates important transformations on the road to an ever stronger democracy.

Based in Guimarães and active since 2015, we have always focused our actions on participatory practices and community artistic creation, in various areas: community performances (music, theater, dance, video art), cultural programming/curation, educational workshops, games, conversations, mediation and training objects.

We have worked with a wide range of organizations in Portugal and abroad – municipalities, museums, theaters and theater networks, cultural centers, European capitals of culture, foundations, schools, regional directorates, development agencies, festivals and companies. ondamarela was awarded the Access to Culture Prize 2019 – Social and Intellectual Access.

We are enthusiastic about meeting, listening, confrontation, commitment, sharing and the creation of new communities: the community as a “feeling of us”.

Samba as resistance. Sound as search, encounter, reflection. Rhythm as a vehicle for communicating ideas, feelings and words. This will be a listening session, a moment of conversation with Luca Argel around his album “Samba de Guerrilha”, which recovers sambas of resistance that were stifled by the censorship of Brazil’s military dictatorship.

About the album “Samba de Guerrilha”: https://lucaargel.com/release/samba-de-guerrilha/

Luca Argel is a singer-songwriter from Rio de Janeiro who has been in Portugal for over 10 years, where he has also put down roots. His artistic projects combine historical research, political activism and musical experiences that transcend borders. In Brazil, he graduated in music and taught in public schools and NGOs. In Portugal, while studying for a master’s degree in Literature, he began his professional career on stage, singing with the groups Samba Sem Fronteiras and Orquestra Bamba Social, with whom he still cultivates and spreads a great love for samba, a genre that has been fundamental to his career.

He combines his musical activity with his literary one, which has resulted in the publication of poetry books in Brazil, Spain and Portugal, one of which was a semi-finalist for the Oceanos Prize in 2017. He also writes music for dance and film shows and has produced radio programs and podcasts dedicated to Brazilian music.

He has released six albums, with which he has toured Portugal, Spain, France and Macau, appearing on stages such as Rock in Rio Lisboa; Théâtre du Châtelet; the Sines World Music Festival; and the RTP Song Festival, where he took a composition about xenophobia and prejudice against immigrants, which has grown so much around the world, all the way to the semi-finals.