on the outskirts of São Paulo, a city marked by hostile and social inequality, a group of people touched by the clarity and optimism are committed to encouraging a cultural movement from the base. Binho One of them is less known as Robinson Padial, which found modest Limpo Country bar, a southern suburb, a platform to celebrate poetry and soirees music every Monday, the one led to another and ended up riding a makeshift library in the bar. The other took one and thought, why not bring books to people?
The bicicloteca arose during one of those walks where you look Cultural Expedition in Latin America, with which, in four different paths, a group of 30 artists, among them the poet Binho, has already traveled some 1,500 miles , leaving each place the stamp of his art.
"We try to attract those who have no intimate contact with the books, giving them something closer to"
In the second expedition, Binho decided to implement an idea that came hovering over his head for some time: he bought an old bike for 39 reais over 15 euros, placed a makeshift basket, took some books and started to go door to door offering them to the villagers to whom they would carry their adventure. Spontaneously, the same people who accepted the gift offered to turn donations, bringing the stock of bicicloteca grew. And the success of the initiative was imperative to resume it back to São Paulo. Today it has 4,000 books and a group of collaborators, including Binho woman, Suzi, and her daughter, Naiana. That there are also the blog: www.biciclotecas.blogspot.com.
in 2009 The project received support from the municipality of São Paulo, through which were made with two new bikes. That same year set up a physical space that serves as the basis for books and was turning into a gap brechoteca, thrift store which is conceived as an incentive to read: they receive donations of clothing, furniture or toys that offer people who read books, got to a refrigerator, offering as an advertisement for a ballot.
"We're pushing people towards reading in one form or another," says Suzi. "We try to attract those who have no intimate contact with books, offering something closer to them, "said Naiana.
An effort that is not trivial in a country where reading rates are still low and there is hardly terrible public library for every 33,000 inhabitants. The bicicloteca is taking more ambitious horizons, it operates in a non-bureaucratic and even family. While the books are provided, are offered as a gift. No strings, no paperwork, a direct exchange. "It is public, but it is not the government, "Jesus summarizes Luan, project collaborator.
The idea is that" knowledge must be in circulation "in the words Alisson da Paz, head of another revolutionary idea in its simplicity: the Poetics Correspondência with the givers hand-written poems in the bus stops.
poems and books are taking over the urban landscape on the outskirts of São Paulo.
A flower in the middle of the asphalt One swallow does not make a summer, but it can wake the whole camp, "they say Binho. He is one of those swallows. That momentum him, that warmth in the meeting, have attracted dozens of new poets to the ball-in Portuguese, Sarau, which, rain or shine, is held every Monday night modest bar in Campo Limpo, a suburb south of São Paulo. That megametrópoli twenty million inhabitants has the dubious honor of being among the most unequal in the world. A city where wealthy neighborhoods, living surrounded by private security with a thousand favelas are concentrated on the vast periphery.
"We do not know who I am, but my name is Robinson, who say it means 'son of Robin', although my father was named Joaquim," Robinson joked Padilla, alias Binho in unfinished biography of her book of poems, Where Miras. Two poets and one way, he shares with his friend Serguinho Poet. His nickname was left affectionate diminutive Echo Robinho mother. Today, at 45, spread optimism tinged romantic sense: "That so many people interrupt the rush of everyday life to hear a poem, in a city like this is almost like finding a flower in the middle of the asphalt."
just a step, a subtle scene that captures the audience's attention without creating distance. Binho challenges, asks, smiling, encouraging, serving with that gift from him to listen, with that wisdom so genuine in her eyes. He is the leader fleeing the leadership, the voice that only seeks to place the microphone in front of others, who came on stage. On both sides, simple shelves house a succinct library. Repayable loans that attract the solidarity of donors. Some books, pamphlets, papers, poems scattered on the wooden tables in the bar, which ironically boasts of having "the worst pie, a classic fast food de São Paulo in Brazil."
"Who wants to leave now," asks Binho once the applause to subside before surgery. His has a reputation as the most anarchic of the soirees of Sampa-like call their city the São Paulo-but keeps a similar schedule that have already taken dozens of spaces, mostly in buteco-simple-neighborhood bars: spontaneous shares attendees, music, rap, dance or drama, but above all, lots of poetry. "Each poem is an awareness, and I feel privileged to receive this information first hand is like being in a lab," says Binh. A sign asking for silence and respect for the poets in the Santista Claudio Bar in Pirituba, west of the metropolitan region of São Paulo. For three years, every Thursday night, the drums call the neighbors and those who come from afar, to make this little soiree buteco in Elo da Corrente, a poetry corner and social demands. Some are common, others come for the first time. Some met through community radio, which until recently was broadcasting the evening parties every Thursday from eight. Now they've removed the antenna, following allegations that goes "beyond freedom of expression" by his allusions to police violence and "offensive language." Michel da Silva, the main promoter of this space, that they can not restrict the freedom and spontaneity of the shares, so as not to risk, have withdrawn from broadcast. "What matters is the soiree," says Michel. Their meeting point.
Read his poems, or other authors peripherals, some as revered as Solano Trindade. Also recited Pablo Neruda. Any intervention is welcome. Lucia, a Buenos Aires a few weeks passing Sampa peripheral research literature for his thesis, read his compatriot Daniela Andújar. I am involved with the English translation of a poem in the book where you look. Are delighted that this time is so international Sarau. all started almost fifteen years, those sleepless nights Vela-na-Noites Binho celebrating the first buteco which opened upon his return to Campo Limpo, the neighborhood where he was born and raised, after a journey that took him to places like England and Israel. I used to leave books of poetry to reach the customers, they began to read and recite from a musical performance to the next. One night, watching the posts in which accumulated electoral propaganda posters, Binh said, and why not give them back and put a poem instead? Postesía had been born.
Nearby, around the same time and in the same district of Campo Limpo, came from the hand of Sergio and Marco Vaz Peza, the soiree that would become a culture in the region: Cooperifa. Who would have told Vaz then, in 2009, would appear on a list of the hundred most influential people in Brazil published by the conservative weekly Epoca. His is the sentence: "While they capitalize on the fact, I socialize my dreams."
Pezao recalls with pride how it all began: "We gave the word soiree a new meaning. Before bourgeois meetings concerned with music and dance, we have made it popular and we have applied to poetry. " The truth is that poetry, as in other corners of the world seems to be dying out, reserved for marginal consumption of elites and bohemians, it has been established in São Paulo as the main form of expression for artists peripherals. And the oral tradition, against the appropriation of the print by of the bourgeoisie. "He never talked much poetry," says Peza. His eyes reflect an irrepressible boyish enthusiasm for what is going on: "All this has now emerged and is something that grows increasingly, it is going somewhere." Hence, he has decided to devote its efforts to disseminate the balls. There are already dozens scattered around the periphery of São Paulo, especially in the south, and continue to multiply. In other states, such as neighboring Rio de Janeiro, have already begun to spread. And although the excuse to get together is the art, words like strength, dignity and periphery are more pronounced.
is the guerrilla a word, the culture revolution. Books are weapons. And E isso that as elites tremem - "so the elites tremble" - because the periphery and does not want their shopping centers or their motives. He wants the same rights. And with knowledge, culture, look no more soap operas, news, or propaganda without question. So reads the manifesto reads Sarau na Brasa Vagner Sampaio de Souza, the main instigator of the event, which takes place every other Saturday in Brasilândia Suburbs east of Sampa. It is the most combative of saraus those who attended, perhaps because poets have come that day arrived from other parts of the suburbs. As Alisson da Paz, reminiscent in his poem Coletivo the daily humiliation of workers across the city every day, two hours, plus two back, on crowded buses where it is easy to be treated like cattle. Or Luan, whose rap has become a classic in these environments. All sing in chorus the refrain: "Now it is us, then us again. All power to the people! ". Luan's verses speak of the Afro-Brazilian pride, of claiming an identity that comes from mixing muted. Luan up since age 13. Today is 23. "There is no way not to love him," summarizes a friend. Just look into his eyes to know it well. His smile, full of nobility, is not cleared when he talks about his experiences in several camps sponsored by the Movement of Homeless Workers (MTST), a group deeply rooted in a country where the housing deficit is estimated at some six million households.
Those millions of homeless families, such as Luan, just settling in slums which are often evicted by the authorities when they impose the interests of real estate speculation. The homeless of downtown São Paulo face the same problem when the city council of the conservative DEM party, cleaning implements its policy in the inner city, a process that MTST calls "hygiene of poverty. " It's just one of the consequences of this dual society, almost eight years after coming to power of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil continues conscientiously [1]. same social gap, the racial grounds, was the fight that began 80 years ago Solano Trindade, the most memorable of the Brazilian marginal poet and precursor of peripheral cultural effervescence. His poems, written between 30 and 70, have not lost any of its present, as is determined to prove his great-grandson Zinho, who, at 26 years, the legacy of Solano mix with influences of rap. "I grew up in a theater where festivities were held in three days, the rhythm of samba and maracatu "recounts Zinho. He talks about his great-grandfather with admiration and respect shared by many in the Community, as it is called to the slums in Brazil.
A Solano is remembered for what he wrote as well as fought. São Paulo became the town of Embu a haven for artists who became known Embu das Artes, after arriving in the region in the 60's. Three decades before the battle had begun in his native Pernambuco, northeast, the poorest region of Brazil and more black. He founded the Black Front Pernambucano, and began broadcasting poems in which claimed the awakening of the black people, justice social and African heritage. He talked about class consciousness, but without hatred. "We will not race struggle, but we teach our black brothers that there is no superior or inferior race, and what does distinguish us from one another's cultural development," he wrote. Zinho has a smile that "communism was a biblical phrase: If you love your brother, how can you love God."
The peaceful nature of their demands were not prevented Solano prisoner during the dictatorship. "He was accused of having weapons at home, but it was not true: l or imprisoned for writing" Ten people com fome "(there are hungry people)" Zinho account. Half a century later, the poem retains all its present and shakes the listener when he says: "If people are hungry, feed him ...", some verses that have become an anthem in the periphery soirees São Paulo. "A Solano she had loved the sara" said Zinho. Start from the same idea as the Teatro Popular Brazilian poet who founded the village, as it has been baptized in the periphery of Sampa. "He wanted everyone to participate in artistic creation, from the laborer to the maid," said Zinho. And remember that even then, nearly a century ago, Solano claimed affirmative action as policy dimensions that are causing so much controversy in Brazil for Lula. A Brazil for the first time seems to be the country's present and future facing eternally postponed proud that today, yes, it senses the hand. That Brazil, however, heavy drag so many legacies of the past.
"The situation of blacks in Brazil has improved in quotation marks," says Zinho. "When Solano began his struggle, events such as Candomble and capoeira was forbidden, the black history was erased and only thanks to people like Solano was not shut down completely. Our fight is now easier, but even today, most blacks and poor people lack opportunities to study. Therefore, policies are needed dimensions: may not be, "he adds. In Brazil, there are posters reminding that it is illegal to deny access to a lift by the color of the skin.
Realities improve, problems persist. Sampa The southern edge has shifted from that in the days of sail Binho Noites na, Campo Limpo part of the so-called triangle of death. A combination of factors-economic growth, building infrastructure and, above all, the change in strategy by organized crime drug-pacified a region that had one of the highest homicide rates in Brazil. São Paulo is not on the top ten most violent cities in the country [2], and the physiognomy of the favelas is far from the slums of Rio de Janeiro. But segregation is still there. The middle class live outside Sao Paulo's outskirts, often afraid to approach her. And there are more subtle forms of discrimination, like the daily journey to which workers are faced to the center, which tells Alison in his poem. Alisson says
obsessed with bus stops. "Concentrate the highest rates of lost time in the periphery," says, sarcastically. This obsession was born his poetic pick your project. Written by hand, with his friend Michele Correa, poems that are delivered on parchment in the bus and in the saraus, almost always, the authors of the community. Alisson's vehemence is overwhelming, sparkling. Now he wants to make a traveling library of peripheral literature. At the same time, his friend Binho bicicloteca runs the makeshift shelters on the periphery out books on a bicycle. Again the transformation of the hostile in poetry, the flower on the pavement.
If something does not lack are ideas. And one of the most original is in Latin America Cultural Expedition that was called where you look. Impromptu emerged about three years ago: "One day I was all alone at home, I thought, well, we could walk, walk to Chile," says Binh. And it is. A group of 30 or 40 artists and has completed four tours of Brazil and expect to do next in Venezuela, visiting various villages in which leave their mark with a soiree. Claim to know firsthand the reality of Brazil and the rest of Latin America, share your art and promote cultural exchange. Chile is on the horizon, as the symbol of brotherhood among the people of Brazil and English America. is the battle of knowledge, War poetry. All these initiatives have shaped a movement that has much to claim their own vision of life and society that are denied on television and in textbooks. "The advertising reflects the stereotypes of the middle class and white, can not see the face of the Brazilian people," deplores Binho, adding: "How can we know more of the Civil War the United States from our own history ? "History is written by the victors: it is an old maxim. Now, the losers, who are already tired of being so, want to recover his voice. And Sara is configured as meeting space, dissemination and resistance to the discourse of the powerful. Where hikers as Miras, who seek the edge of the road a truth told by its protagonists, without filters. "Did you know that the Brazilian media are held by only eleven families [3]?" Binho challenges me. "I want to hear what you have to say the rest."
At the same time, constructing a collective identity. Who previously hid where he lived, for fear of stigma, says today proud to be part of the periphery. It's a matter of dignity, self-esteem. "The ruling classes built on the collective imagination to put an inferior ideas and sustain their domination" Binho explains. "But the periphery is not ugly, as well as Africans and Indians were primitive." The poems are read in the soirees reflect the weariness against a discourse that systematically criminalize the favela, which only appears in the press to talk about crime, violence, drugs, as indicated by Peza.
values \u200b\u200bof coexistence and neighborly community do not appear in the media. The talent and creativity that abounds in the favela is not on the Globo media group in Brazil's most powerful Brazilian-born, of course, under the auspices of the military dictatorship in the 70's. And one or two hundred residents each Wednesday Campo Limpo prefer Cooperifa visit to see the novel of the Globe make a focus of cultural resistance. They discovered that poetry gives voice if they forget the walls up the Academy, says Alison, and write as people speak. And in the texts of this new generation of poets, with a language profile yet, but already visible lines, the oral, peripherally jargon often appears the idea of \u200b\u200bbelonging. In this sense, the soirees are also the community's response to the lack of infrastructure in a city that concentrates its huge cultural programming in the vicinity of the central Avenida Paulista, while leaving the stagnation in the periphery. The people have taken the lead: sara is Monday through Sunday and also plays or musical performances. It is art by and for the periphery "as they proudly exclaim. The institutions have had little to do. Only now beginning to engage with aid to the soirees to edit their own books and magazines. And especially with the Points of Culture, an initiative of the federal government to fund ideas as Sarau Binh, who recently won one of the 2,500 points that dot this vast country of 190 million people. Besides the possibility to create networks around these points, you can buy equipment for, among other things, shoot and release the balls. It's
revolution in art, the strategy of the pen. "We have been brought into conformity, the idea that you can not change reality," reflects Binho. But now "is forming a critical mass, there is a desire for change, a hope that another edge is possible. They begin to worry. " And, believe Binho, self-awareness of social issues and change reality, because "once you open your eyes, there is no turning back, and from there things become." Because "only the knowledge leads to real change", although it is also the longest path.
"Some people did not know what a poem and are now publishing books! The people speak because they feel they want change. Our weapon is that. The guerrillas of the word. Wanting Solano, "said Zinho Trindade. Seeds are being planted, but nobody knows what will grow. "We're building something, but do not really know why. We never sat down to think about what we wanted to do, everything has arisen spontaneously, "said Vagner de Souza. For the moment, are being articulated. The soirees of Sampa vast metropolitan region are increasingly interrelated, particularly after the meeting that took place in Porto Alegre World Social Forum last January. It may be a network from which to articulate a link with social movements, as they think fit together and David Daniel Alves, who participate in the collective national periphery and Where Art Miras.
But can art change reality? "Art is how not to be political, because it is communication," argues David, responsible with Alisson da Paz Curta saraus project, a documentary that will tour the soirees in Sampa. David noted that one day faced with the dilemma of choosing between the path of social struggle or a word; attempts to balance both, convinced that they must go together. And is not revolutionary and the very fact that so many people while creating, in the forgotten suburbs of São Paulo, that poetry can change the world, I ask, somewhat naive. David responds with a knowing smile. And with the eyes of a dreamer, pointing to the hope that the soirees are projected on televisions across the country, and beyond, from Chile to New Mexico via Europe, so that everyone knows what is going on São Paulo. Utopia? Maybe. But there is a place, the periphery, which is starting to walk. And some glimpses of a summer swallows may not be a perfect world, but at least a little less unfair. A little less hostile.
[1] The Gini index, which measures inequality, has fallen in recent years from 0.57 to 0.52, largely thanks to the welfare policies of Lula, but remains among the most highest on the planet. [2] The homicide rate fell by 14.7% between 2001 and 2007 in the capital Sao Paulo, reaching 62 deaths per 100,000 population, according to a recent study by the University of Sao Paulo (USP). However, young men in poor neighborhoods continue to focus the major indexes.
[3] It explains the collective Intervozes documentary which screened at the last walk where you look to challenge the oligopoly of the information that exists in Brazil.
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rescued Information
articles and interviews NAZARETH Nazareth CASTRO Castro
Thanks for your words on this poet, highlighting this wonderful idea.
You can see live cultural initiative bicicloteca ... in these images from Youtube
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