Experiences in Conversation

Making Cultura Popular Brasileira (Brazilian Popular Culture)

Experiences in Conversation

Based on collaborative research experiences, this session explores entanglements of multiple actors involved in the making of cultura popular Brasileira (Brazilian popular culture). This includes artists and practitioners, intellectuals, public administrators and official representatives, state and non-profit institutions, tourism, culture, and music industries and so on. We focus on the universes of forró and carimbó, two of several regional traditional manifestations appropriated during the first half of the twentieth century by hegemonic narratives to build a stereotypical imaginary of Brazil and its people. In different ways, forró and carimbó trigger senses of cultura popular and Brazilianess. Beyond their important parallels, these universes also present us with significant differences regarding their historical and contemporary relations with the cultural industry, the academy, and the State. They are living practices which, through several non-conformant experiences, provide an arena of great contention that decentre power hierarchies and challenge puristic categories usually taken as given.

Presented as a conversation, this session juxtaposes forró and carimbó universes, histories, and experiences. It also brings together artists and researchers from Brazil and the United States of America (USA) with different perspectives vis-a-vis national and regional belongings, races, classes, genders, and professional statuses. Lorena Muniagurria (Brazil, São Paulo), an anthropologist investigating cultural activism and policies, discusses the main role artists and other makers had in the creation of Brazilian cultural policy. Focusing on the case of carimbó, her paper challenges notions of “the State” and “state policies,” blurring boundaries and revealing multiple actors, practices, and knowledges involved in the making of cultura popular brasileira. Priscilla Duque (Brazil, Pará), a musician, performer, and band-leader of the group Carimbó Cobra Venenosa, discusses the subversive and feminist performance of Cobra Venenosa, which denounces the Brazilian elites’ deep-seated internal colonialism. By investing in contemporary Amazonian, Black, Indigenous, and peripheral aesthetics, her presentation develops notions of rootedness that encompass transformations. Michael Silvers (USA, Illinois), an ethnomusicologist investigating musical cultures, presents the cultural policy supporting forró pé-de-serra implemented by the same leftist Workers’ Party government that brought millions of Brazilians out of poverty at the start of the second decade of the twenty-first century. The new consumer class amplified the success of electronic forró, a genre often considered a threat to forró pé-de-serra. Silvers discusses this paradox – that the leftist goals of ameliorating poverty and sustaining vibrant music ecologies might sometimes be at odds. Francisco DiFreitas (Brazil, Ceará), a musician/rabequeiro, instrument maker, and educator, discusses the challenges of making culture in Cariri, home to many of forró’s roots. He assesses the current demands of arts advocacy in his work with other local mestres and in arts education with vulnerable communities.

Dialogues between different subjects, their knowledges, and traditions that strive towards more symmetrical relations can simultaneously reveal and question power hierarchies that have shaped the universes of cultura popular brasileira. By bringing together presenters who occupy different positions (researchers/researched; academy/non-academy; center/periphery; Global and National North/South), this session aims to explore the decolonizing potential of collaborative experiences.

Fazendo a Cultura Popular Brasileira

Experiências em Diálogo

Baseado em experiências de pesquisa colaborativa, este painel explora os emaranhados de múltiplos atores envolvidos na formação da cultura popular brasileira (artistas, intelectuais, gestores, instituições estatais e sem fins lucrativos, turismo, indústrias culturais e da música, etc). Focamos nos universos do forró e do carimbó. Trata-se de duas das várias manifestações populares e tradicionais regionais apropriadas ao longo da primeira metade do século XX por narrativas hegemônicas para construir um imaginário estereotipado do Brasil e de seu povo. De formas diferentes, ambos acionam sentidos de cultura popular e brasilidade. Para além de seus paralelos, também apresentam diferenças significativas quanto a suas relações históricas e contemporâneas com a indústria cultural, a academia e o Estado. São práticas vivas que, por meio de experiências variadas, fornecem uma arena de grande disputas que descentraliza hierarquias de poder e desafia categorias puristas geralmente tidas como dadas.

O painel justapõe universos, histórias e experiências do forró e do carimbó. Reúne artistas e pesquisadores do Brasil e dos Estados Unidos com diferentes perspectivas em relação a pertencimentos, raças, classes, gêneros e status profissionais nacionais e regionais. Lorena Muniagurria (BR, São Paulo), antropóloga que investiga ativismo e políticas culturais, discute o papel central que fazedores de cultura tiveram na formulação e implementação da política cultural brasileira. Focalizando o caso do carimbó, seu trabalho questiona as noções de “Estado” e de “políticas estaduais”, borrando as fronteiras e revelando os múltiplos atores, práticas e saberes envolvidos no fazer da cultura popular brasileira. Priscilla Duque (BR, Pará), artista, intérprete e líder de banda do grupo Carimbó Cobra Venenosa, discute a performance subversiva e feminista do Cobra Venenosa, que denuncia o profundo colonialismo interno das elites brasileiras. Ao investir em uma estética contemporânea amazônica, negra, indígena e periférica, sua apresentação desenvolve noções de enraizamento e ancestralidade que englobam transformações. Michael Silvers (EUA, Illinois), etnomusicólogo que tem refletido sobre ecologias musicais, discute a relação paradoxal entre a política cultural promovida pelo governo do Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) em apoio ao forró pé-de-serra – o mesmo governo responsável por retirar milhões de brasileiros da pobreza no início dos anos 2000. A nova classe de consumidores amplificou o sucesso do forró eletrônico – gênero que muitos consideram uma ameaça ao forró pé-de-serra – sugerindo um desencontro entre as políticas de redução da pobreza e de promoção de sustentação de ecologias musicais. Francisco DiFreitas (BR, Ceará), músico/rabequeiro, construtor de instrumentos e educador, discute os desafios de se fazer cultura no Cariri, lar de muitas raízes do forró. Ele avalia as demandas atuais da defesa das artes em seu trabalho com outros mestres locais e na educação artística com comunidades vulneráveis.

Sustentamos que diálogos entre diferentes sujeitos, seus saberes e tradições, quando buscam ser estabelecidos a partir de relações mais simétricas, podem simultaneamente revelar e questionar as hierarquias de poder que moldaram os universos da cultura popular brasileira. Reunindo apresentadores que ocupam diferentes posições (pesquisadores/pesquisados; academia/não academia; centro/periferia; Norte/Sul nacional ou global), este painel explora o potencial descolonizador de experiências colaborativas.

Further References

Reflections

The conversation in this session reinforced our perception that a decolonial turn is due in music studies, and it urges us to both recognize and promote the agency of traditional music makers. Particularly when considering traditional music, we should remember that a decolonial enterprise is not about genres. Rather, it is about the people who make the music, their knowledge, and their perspectives. Focusing on genres not only misses the point of decolonial enterprises but also carries the risk of reinforcing static and folklorized ideas of traditional culture. The challenge is indeed complex: when it comes to traditional culture in Brazil, overcoming coloniality means rethinking the very foundation of the field. This is because the idea of "culturas tradicionais" was initially formulated by intellectual and economic national elites who, disregarding traditional makers' perspectives, appropriated and idealized popular forms of expression. The conversation in this ICTM Dialogues session brought up examples that point to the importance of considering both the context (political, social, and economic) and the poetics of traditional arts. This poetics seems to be related to how Brazilian traditional expressive forms build meaningful connections—otherwise difficult to exist—between references from the past (particularly Black and Indigenous ancestry) and contemporary everyday life, experiences, and struggles.

Questions to Consider

Who speaks for and about “popular and traditional cultures” in Brazil?

How can we ensure that makers of popular and traditional cultures participate in the distribution of earnings and resources (both symbolic and material) when versions of these expressions reach the market?

What are the possibilities and limits of a dialogue that is truly committed to processes of decolonization between subjects who may occupy unequally hierarchical positions? Specifically, what are such possibilities and limits in the cultural, educational, and scientific contexts of traditional cultures, given that their structures and values derive from deeply colonial logics? Is it possible to "reconvert" these fields of production and knowledge?