political poetic perspectives
Brazil _ line-up
Julio Ludemir
Julio Bernardo Ludemir has ten books published, most of them set in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. In 2008, Rim por Rim was a finalist for the Jabuti, the most important Brazilian literary award. He is one of the screenwriters of 400 contra um, William da Silva Lima biopic, one of the creators of Comando Vermelho. Together with writer and cultural producer Ecio Salles he created FLUP, an international literary festival created in 2012 with the idea to promote literature and writing in territories traditionally excluded from literary programs. In 2016, the London Book Fair recognized FLUP effort with the Excellence Awards in the Literary Festival category. He is one of the creators of the show Batalha do passinho, in which young ‘passinho’ dancers went for the first time to a formal city stage, which even performed at the Lincoln Center in New York, at Ted Global in Rio de Janeiro, in closure of the London Olympics and the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro. With Roberta Estrela D’Alva and Núcleo Bartolomeu de Depoimentos he created Rio Poetry Slam, the first international poetry slam of Latin America and one of the largest in the world.
Luiza Romão
Poet, actress and slammer; author of the poetry books Sangria (Bloodletting) and Coquetel Motolove (Motolov Cocktail). She’s been participating in slam poetry and saraus (poetry readings) in the city of São Paulo since 2014. Her last project, Sangria, started as a poem book. Through 28 poems and 28 days (such as a menstrual cycle), it reviews the Brazilian history from the uterus’ viewpoint. Each poem was accompanied by a performatic photo of her body (embroidered with metals and red line). Then, the book was turned into a video art series: each poem was shot and musicalized. About 50 women artists were invited to create performances about and from them. The project intended to discuss gender violence, patriarchal society and feminist strengh and had been shown in many parts of Brazil and Latin America.
Cristian ‘Yemaya Villavo’ Romero [Colombia]
Rapper, actor, poet from Llanos Orientales, the so-called “the other Colombia”. Began to write and sing at an early age. In 2015 and 2016 his father and mother died and since then he started to face hip hop culture and rap as a lifestyle and real work. His first time in a poetry slam was in 2018 in Villavicencio. After that, he participated and won the national slam. His strong and cruel poetry is about hard experiences inside the reality of Colombia, a country in constant conflict with issues like drug trafficking, corruption and social injustice, and also about love, not just romantic, but universal. As an afro-descendant he talks about the problematics of being afro in Colombia. His rap music brings a fusion of the traditional music Joropo and hip hop. Singing about the sores but also the beautiful cultural heritages of his people, he has been winning several prizes and taking his art abroad,
Lia ‘La Novia Sirena’ Garcia [Mexico]
Trans feminist artist, poet and activist from Mexico City. With studies in Pedagogy and performance, her artistic work aims to establish a dialogue between voice, affect, and radical pedagogy as a decolonial methodology. In her current research project, ‘Skin Feminisms: Feeling the Trans Experience’, she analyses poetry and performance as a radical pedagogy that transcends the museum space and takes streets, schools and complex spaces, using love to intervene their realities and build other types of communication. Her work has been shown at the International Festival for Sexual Diversity (FIDS Mexico), 2010 edition, October 2014 Trans Barcelona, Art Space, El palomar Barcelona, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Cologne and VBKO, ¡Extra! International Performance Festival, curated by Pancho Lopez. She was selected as a participating artist in the convergence 2015 Hemispheric and she presented her pedagogic proposal in the Hemispheric Institute of performance art and politics in MUAC-UNAM during the 2019 festival.
Queen Nzinga Maxwell [Costa Rica]
‘A womb warrior who honors royalty in her veins, ancestral roots and legacy of revoluion and resistance.’ In 2005 Queen Nzinga Maxwell formed the band The Afro-Kon Revolushans, bringing an Afro-conscious concept, mixing various Afro rhythms with Spoken Word. In June of the same year, she became co-founder of the Griot Collective, with which she worked on several community and relevant projects, including a video creation entitled ‘Collective Griot Collective’, which received Honorable Mention for 3rd place, in the National Film and Video Awards. From the time she founded the space in July 2014 to the present day, she hosts ‘Oralidad Poética’, and also since then, produces Poetry Slam Costa Rica, both events that aim to promote spoken word and oral poetry in its various forms. In 2017 she created the workshop ‘Let’s Do Spoken Word!: A Exploration in the World of Oral Poetry’, which she facilitates with spoken word artist Laura Contreras Cambronero. She released the CDs ‘Ideas & Conformisms’ in 2009, WombVoliushan Demo in 2012 and the Book & CD ‘AfroKon: WombVolhan Poetry’ in 2013, and is now in the production of a new edition of AfroKon and her new book “Ìbẹ̀rẹ̀-My Origin. My Origin.”.
Makanaky Adn [Haiti / Chile]
Haitian poet and slammer Jean Joseph Makanaki Audain was born on February 20, 1992 on a Caribean island incorporated into Haiti called La Gonave Island, located in the Gulf of La Gonave, approximately 80 km from Port-au-Principe. At the age of 15, he discovered this art as his main human activity, expressing himself through SLAM. In 2015 he began to publish these pieces, taking them on his migration to Chile in 2016, the country in which he currently resides. It is part of the Putaendo Histórico Cultural Group. He published his first book Ave Negra Migratoria in 2018 and its second edition in 2019. This book is written in Spanish and creole. Some of his poems are in the Poetic Anthology “Du Feu Que Nous Sommes”, 56 Contemporary Authors, France. In 2020 he published his second book, En Amor Arte.
Luz de Cuba [Cuba]
Luz de Cuba began her career in the Spoken Word scene in Cuba more than 10 years ago. Participated in different local festivals and also has international presentations such as: Gallery ‘The Art’, Gainsville, Florida, USA, UF Center for Latin American Studies, 66th Annual Conference, Florida, USA. She was part of the compilation album Afrorazones of the year 2017 and recently was part of the Súbelo Cuba album produced by Bronswood Recordings together with Gilles Peterson, Havana Cultura and Guámpara Music. Through song and narrative, she mixes popular wisdom with Afro-Cuban percussion sounds, traditional Cuban music and electronic music, resulting in an ancestral and futuristic sound. With her checker she invokes their deities to connect with her audience and lead them into their stories. Luz de Cuba is an Afro-Cuban griot from contemporary Cuba.
Comikk MG [Mexico]
Spoken Work, Poetry Slam and Rap artist. He participated as a slammer at the Rio Poetry Slam 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, at the Poetry Slam Guatemala 2018 in Guatemala City and at the Coupe d’Afrique de Slam poésie 2018, among others. He has also been invited to lead SLAMIN: Poetry Slam México. As well as his work in poetic performing, he has also coordinated and organised various projects around the spoken word, such as POM: Palabra / Oralidad / Mensaje, Slammers México, Circuito Nacional Poetry Slam MX, Slam Nacional MX and Master Slam CDMX, the first metropolitan slam tournament in Mexico City. As for the written word, he is the creator of World SLAMIN, a blog on the current affairs of poetry slams in Mexico.
Lucas Afonso
Born in Jardim São Carlos, São Miguel Paulista, east zone of São Paulo, was raised in a very musical home (‘before being born, heard his mother sing’). In 2014, at the age of 22, he released the EP “À margem”, his first rap album. In 2015 he founded Slam da Ponta at Cohab José Bonifácio, in Itaquera, a peripheral area of São Paulo. In the same year he won the national tournament of spoken poetry Slam Brazil and represented Brazil at the World Cup of Poetry 2016, in France, where he reached the semifinals. In 2018, he launched his first book: A Última Folha do Caderno (The Last Sheet of the Notebook), a name that refers to where it all started in his beginnings. He’s now also attending university at the second year of Music Therapy course. From Jardim São Carlos, São Miguel Paulista, East Zone of São Paulo, to the world.