De meu amigo ArrudA

E li, logo ao acordar, este poema de arrudA, que me fez ganhar o dia:

e onde
houver
um rio
poderemos
viver
e nomear
as cores
e reunir
as cabras
e olhar
pro céu
e desenhar
os mapas
e amar
o fluxo
e amar
o fluxo
e afogar

as mágoas

[arrud∆]

arrudA postou no Facebook hoje, dia 22. Vou considerar um presente para minha alma.

e-mail de Maputo

Boa tarde, cara Lúcia! Boa tarde, Dulcineia Catadora!

É com muita alegria que escrevo para informar que, depois de ter trabalhado com a cartoneira da nossa faculdade, eu e dois amigos criamos a LIVANINGO cartão d'arte, com o mesmo objectivo de fazer alguma coisa pela literatura. 

A cartoneira foi criada em Maio, e as primeiras obras serão publicadas na próxima   sexta-feira,  dia 27/07, às 17:30h, no Centro  Cultural Brasil-Moçambique. Os títulos dos livros são: Estatuto e Focalização, tese de licenciatura do professor de literatura da Faculdade de Letras, Aurélio Cuna, e Mutxukumetiwa, uma novela de Rei do Gado, professor de Português na mesma instituição (ambos os autores se estreiam na  publicação de livros). 

Do rhonga, uma das línguas locais de Maputo, LIVANINGO significa "Luz" e/ou "Iluminação". Mas não se trata de uma "luz" e/ou iluminação qualquer. Trata-se de uma "luz" guia as pessoas.
 

Quem me escreveu foi o querido José dos Remédios, jovem universitário que participou de todas as oficinas que dei na faculdade e no Instituto Camões, além de ser presença constante nas mesas, discussões e conversas, em abril, quando estive em  Maputo. 

José dos Remédios, de camiseta azul, no canto inferior à esquerda da foto, em minha oficina no Instituto Camões.

Alegria imensa receber este e-mail. Viva Livaningo!

Em Garanhuns, iniciamos novo núcleo

E tudo deu mais do que certo em Garanhuns, onde demos oficinas na ASNOV para catadoras que agora cuidarão da recém-nascida Severina Catadora com a participação do escritor Helder Herik. Vale a pena ler a boa matéria de Gabriela Alcântara.

Em Garanhuns, PE, literatura diminui barreiras entre catadoras e escritores
Catadoras de papelão fazem capas de livros, escritos por autores da cidade.
Batizado de 'Severina Catadora', projeto foi uma das ações do FIG 2012.

Gabriela Alcântara Do G1 PE, em Garanhuns


“Entre um povo de raras leituras, como era o de sua aldeia, causava espanto e admiração aquela voracidade com que comprava e consumia livros e mais livros”. O trecho de Dom Quixote, obra de Miguel Cervantes, reflete a situação de milhares de brasileiros, que apaixonados por literatura, lutam pela arte e buscam disseminá-la, em uma luta que pode ser quixotesca, em um país onde o índice de leitura está abaixo do desejado. Durante os primeiros dias desta edição do Festival de Inverno de Garanhuns , no Agreste pernambucano, esta luta foi travada com sucesso, unindo catadoras de papelão da cidade e escritores do coletivo U-Carbureto.

Projeto transforma lixo em livros, no Festival de Inverno de Garanhuns (Foto: Gabriela Alcântara / G1)Artista plástica Lúcia Rosa (de preto) coordena projeto que ensina catadoras a produzir capas para os livros, escritos por autores da cidade (Foto: Gabriela Alcântara / G1)

Ministrada pela artista plástica paulista Lúcia Rosa, do coletivo Dulcinéia Catadora, o projeto Severina Catadora realizou uma oficina com mulheres e homens da Associação dos Catadores de Papel, Papelão e Material Reciclável Nova Vida (Asnov), no bairro da Cohab III. Lá, no espaço em que senhoras vendem o quilo de papelão recolhido por apenas R$ 0,18, livros nasceram, e a arte das palavras fincou raízes, espalhando esperança e criatividade.

Para a presidente da Asnov, a catadora Núbia Bezerra, o lixo começa a dar lugar aos sonhos. “Estamos pegando novos conhecimentos, agora um filho ou um vizinho pode ter acesso a um trabalho desses. Minha filha, por exemplo, escreve uns versos, e está animada para participar de algo parecido”, comentou, contente. A amiga Maria Aparecida Santiago concorda, e adiciona: “Os outros podem até desistir depois disso, mas eu quero continuar. Esses livros podem ir para as escolas, para todo canto. A gente pode colocar na praça para vender, vai ser um sucesso!”

Projeto transforma lixo em livros, no Festival de Inverno de Garanhuns (Foto: Gabriela Alcântara / G1)'Eloísa Cantonera', de Buenos Aires, inspirou
projeto do FIG (Foto: Gabriela Alcântara / G1)

A iniciativa é prova de que algumas interferências em universos distintos podem dar bons frutos. Inspirado no “Eloísa Cantonera” de Buenos Aires, que a artista conheceu durante a 27° Bienal de São Paulo, o “Dulcinéia Catadora” existe há cinco anos. Lúcia Rosa fala animada sobre os resultados que já observou: “Conseguimos coisas concretas, as pessoas vão desenvolvendo o olhar, a criatividade. Temos hoje um menino que é fotógrafo, muito talentoso. Outro dia, um rapaz me mandou um e-mail, agradecendo por tudo, e falando que estava cursando Relações Internacionais”.

É ela quem faz o contato inicial com os autores, que são convidados para escrever textos que serão vendidos com capas de papelão, produzidas pelos catadores. Entre os nomes que já colaboraram estão Marcelino Freire, Alice Ruiz, Glauco Matoso e Andrea del Fuego. Depois que a produção é finalizada, cada livro é vendido por um valor acessível, a R$ 7 ou R$ 10, e a renda é dividida entre catadores e escritores, dependendo do acordo realizado. O grupo também organiza os lançamentos das obras, que em São Paulo acontecem em redutos frequentados por autores, como a Mercearia São Pedro e a Praça Benedito Calixto. Em Garanhuns, o lançamento aconteceu na Praça da Palavra, e os livros produzidos pelas pernambucanas já estão esgotados. Os feitos em São Paulo ainda estão à venda na praça, e custam R$ 10.

Não só as catadoras passam por alterações em seu universo e modo de percepção. Para Helder Herik, um dos escritores do coletivo U-Carbureto e organizador da antologia local, o grupo também sentiu a força do encontro: “Encaro isso como um aprendizado, sobretudo por ver essas mulheres. Elas pegam o nosso lixo, e o transformam em arte. E também porque em momento nenhum se mostraram fragilizadas, mesmo que algumas pessoas da sociedade não pareçam ter paciência com esse trabalho de formiguinha delas, e não as perceba como pessoas”.

Projeto transforma lixo em livros, no Festival de Inverno de Garanhuns (Foto: Gabriela Alcântara / G1)Helder Herik organizou os textos publicados nos títulos feitos no FIG (Foto: Gabriela Alcântara / G1)

O encontro entre os dois universos foi tão emocionante que, dos dois escritores convidados para fazer textos especialmente para o projeto, um saiu da Asnov já criando a obra. “O Andre Luiz de Castro saiu da cooperativa na quarta-feira e na quinta o texto já estava pronto”, comentou Helder. Na obra resultante, um trecho resume bem a força da iniciativa: “Depois de imprensá-lo em papelão, esse livro é uma pólvora”.

Entrevista para Cronopios

Carlos e eu visitamos Pipol no início do ano. Um bate-papo gostoso sobre literatura, arte, Dulcinéia Catadora e o significado dessas andanças pelos caminhos da criação em nossas vidas. Compartilho com amigos.

Acesse o Public Books

Recycling Literary Culture:
A Conversaton with Lúcia Rosa
Adam Morris



June 18, 2012 — Over the past decade, a new style of publishing has emerged as a response to the economic and environmental conditions facing twenty-first-century Latin America. Cardboard books, colorfully hand-painted and assembled by workshop collectives, are now bought and sold in nearly every major Latin American city. The “cartonera” publishing collectives take their name from cartoneros: urbanites who earn their living by collecting recyclable materials from the streets of Latin America’s sprawling cities.

Most of the collectives are based on Eloísa Cartonera, the model established by writers and artists in Buenos Aires in 2003 during the aftermath of Argentina’s 2001 debt crisis and default. The cartoneras invite cartoneros, authors, neighbors, and visitors to participate in painting the covers of books. Although the specific operations of each cartonera vary by city, the general idea is the same: unite form and content in the task of making heard the voices of the marginal, the emerging, the poor, the other.

The cartoneras highlight the plight of the masses of jobless and homeless urban dwellers in contemporary Latin America. They also call attention to the environmental effects of globalization. Trade pacts that ultimately spelled the relocation of Northern manufacturing to points South also exported industrial pollution beyond the view and concern of Northern consumers, as well as beyond the strictures of Northern environmental protection standards. The cartonera books signal the compromises of consumer capitalism by bearing signs of their origin: the bar codes, logos, decals, and writing on their cardboard covers are often incorporated into the covers’ design, or remain visible through layers of paint.

The cartonera initiative also addresses the persistence of the colonial relationship inscribed in the structure of the Spanish-language publishing industry. Dominated by large publishing conglomerates in Madrid and Barcelona, the industry’s bureaucratic tastemakers continue to determine which Latin American writers are read, and which are consigned to oblivion. Cartoneras tend to publish unknown and unpublished writers, experimental prose and verse stylists who would otherwise remain out of print, as well as established writers who lend their names and writing to the cause of democratizing literary culture.

Founded in São Paulo in 2007, Dulcinéia Catadora (“Catador” is the Brazilian Portuguese term for “cartonero”) is one of the most productive and politically active of the cartoneras. In addition to publishing books, the Brazilian collective also performs street demonstrations and maintains close ties with the syndicates formed by Brazilian catadores to protect the rights and safety of urban gatherers. Lúcia Rosa, a sculptor based in São Paulo, is one of the collective’s founders and longtime participants.

Adam Morris (AM): How did a cartonera project develop in São Paulo?

Lúcia Rosa (LR): There was a period when I used a lot of iron scrap metal in my sculpture, so I was always visiting the catadores’ cooperatives looking for material to use in my work. Then, in 2006, I was invited by a group of artists to participate in the artists’ occupation of the Biblioteca de Pari, an exhibition that brought local art directly to the public at a library in central São Paulo. I ended up making a sculpture out of cardboard as a reflection on the tremendous quantity of cardboard and catadores in the neighborhood. My sculpture caught the attention of other artists who knew about Eloísa Cartonera in Buenos Aires. A group of us initiated contact with Eloísa, and the collaboration resulted in their invitation to participate in the 27th Biennial in São Paulo, whose theme was “How to Live Together.” Eloísa Cartonera’s idea was to assemble a publishing workshop as an installation piece, with daily participation of the catadores in São Paulo. I was asked to make contact with the catadores for the production of the Biennial installation, as I was already working with them. I put together a team, and when Javier Barilaro, the artist and Eloísa Cartonera co-founder, arrived in Brazil, I collaborated on the creation and assemblage of the installation. For the next two months the workshop was functioning daily, until December. In January 2007, we started Dulcinéia Catadora. I was determined to start a Brazilian branch.

AM: Why is the idea of the cardboard press important in contemporary Latin America?
ALL OF LATIN AMERICA CONFRONTS A SIMILAR SITUATION IN THE LITERARY WORLD: THERE’S A SHORTAGE OF PUBLISHING HOUSES AND A SURPLUS OF AUTHORS.

LR: All of Latin America confronts a similar situation in the literary world: there’s a shortage of publishing houses and a surplus of authors. And a lack of readers. The majority of the population doesn’t have the purchasing power to buy books. The Internet has proven itself as an alternative medium for displaying contemporary literary production, which is abundant but mostly unexplored. But the book on paper is still alive, indispensable to a reader’s experience. The cartonera books emerge as an instrument of resistance: a method of disseminating authors’ work and of making literature that follows other paths, against the grain of the publishing market. There isn’t the same commercial objective of selling easy literature that pleases the average reader. All sorts of experimentation with the written word are welcome. I think that we’re undertaking a project of mapping new tendencies in literature. The books are sold at a minimum price so that the maximum number of people will be able to buy them. And our books, made artisanally with discarded cardboard that has been gathered by the catadores, testify to an omnipresent condition in Latin American countries—the number of people without adequate housing, and of catadores, is immense. They are people who have lost their jobs, people without access to the labor market, people with few qualifications, who survive on what they make from recycling.

AM: What makes Dulcinéia distinct among the cartoneras?

LR: When we began our activities, we chose Dulcinéia because it was the name of a catadora who worked in Coopamare, a woman from Maranhão who was nearly fifty, a strong woman, hardworking, who struggled to survive and to raise her daughter. She’s always smiling, in spite of the difficulties. She’s an example of courage and strength. And Dulcinéia is also a literary allusion to Dulcinea del Toboso, the village girl that Don Quixote sees as his true love and knightly patroness and to whom he dedicates his “heroics.” She represents the dreamer’s idealism. It has a lot to do with the project.

Dulcinéia Catadora is very close to the catadores. We’re working inside one of the recycled-materials cooperatives, Cooperglicério, right in downtown São Paulo. The catadores come together on Saturdays, their day off, to paint the covers and assemble the books.

We also include catadores among our authors, in addition to marginalized poets, the poets of the periphery. We want to work with difference on all levels: in the constitution of the group participating in the workshops, as well as in the selection of the authors. We’re starting a series of illustrated books pairing authors with specific visual artists. They create content together and then the members of the collective paint the covers. It clearly shows the collaborative character of the work—different languages add up to compose a book.

AM: Dulcinéia Catadora functions in a “self-sustainable fashion.” Why is this important?

LR: Selling what we produce and dividing the income represents a way of having autonomy, of not depending on sponsorships, of not being linked to institutions, NGOs, nonprofits. Anyway, this reinforces the character of resistance; it affirms artistic work with political roots.

AM: How does Dulcinéia approach making artwork?
The collective environment of our activities is fundamental. It would bore us to death to make art just for galleries.

LR: We act as a collective, performing urban interventions. We go to the street with the cardboard books, always with the catadores. This demonstrates an active artistic posture, of being present in public space, and not locked up in a white cube. We want to be troublesome, to force the visibility of something that people pretend every day not to see, to speak about inequalities. That’s why we work with cardboard and catadores. The collective environment of our activities is fundamental. It would bore us to death to make art just for galleries.

Acting in public space permits us to work with more freedom. It’s much different to exhibit work in a gallery, which depends on the judgment of curators, on an evaluation that is linked to a product, a piece. The relation of a work to the public at large is different. The segment of the public that frequents galleries and spaces for art isn’t the same as the public at large. In general they are artists or art enthusiasts. And even when a work or installation assembled in a gallery invites the participation of the public, surveillance cameras inhibit people’s reactions in the space. Continuous control is exercised to preserve property. There’s a certain code of behavior that is followed in a private space. When we’re in the street, we concern ourselves with developing a work with the public, with the population. This is the point. The exchange, the contact with the passerby, provokes ruptures in people’s daily routines. To break automatisms. To open spaces for reflection. Everything is process. Improvisation. We don’t go into the streets trying to control everything that could happen. We aren’t prisoners to an expected result. The photos and videos that we make of our interventions are intended to register the moment, this process. That’s it. They don’t inhibit our acts in any way, or affect our spontaneity.

AM: How does the collective recognize individuality of expression?

LR: As a collective, we have common objectives; we always act in a group. But around the work table, everyone paints their covers however they want, and little by little develops their style. We manage to distinguish who painted which cover. The result is an affirmation of diversity. Last year we had some graffiti artists in the group. Their language clearly informed the visual results of the covers. A single title, on the day it’s being launched, can display infinite visual languages, side by side. This is why we say that individual expression is not suppressed. Nevertheless, we don’t make a point of putting art credits on the books. It’s not something that’s important to the group. Obviously, if at some point one of the members finds it’s necessary to put his or her name on the cover, everyone will accept it. It’s a continuous play between the collective and the individual. There aren’t strict rules for delimiting the fields of action. The authors, on the other hand, are the participants that maintain some control over their creation. But the result—text plus painted cover—translates this sum of individual plus collective.

AM: Could you explain the link the collective has with the National Movement of Gatherers of Recycled Materials (o Movimento Nacional dos Catadores de Materiais Recicláveis)?

LR: We try to spread the word about the existence of the Movement in the workshops we give, and in talks. The general population is unaware of the catador movement. We participate in events promoted by the MNCR, and join them in their struggle for rights to education, health care, and housing. But we don’t participate in any of their decisions.

AM: Is the group’s project utopian?

LR: I wouldn’t describe or qualify the project with a single word. I would say that it’s a project that’s concerned with differences, that speaks of the other, that works with micro-utopias.

Adam Morris is a PhD Candidate in Spanish & Portuguese at Stanford University. He first met Lúcia Rosa in June of 2011 in São Paulo; his interview was conducted in Portuguese via e-mail throughout September 2011 and translated into English by the interviewer.

Lançamento do Escritor José Geraldo Neres

Fico contente quando um escritor mostra coragem e acredita realmente que seu caminho é a literatura. José Geraldo Neres é um deles. Há anos dedicado à literatura, lançará dia 24/06 (19h, domingo) no Rose Velt (Praça Franklin Roosevelt, 124 – Consolação - São Paulo) seu terceiro livro, Olhos de Barro.

A obra recebeu “Menção Especial” no 3º Prêmio Governo de Minas Gerais de Literatura, (ficção – 2010).

Mais respeito ainda tenho por José Geraldo, por incluir em sua biografia a publicação feita em 2007, com Dulcinéia Catadora: Pássaros de papel, mostrando seu compromisso com algo maior que o mundo literário.


José Geraldo é autor também de Outros silêncios (Escrituras Editora, 2009). Podemos encontrar publicações dele em suplementos, revistas literárias no Brasil e exterior, com traduções para Castelhano e Francês. Ministra oficinas literárias, com ênfase em criação literária e estímulo à leitura. Curador do projeto Quinta poética encontros multilinguagens promovidos pela Escrituras Editora e Casa das Rosas –Espaço Haroldo de Campos de Poesia e Literatura (2010/2012). Diretor da União Brasileira de Escritores – UBE (2012/2013).

seleção de textos literários - Resultado

Agradecemos aos autores por terem nos enviado textos e poesia, atendendo ao nosso convite no início do ano. Parabéns aos selecionados!
Seguem os títulos escolhidos:

Calçada
Alguns poemas
Hai-Cábulos
Pseudocoisas
Palavrarias

Pedimos aos autores para entrarem em contato.

Estamos programando o lançamento para o segundo semestre de 2012, em data a ser definida. Aguardem mais surpresas!