Strasborg, France: Festival Quilombo II

  
Festival Quilombo II

May 21 - 24

with
Mestre Guará
Mestre Camaleão

Costs
65€, 4 days
50€, 2 days
30€/ day
8€/ workshop

contact : 06 72 79 60 20 Prof. SAHCY
  

Paris, France: Workshops with M Russo

 
The Capoeira Angola School of Paris will be hosting a series of classes and discussions with

Mestre Russo de Caxias.

15 euro per class

Contact: Mestre Guará, tel. 0620692145

Check out the interview with M Russo (in French) with video clips from the film "O Zelador".

** If you are a French speaker who also speaks English or Portuguese and would like to translate this interview, we can post it to the blog.
 

Salvador, Brazil: Inauguration Roda

   
ASSOCIAÇAO DE CAPOEIRA DE ANGOLA RELIQUIA ESPINHO REMOSSO
MESTRE ZÉ DO LENÇO
TRENEL FANTASMA

It is with great pride that we invite you to the inauguration of our new space

May 1, 2010
1 pm

Rua J.J Seabra no. 326 Baixa dos Sapateiro (Xodó da Bahia)
Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
   

Lille, France: 5th Capoeira Encounter in June

  
5th Capoeira Encounter
Angoleiros do Mar – Lille

Mestre Marcelo Angola
Treinel Chiclete

June 11 – 13, 2010

Friday, June 11
6 – 10 pm
Opening Roda
Salle des Fêtes de Fives
Rue du Long-Pot (Metro Fives)

Saturday, July 12 & Sunday, July 13
10 am – 6 pm
Salle de Sports Thierry-Launay
Boulevard de Belfort (Metro Porte de Douai)

Saturday Night
Restaurant I’Inca
42 bis, rue des Trois Mollettes
Vieux-Lille

Costs: 60 Euro for 3 days

Contact: Chiclete, 06 72 39 69 70
  

Montpellier, France: Event Reminder, May 2010

   
Here is the poster for the upcoming 12th International Capoeira Angola Encounter, hosted by FICA-Montpellier.

FICA-Montpellier has the pleasure to invite all to our annual encounter, which will take place from Friday, May 14 (4:30 pm) to Sunday, May 16 of 2010.

Invited Mestres:
M Valmir (FICA)
M Braga
M Boca do Rio (Zimba)
M Índio (Angola Dobrada)

Price:
65 Euros until April 20
75 Euros, April 21 and after

Local:
Maison Pour Tous Marcel Pagnol
64 route de Laverune, 34070 Montpellier
Tel: 04 67 42 98 51

website

Mail you registration form to:
(check + registration form, email ficamontpellier (at) yahoo (dot) fr for form)
1 Place Auguste Fages
34000 Montpellier

Bank transfers:
To the account of FICA Montpellier:
Bank Code: 30003
Guinche Code: 01430
Account Number: 00037271182 36
IBAN Code: FR76 30003 01430 00037271182 36
BIC Code: SOGEFRPP
Bank: Société Générale, 34000 Montpellier
   

Build Your Own Archive: Afro-Latin America, 1800 - 2000

  
The book "Afro-Latin America, 1800 -2000" by George Reid Andrews is an excellent overview of the history of the African Diaspora in Latin America, including the Caribbean. While it seems like an impossible task to succinctly cover such an immense subject, the author does a superb job examining and presenting major, overarching historical themes - such as the wars of independence, the institutional policy of “whitening” the population, and the oppression of blacks - and then applying specific examples from the different countries of Latin American and the Caribbean, comparing and contrasting results and consequences.

Brazil, with the largest population of African descendents in the area, gets much attention in the book, and the author talks about capoeira as well as other African traditions, including samba, that came to be defined as essential to the cultures of the countries of Latin America.

Here is a little of what Andrews has to say about capoeira:

This was the martial art of capoeira, a combination of dance and kick-boxing based on Angolan antecedents and developed into a distinctly New World discipline and aesthetic by African slaves. The term and the phenomenon first appeared in Brazilian documents in the 1770s. By the 1790s and early 1800s, capoeiristas were organizing themselves into the maltas, or gangs, that became as much a part of nineteenth-century urban life in Brazil…


… the capoeira gangs were entirely male and based on rigorous codes of secrecy and loyalty to the group. Betrayal of the code meant harsh punishment, up to and including death… capoeira was closely tied to seaports and the sea...


… capoeira gangs in Rio de Janeiro sought to acquire control over the hiring of dockworkers in the port. Frustrated in their effort, they turned to protection rackets and other forms of criminal activity, dividing the city into small fiefdoms and fighting violent turf wars against each other. The gangs somewhat rehabilitated their public image in 1828, when they joined forces with the army to defeat a mutiny by German and Irish mercenaries. During the second half of the century they sought to establish patron-client ties with powerful protectors by hiring themselves out as bodyguards and “enforcers” of important politicians and businessmen. But… the violence of the intergang struggles provoked intensifying police repression and the eventual outlawing in 1890 of “the exercise of agility and corporal dexterity known as capoeira.”

and later in the book:

Brazilian authorities undertook a similar war against capoeira, which was outlawed by federal statute in 1890. In Rio de Janeiro, police arrested more than 600 suspected capoeiristas and sent them to the penal colony on the far offshore island of Fernando de Noronha. Organized capoeira gangs were eliminated from the capital, and from all Brazilian cities except Salvador, where police repression continued through the 1920s and 1930s. According to elderly practitioners of the sport, the police would tie captured capoeiristas to horses and drag them through the streets at full gallop back to police headquarters. As a result, they jokingly recall, they always practiced near police stations so that, if arrested, they would be dragged a shorter distance.

This book is packed with interesting information. We will present more relevant finds in the future.

"Afro-Latin America 1800-2000" is available in the FICA-DC Archives library thanks to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
   

Rome, Italy: "Quem Nunca Viu, Venha Ver"

   
The Grupo São Bento Pequeno de Capoeira Angola
would like to invite you to

“Quem Nunca Viu, Venha Ver”

The 7th International Capoeira Angola Encounter
Rome, Italy

with

Mestre Claúdio (Angoleiros do Sertão)
and
Mestre Rogério (Grupo São Bento Pequeno)

Friday, July 02 – Sunday, July 04

Prices
2 – 3 days: 70 Euros
1 day: 40 Euros

at the CSOA Forte Prenestino
Via F. Delpino (East Rome) – Transportation: Tram n. 5 from Termini Station (Central Station); Tram n. 19 from Porta Maggiore

Space to sleep is available (bring your sleeping bag and mat!) or you can tent it if you want.

Good food is available at the Forte’s Restaurant. Low prices and vegan/vegetarian menu.

Contact: saobentopequeno (at) gmail (dot) com
393491048192
393334780515

Thanks to Elisa for the poster.
   

DF, Mexico: First International Encounter this July

  
This summer, FICA-Mexico will be holding its first international event:

Amig@s and compañer@s,

The International Foundation of Capoeira Angola - Mexico, Contramestre Rogerio Teber and students, have the pleasure of inviting all to the "First International Encounter of FICA-MX", with the presence of the Mestre Valmir of FICA-Bahia.

The encounter will be held from Thursday, July 1 to Tuesday, July 6. The early registraion rate (that includes a t-shirt) will be $800 and will be valid until June 20. From this date the rate will be $1000. If you want to pay by the day, the price is $300.

Space and t-shirts are limited, so hurry!

We will be sending out more details soon. We look forward to seeing you!

QUILOMBO CULTURAL BRASIL-MÉXICO FICA
Contramestre Rogério Teber
Calzada de Tlalpan no. 768, (metro Villa de Cortés), México, D.F.
(55) 56 72 69 64 / (04455) 16 55 67 61

--------
Amig@s y compañer@s,

La Fundación Internacional de Capoeira Angola - México, el Contra Mestre Rogerio Teber y alumnos, tienen el placer de invitarlos al "Primer Encontro Nacional da FICA-MX", con la presencia del Mestre Valmir de la FICA-Bahia como invitado especial.

El encuentro se llevará a cabo del jueves 1º al martes 06 de julio. La tarifa (que incluye una playera) será de $800 en preventa, que durará hasta el 20 de junio. A partir de esta fecha la tarifa será de $1000. El precio por un día de oficina es de $300.

EL CUPO Y LAS PLAYERAS SON LIMITADAS.

En breve les mandaremos más detalles sobre las actividades que habrá durante este primer encuentro nacional.

Contamos con su grata presencia.

Cordiales saludos,
QUILOMBO CULTURAL BRASIL-MÉXICO FICA
Contramestre Rogério Teber
Calzada de Tlalpan no. 768, (metro Villa de Cortés), México, D.F.
(55) 56 72 69 64 / (04455) 16 55 67 61

  

Remembering M Pastinha on His Birthday

  
On this day in 1889, Vicente Ferreira de Pastinha was born. He would have been 121 years old today. His spirits lives on in rodas held in his honor around the world today (and truly, every day).

In this wonderful excerpt from the book “Capoiera Angola - Ensaio Sócio Etnografico” written by the anthropologist and folklorist Waldeloir Rego, the author quotes a passage written by Jorge Amado, who talks about his dear friend Mestre Pastinha:

In the lovely and opportune chronicle, “Conversa com Buanga Fêlê, also known as Mário de Andrade, War Lord of Angola”, Jorge Amado returns to talk about Pastinha in this passage:

“I see myself leaning out a window of an old mansion in the Largo do Pelourinho and an older man, older than seventy years, with dimming eyesight, small and agile like a cat, is by my side and talks to me. We are old friends. I don’t even remember anymore when it was that we met and that I began accompanying his glorious trajectory.

This is one the mestres of popular Bahian culture, this black man with a soft voice and a happy face that has aged within his academy of Capoeira de Angola. He dancdes and fights better than any of the youngsters with hard adolescent muscles. I speak of Mestre Pastinha, one of the greatest capoeiristas that Bahia has produced. He is just finishing dancing a samba de Angola and is preparing himself to fight.

- Here – he tells me – I practice the true capoeira de Angola and here men learn to be loyal and just. The law of Angola, that I inherited from my grandparents, is the law of loyalty.

The berimbaus play their ritual music, calling the fighters. Mestre Pastinha fills the room with his presence, his agility, his halluncinating dance. Capoeira de Angola, the Brazilian fight of excellence.”

Pastinha is truly one of the great figures of popular life in Bahia. Of all the capoeiristas, he was the one that traveled the most to do presentations with his school, and he was one of the few to cross the Atlantic to the African continent as part of the delegation invited by the Brazilian Minister of External Relations to present at the Premier Festival International des Arts Nègres, in Dakar, in April of 1966.

Happy birthday, Mestre Pastinha!