Celebrating M Janja's Birthday in Salvador

Last Friday, the place to be was the Alto de Sereia in Rio Vermelho to celebrate Mestre Janja's birthday. Mestre Paulinha and Poloca were in attendance along with lots of Nzinga folks and capoeiristas from all different groups across Bahia, including Angoleiros da Serra, Grupo Zimba, and FICA.

The party started with a roda during which M Janja played nearly everyone. After, we had a party that was thrown by the kids of Nzinga. They decorated the space and saved up to buy lots of brigadeiros, salgadinhos, refri, and a big strawberry cake.

It was a great party. Congratulations, M Janja. Here's to many more.

** And here is what Meste Poloca had to say about it on his blog:

Last Friday, October 3, Grupo Nzinga held a roda with the presence of many invited guests to start the celebrations for yet another year of Mestra Janja. It was a beautiful roda followed by a great party with a cake and lots of guaraná. The kids had a great time and I did too.

On the following day, the 4th, Janja’s actual birthday, she went to her home town of Feira de Santana to celebrate with her family. She was born on the same day as her brother, although not in the same year. She was born the following year. For twelve years she lived in São Paulo and in part for the Nzinga, she became a citizen of São Paulo. In June 2006, she returned to Bahia.

Over the past few months, she served as a Professor of Education at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBa) until she was invited by Secretary Luiza Bairros to be a part of her governing team, where she co-ordinates one of the departments of the Secretary of the Promotion of Racial Equality (Secretaria da Promoção da Igualdade Racial, Sepromi ). She already was a powerful woman, now no one can stand in her way. In another post, we talked about the nomination of Mestre Paulinha for the direction of the Center for Afro-Oriental Studies at UFBa, a post she will assume on October 22. To sum it up, the mestras of Nzinga have it all. Who can stop them now?

Thanks M Poloca. What an amazing resource he is creating. And thanks to Fabio for the link.

FICA-Philly: Photos from Odunde Festival

FICA-Philadelphia hosted its annual roda at the Odunde Festival. Folks from DC, New York City, LA, and even Salvador (Mestre Paulinha!) were on hand to vadiar. Everyone looks really happy.

Thanks to Fabricio for the pictures.

If you would like to share pictures from an event at your school, send them (or a link) along to: ficadcarchives (at) gmail (dot) com

enjoy!

Workshop with Mestre Paulinha in Philly

Another event with FICA-Philadelphia:

Greetings,

If you are in Philadelphia this Friday night, we are excited to host a
workshop led by Mestra Paulinha from Grupo Nzinga de Capoeira
Angola.

Workshop info:
Date: Friday, June 6, 2008
Time: 6:30PM - 8:30PM
Fee: $15.00
Location: MLK Recreation Center (22nd and Cecil B. Moore Ave.,
Philadelphia)

Here's some info about our invited guest:

"Paula Barreto, known as Mestra Paulinha, is from Bahia, Brazil. She started her trajectory in capoeira in Salvador in the beginning of 1980’s. She has been invited to Capoeira Angola encounters in Brazil and around the world. She has also published articles, participated on panels, and given lectures on women and capoeira. She is one the founders and leaders of the Nzinga Capoeira Angola Group. Mestra Paulinha teaches Sociology at the Federal University of Bahia and is currently a post- doctoral Capes Fellow at Vanderbilt University, in the United States." (FICA-DC)

Also some more information about Grupo Nzinga and a video on Youtube about their work with kids:
Grupo Nzinga website

Youtube video

Also, don't forget about our Roda this Sunday afternoon at the Odunde Festival. We hope to see you soon!

Peace and Blessings,
Eva
FICA Philadelphia

FICA-Baltimore: Schedule for Weekend Event

UNITED WE STAND
The 5th Annual Malcolm X Roda Weekend
Harlem Park Recreation Center
700 N. Calhoun Street, Baltimore, MD 443-536-7177

Treinel Gege -FICA DC
Treinel Kamau - FICA Philly
Treinel Santemu -FICA DC

Master Class taught by Special Guests

*************MESTRE PAULINHA (NZINGA) will be attending the Roda************

Wednesday, May 14, Lecture (after Class)

Thursday, May 15, Street Roda

Friday, May 16, 2008

* 10am - 12pm Training
* 6pm - 8:30 Capoeira class
* 9pm - 1am House Party

Saturday, May 17, 2008

* 8am - 9am Registration
* 9am - 12pm Capoeira Class Adult advanced/ Beginner
* 9am - 10:30pm Children's tumbling and music class
* 12pm - 2pm Lunch/ Treinel Meeting
* 2pm - 4pm Capoeira Class Adult advanced/ Beginner
* 2pm - 4pm Children Supervised Play
* 4pm - 5:30pm Community Roda (outside)
* 9pm - 1am BRAZIL STYLES SAMBA PARTY

Sunday, May 18, 2008

* 8am - 9:30am Special training
* 10am - 1pm Master Class
* 10am - 12pm Children's art project
* 1:30pm Carpool to Leakin park
* 2:30pm - 7pm Cookout/ Roda/ Ceremony for El Hajj Malik Shabazz(Malcolm X)

Monday, May 19, 2008
* 6pm - 8:30 Free Beginners class

Cost $65 for weekend w party includes meals
Friday Class - $20
Saturday Class - am $25, pm $20 Lunch $5
Sunday Class - $20
Sunday Roda $5 donations
Children's Class $10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Directions to Sunday's roda @ Trailhead at Winans Meadow, Leakin Park
(Baltimore)

-Take North Ave west to the very end, just pass Hilton Parkway.

-Turn (L)eft on Morris street. (It's the last possible left turn off North
Ave. DO NOT turn on Hilton Parkway).

-Take the next (R)ight onto Franklintown road.

-Travel for an additional 1.1 miles to "Trailhead at Winans Meadow", Leakin
Park. Turn (R)ight into the parking lot.

Still Coming In: Pictures from the DC Women's Conference

**Links should be fixed!

Pictures keep on rolling in from the 10th Annual Women's Conference held in DC back in March. Please enjoy these photo albums from RusselH & Isabel.

Click here to view RusselH's pictures.

Click here to view IsabelG's pictures.

Click here to read the post we did back in March.


Planning for the next women's conference is already underway! With the theme, "Menina, quem foi sua mestra?", the conference will take place in March or April of 2009 in Salvador. If you would like to participate in the discussions and organizing of the conference, send an email to Mestre Janja letting her know your group affiliation at: janja (dot) araujo (at) uol (dot) com (dot) br

Thanks to Russel from Richmond, Isabel, & T Gege for the photos!

2008 Women's Conference Wrap-Up!

**More pictures will be added. Check back soon!**

The 10th Annual Women's Conference in Washington, DC was a great success!

The conference started on Monday with the opening of the Malungos photo exhibit at the Mocha Hut Cafe. On Tuesday, we had a screening of the movie, "The Shape of Water" and a talk by Sylvia Robinson, founder of the Emergence Community Arts Center (where FICA-DC makes its home) and distinguished FICA-DC member. On Wednesday night, we heard from women martial artists, inlcuding Paulinha and Janja, in a very informative panel discussion.

Anne, T Andrea, T Gege, & CM Cristina

The conference opened on Thussday night with a presentation by renowned activist and singer Luci Murphy, accompanied by Isa Angulo. Following this, we had a roda... and the capoeira pretty much kept rolling til Sunday night.

M Paulinha

M Janja

Invited guests M Janja, M Paulinha, M Cobra Mansa, CM Cristina, T Gege, & T Andrea gave great classes. M Juradir was also in attendance, on his way to Seattle, and CM Silvinho stopped by for a bit. M Cobra Mansa gave a 6:00 am training. On Friday there were 6 people, on Saturday there were 35 people, and on Sunday there were more than 50 people- definitely a record for the 6 am training in DC.

Boys came too. M Cobra Mansa & Jamel

We had a great discussion session during the conference. Five topics of interest were selected, and people gathered in groups, each group discussing a topic for about two hours. After the discussions, everyone came together and heard a short presentation about the discussion by a member of the group. It was very successful.

The event ended with a closing roda that was a lot of fun. See for yourself:



During the conference, we also had a photo exhibit celebrating women in Capoeira Angola at the FICA-DC space, as well as the Malungos exhibit at Mocha Hut. And we put together another issue of the renowned Capoeira Angola literary magazine, Caxixi. Thanks to everyone who submitted works. It looks great!

Special thanks to everyone who joined us and contributed to this energetic and joyful event. We welcomed capoeiristas from Hawaii, Oakland, L.A., Seattle, Chicago, New Orleans, Kentucky, Atlanta, Richmond, Philadelphia, New York, Maine, Ohio, Indiana, and Japan!! (I am sure there are even more locales that I am forgetting...)

Everyone!

Check out this photo album to see more of the fun! Photos from T Gege, Javier, and others.

Still can't get enough? Visit the official "I Came Here to Play" 10th Annual Women's Conference blog for more conference details, including discussion summaries, post-conference reflections, and a glimpse of the Malungos photo exhibit.

Photos by Sylvia, from Universal Capoeira Angola Academy in Washington, DC.

Mestres Paulinha & Poloca Visit Washington

Way back in January, FICA-DC had the privilege to host Mestres Paulinha and Poloca for a weekend of training. It was a blast, and Mestre Paulinha made a big pot of munguzá to ring in the new year. Here are some pictures from our first roda of the year.

FICA-DC: Bringing in the New Year Right

FICA-DC presents a special training weekend with Mestre Poloca & Mestre Paulinha

When: January 4 – 6, 2008
Where: FICA-DC, 733 Euclid Street, NW, Washington, DC
(between Georgia & Sherman Avenues, on the Green Line)
Contact: ficadc (at) hotmail (dot) com
Price: USD$40 for the weekend, USD$15 per class

Schedule

Friday, January 4
6 – 7 pm – Music Class
7 – 9:30 pm – Movement Class

Saturday, January 5
10 am –noon – Movement Class
3 – 4 pm – Music Class
4 – 6 pm – Movement Class

Sunday, January 6
10 am –noon – Movement Class
Noon – 2 pm – Lunch Fundraiser (for the women’s conference)
2 – 5 pm – Roda!!

Celebrating 25 Years of M Paulinha

Because we are not in Salvador (where we would really like to be!), here at the Archives Blog we continue to celebrate virtually the 25th Anniversary of Mestres Janja, Paulinha, Poloca, Valmir and Boca do Rio in Capoeira Angola. Here is the second post in our series devoted to these Capoeira Angola teachers.

Beyond the roda, both Mestres Paulinha and Janja are well-known for their academic achievements. As well as top Capoeira Angola players, they are distinguished university professors, lecturers, and published scholars. The excerpt below is from an article written by M Paulinha entitled, “Capoeira Angola and Anti-Racism” that first appeared in the magazine Toques d’Angola, in November 2004. The whole piece is excellent, and you can read the entire translation at ShaynaM’s website, Capoeira Connection, along with other translated pieces.

M Paulinha writes about the growth of Capoeira Angola as an ever-widening vehicle for marginalized social expressions following efforts by the Brazilian state to turn capoeira into a “national sport”. She traces Capoeira Angola’s growth as part of the black movement, as a growing space for women (in large part due to the work of Paulinha and Janja themselves), and most recently, as a zone of international and cultural understanding. Here is a bit:

In the beginning of the 1980s, the creation of the Grupo de Capoeira Angola Pelourinho (GCAP) in Rio de Janeiro and later in Bahia marked a significant change in the situation. Founded by Mestre Pedro Moraes Trinidade (Mestre Moraes), GCAP implemented a series of actions promoting the re-valorization of Capoeira Angola and the recognition of the importance of old and famous mestres, such as Mestre Pastinha himself. With an ideology that affirmed capoeira’s African roots and denounced the injustices suffered by so many capoeiristas and Afro-descendents, this group was the precursor of a movement that became wide and diverse.

Through the realization of events in homage to Mestre Pastinha, GCAP managed to reunite old practitioners of Capoeira Angola and attract new admirers and people interested in learning the traditional game. The format of these events was innovative because it created bridges between the practitioners of Capoeira Angola and other segments of society such as: religious leaders, especially those linked to the Candomblés of Angola; anti-racist organizations of the “black movement”; organizations involved with other forms of black culture; intellectuals and scholars; and governmental organizations, especially in the cultural area. In some years, these events gained larger proportions, assuming a national and international character, and began to be held by other nascent groups of Capoeira Angola, mainly during the 1990s. Such events were established as an important part of a regular calendar activities that helped to construct the new community of “angoleiros”.

One important aspect of the ideology and actions implemented by the Capoeira Angola groups created in this period involves the denunciation of racism in Brazil. The events promoted in memory of Mestre Pastinha, carried out on the date of his death (November 13th), soon became part of the agenda of commemorations and reflections of the National Day of Black Consciousness (November 20th). More than a coincidence of dates, this approximation reveals a process of growing politicization in the universe of Capoeira Angola, synchronized with the general trend in the black cultural scene in Bahia...

... This community became very heterogeneous – including people of various ethnic and racial origins, social classes, nationalities, genders, ages, and sexual orientations- and this has been the backdrop for the construction of the angoleiro’s identity. Therefore, affirming oneself as an “angoleiro(a)” today implies dealing with diversity, rejecting any ideal of purity and homogeneity.

Congratulations to M Paulinha on her 25 years in Capoeira Angola!

Thanks to ShaynaM for the translation & link.

25 Year Celebration in Salvador!

This is going to be good!

Janja, Poloca, Paulinha, Valmir, and Boca do Rio will be celebrating 25 their years in Capoeira Angola with this great event.

If you will be in Salvador during the first weekend of August you would be insane to miss this!! And if you're not in Salvador, then try really hard to get there. Mestre Cobra Mansa will be a special guest.

Here are the details from the flyer:

Malungos: 25 Years of Capoeira Angola

Celebrating 25 years of Capoeira Angola of Mestres Valmir, Poloca, Janja, Paulinha, and Boca do Rio.
Invited Guest: Mestre Cobra Mansa

Classes, Rodas, Lectures, Expositions, & a Party
August 3-7, 2007

Information & Registration: (71) 9973 9870 and 99719283
institutonzinga(arroba)uol(ponto)com(ponto)br
ficasalvador(arroba)ficabahia(ponto)com(ponto)br

Schedule of Events

Friday, August 3, Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais CEAO/UFBa
3:00 pm Registration
6:00 pm Opening Cocktail

Saturday, August 4
2 classes at each site
9:00 am – noon
Cobra Mansa & Valmir, FICA
Janja & Paulinha, Nzinga
Boca do Rio & Poloca, Zimba

2:00 pm- 5:00 pm
Valmir & Janja, FICA
Poloca & Paulinha, Nzinga
Cobra Mansa & Boca do Rio, Zimba

6:00 pm Roda & Party, FICA

Sunday, August 5
2 classes at each site
9:00 am - noon
Cobra Mansa & Paulinha, FICA
Poloca & Janja, Nzinga
Valmir & Boca do Rio, Zimba

2:00 pm- 3:30 pm
Children’s Activities, Nzinga

4:00 pm Roda

Monday, August 6, Casa da Mandinga
6:30 pm
Discussion: Mandinga de Mulher: Gender & Capoeira
M Janja, Nzinga
Christine Zonzom, Nzinga
Adriana Alberta, FICA
Isabelle Sanches, Centro de Referência Lélia Gonzalez

Tuesday, August 7, Nzinga
6:00 pm
Capoeira Today
Fred Abreu, Instituto Jair Moura
M Valmir, FICA
M Cobra Mansa, FICA
Poloca, Nzinga
Paulinha, Nzinga
Boca do Rio, Zimba

8:00 pm Closing

Call for Papers for 2008 Panel Discussion

CM Janja & CM Paulinha are looking for participants for a panel on capoeira that will take place March 2008 at Tulane University. Here is a translation of the message that CM Janja sent out:

Dear Friends,

The Brazilian Studies Association- BRASA- will host the 11th International Congress at Tulane University in New Orleans from March 27-29, 2008.

Paulinha and I are organizing a panel discussion on the subject of capoeira and we would like to include the names/work of other Angoleiras/os. The panel will have four participants.

The deadline for registration is June 1, and we would like that those interested in taking part in the panel send us (through personal e-mail) some information, and from there we will keep in direct contact with these people.

So, with a bit of urgency, we ask that you send the following information:

Complete name and title of work

Name of the university and level of education (post-grad, doctorate, etc.)

Group, mestre's name, and time practicing capoeira

A short description of the work (10-15 lines), it can be in Portuguse or English

Declaration that you are interested in participating in the panel

Send to:
paula(at)uol(dot)com(dot)br
and a copy to:
janja(dot)araujo(at)uol(dot)com(dot)br

Keeping in mind that the deadline is close, we ask that you send this information by May 23.

Moreover, we miss you all and hope that this finds each one of you with much health and peace.

Beijos, Janja

Thank you to Katie S for the information.