Neemias Santana is a dance artist from Salvador da Bahia (Brazil). Graduated in Dance at the Federal University of Bahia, specializing in Contemporary Dance. Acts as a dancer, choreographer and teacher (SINUOSE training method). Co-founder of Nii/Colaboratorio, a platform that brings together dance artists, with projects of creation, training and research. He’s part of the Yanka Rudzka Project – SEMENTE (2016/17), POLYPHONIES (2018), directed by Joanna Lesnierowska and Janusz Orlik (Poland).
I would like to send you some good news from Brasil, some warm message, but as we have to share what occupied our hearts lately, all I can share with you now is the turbulence of nowadays in this part of the world. We are not completely hopeless, but we are full of anger and frustration. Sorry for not having many smiles this time.
What I choose to offer is a song that has been quite constant in my mind last week. It’s a song from 90s’ by Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso, two of the most important and symbolic artists in my country. And despite being called Haiti, it speaks precisely about Brasil. About the aesthetics and nuances of the social structure and the formation of my people.
Sharing what moves me right now is the sincerest and most precious thing I could offer you. So… here it goes, as good as I could translate it:
Haiti
When you are invited to go up in the forecourt of the Casa de Jorge Amado Foundation To see the line of soldiers from above, almost all blacks Spanking the heads of black rascals Of mulatto thieves And others almost white ones Treated as blacks Just to show to the others almost black (and they almost all are black) And to the almost whites poor as blacks How do blacks, poor and mulattos And almost whites almost blacks from being so poor are treated
And it doesn’t matter if the eyes of the whole world, for a moment, may be looking to the square Where enslaved ones were punished And today the Batuque, a drum beat with the purity of uniformed boys From high school on parade day And the epic greatness from the formation of a nation Attracts us, dazzles us and stimulates us It doesn’t matter at all Neither the design of the old houses, nor the lens of the Fantastic Not even Paul Simon’s music album No one No one is a citizen And if you go to the Pelourinho street parties And if you do not go Think about Haiti Pray for Haiti Haiti is here Haiti is not here
And on TV, if you see a congressman panicking Badly disingenuous Before any, but really any, any, any educational plan That seems easy That looks easy and fast Which pose as threat of to democratize the primary education And if that same congressman defends the adoption of death penalty And the venerable Cardinal says he sees so much spirit in the fetus And none in the marginal What if, when crossing the signal, the usual old red signal Notice a man peeing on the street corner over a shiny Leblon garbage bag And when you hear the smiling silence of São Paulo in the face of the slaughter
111 defenseless prisoners But prisoners are almost all black Or almost black Or almost whites almost blacks from being so poor And poor are like rotten And everyone knows how blacks are treated And when you go for a walk in the Caribbean And when you go fuck without a condom And to present your intelligent participation in the blockade against Cuba Think about Haiti Pray for Haiti Haiti is here Haiti is not here
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