Note from BW of Brazil: It’s really encouraging to see so many events of this type happening all over Brazil! In yesterday’s post we saw the Afro Fashion Day Salvador in Bahia. This month in São Paulo we will see the latest of Feira Preta that perhaps initiated similar events throughout the country.
We’ve also seen events such as Encrespa, as well as Festival Latinidades held every year in the nation’s capital of Brasilia DF, the Prazer de ser negro in Rio de Janeiro and the Afro Sabará Award in Sabará, a city in the state of Minas Gerais. The event we bring you today also took place in the state of Minas Gerais but this time in the city of Itabira. Check out the story and wonderful photos below!
The 1st Encounter of Itabira Cabelo Crespo e Cacheado was held in September in Belacamp Park
The objective is to bring together people who care about the appreciation and preservation of African culture in Minas Gerais in its various forms of expression, and promote a meeting to talk about the beauty of cabelos crespos e cacheados (kinky/curly hair and curly hair) through music, photography, poetry and cuisine.
The activities at the event included:
Workshops on turbans, hairstyles and braids
– Hair cutting
-Makeup for black skin
-Photographic picnic (with various photographer partners)
– Craft stalls of Associação Itabirana de Artistas e Artesãos (Itabirana Association of Artists and Artisans)
– Food stalls
-Exhibition of photographs and poetry
-Presentation Workshop Group of Minas Gerais Boys Group
-Lottery giveaways
-Exhibition and demonstrations of products
Project of action – Que Seja Leve Que Seja Breve (may it be light may it be quick – cutting hair for making wigs for donation to women who have lost hair due to health problems)
1st Encounter
The 1st Encounter of Cabelo Crespos e Cacheados brought a result higher than expected by the organizers and participants. There were 12 booths with various products and services: makeup, African-oriented hairstyles, braids, turbans, products for caching, complete lines for curly/kinky and curly hair and black skin. The event included the participation of several Itabira professionals as well as from Belo Horizonte and surrounding towns. It also included the Seja Leve, Seja Breve movement, cutting hair that turned into wigs for people undergoing treatment for cancer.
2nd Itabira Encounter of Cabelo Crespos and Cacheados appreciates self-esteem and exalts African culture
By Rodrigo Andrade
The Belacamp Park in Itabira (state of Minas Gerais) was beautiful last Sunday, December 6th. From morning’s end, hundreds of people visited the site during the 2º Encontro Itabirano de Cabelos Crespos e Cacheados. Workshops, stalls, sports and health activities, raffle giveaways and product exhibitions were some of the activities held during the event.
Children, men and women exhibited with pride, their kinky/curly locks. Event organizer, Cleber Camargo Rodrigues, of Grupo 4º Plano de Cultura (Group 4 Culture Plan), says that the idea came from a similar program that takes place in Belo Horizonte. The intention is to promote the enhancement of self-esteem.
“It’s a trend in Brazil; a matter of self-esteem to break the prejudice against African aesthetics. People will be meeting informally to exchange ideas about it, exchange information on how to care for either hair or skin. We saw a similar event in Belo Horizonte and we were thinking of the day we could have something in Itabira that was similar to that. We managed to do the first one in September and now we are doing the second. The tendency is that we do one per season,” he says.
Taiane came from Belo Horizonte, where she has a salon which specializes in afro cuts, to participate in the meeting in Itabira. She also cites the enhancement of self-esteem as the principal gain of the event. “We refuse a standard that beauty is associated with straight hair, a standardized hair. The event shows the black woman she’s beautiful the way she is. And this also reflects in society because a woman more secure of herself has more determination to solve all of her problems. And it shows to society that the place of blacks is where they want (it to be),” she said.
All day Sunday, the participants of the encounter witnessed presentations of capoeira, zumba, and enjoyed music with Meninos de Minas (Boys of Minas) and the sounds of Vini Martins. There was an African-oriented fashion show, bridal fashion show, makeup shows, haircut, turban and braiding workshop. “A Sunday of leisure and joy,” said Cleber Camargo, organizer.
Source: De Fato Online
You can tell Brazil is behind in the times, in america we don’t say Makeup for black skin, we say make up for black people, because we come in different shades.