Note from BW of Brazil: Yes, black Brazilian authors and black Brazilian literature exists! They may be extremely difficult to find in popular bookstores, but if you really have an interest in these authors, you can find many of their works online. A number of previous posts have already shown how Brazil tends to ignore not only the works of Afro-Brazilian authors but Afro-Brazilian intellectuals as well. As author and one-time bookstore owner Fernanda Felisberto once put it, “black literature is labeled as the back of the catalog.” That’s the bad news. The good news is that, like other areas where Afro-Brazilians have decided to do for self to fill a void in representation, they are also creating their own platforms to let readers interested in black literature that it does exist and also reveal why we need to be reading this literature.
In past articles, we’ve presented our readers to Minas Gerais-based journalist Etiene Martins and what she’s been doing to share Afro-Brazilian-oriented news as well as honoring Afro-Brazilian talent in her state. First, her Afro Sabará Award honored preservers of Afro-Brazilian culture and then her Afronta newspaper brought black and independent media to the city of Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. Well, this dynamic young woman is back, this time doing her part of promote the world of black literature.
Journalist Etiene Martins creates channel to discuss Black Literature
By Mônica Aguiar
Journalist and advertiser Etiene Martins inaugurates channel to speak on black literature.
According to Etiene, the proposal is to have every week a new video to speak of literature negra (black literature) and thus stimulate the reading of this literature.
The first video was published on October 27th, on Youtube.
The initiative of Etiene, is to give full conditions to teachers that are involved with the implementation of Law 10.639/13, to develop a very good work in schools.
Even with the lack of investment by various governments and managers for implementation of the law independent of the administrative sphere, even with the lack of knowledge on the part of several teachers about the subject and difficulty in accessing material for studies on the history and culture of Afro- Brazilians, prejudice and discrimination exist on the part of several municipal councils of the country, even with the lack of a deadline established under Law 10.639/13 to implement its directives in 100% of the municipalities. This action by journalist Etiene Martins exemplifies in a very prepositive manner the hundreds of actions of teachers, especially teachers from Brazil who are involved in combating racism, democratizing information and Brazilian teaching.
The school, in my view, is the principle place to work on true information, to reconstruct in the imaginaries of children, adolescents, young people and adults, true standards and references of the political, social and scientific potential of the black people and their important participation in the construction of Brazilian society, the valorization and knowledge of citizenship and the importance of high esteem in relation to existing references.
Etiene Martins, a militant in the Movimento Negro (black movement), began her career as a reporter for the magazine Raça Brasil. She was a communications advisor at the sixth edition of the Festival de Arte Negra (Black Art Festival) in Belo Horizonte, is a teacher and created the Afro Sabará Award and in 2015 the Afronta newspaper.
She was one of the sixty-two honored at the IIIº Destaque Mulher Negra (Third Black Woman Highlight), a national homage that occurred on July 28, in Belo Horizonte, in commemoration of the July 25th day of the black women’s struggle.
Source: Mônica Aguiar Souza
Good work, keep it up.