(Photo: Camila Rosa on Instagram)
The only thing cooler than Camila Rosa’s woke af illustrations is the artist herself. Rosa has been working on her illustrations for seven years now, but since coming to America last year, her artwork has taken on a new meaning and several movements.
B-boy mural on 26 Second Avenue. (Photo Credit: Sam Gillette)
A massive mural on the side of 26 Second Avenue was completed over the weekend by Os Gêmeos, “the twins” known to their mother as Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo. Described on their Instagram as an “independent project,” the work is dedicated “to the golden era #oldschool #mural #hiphop – Respect to everyone that has made and continues to keep the real Hiphop alive!”
Brazil’s meteoric rise as a success-story of the developing world—its shooting-star status as one of the BRIC states—imploded just before the global community turned its eyes to the country during the 2014 world cup. Rioting in the streets, vehement protest art, and police crackdowns went underreported, as the soccer frenzy kicked in. We Don’t Like Samba, which unofficially premiered recently at the Fusion Festival, tracks the protest movement that began in June 2013, after the costs for public transportation rose. That mass movement has inspired hundreds of other, smaller demonstrations: workers on wildcat strikes, women protesting the Papal visit, residents combating urbanization projects. “We are not samba dancers” say the striking garbage workers known as “Garis” in one interview. “We are rebels”.
Dear reader, no longer will you spend happy, unreflective, de-politicized hours watching the drama unfold at the football World Cup. Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation and author of Brazil’s Dance with the Devil: The World Cup, the Olympics and the Fight for Democracy, is here to spoil the fun. Zirin has been spending time in favelas and soccer stadiums in the build-up to the sporting spectacle, observing the growing unrest across the stratified country. Join him at Bluestockings to hear him unravel the mystery of how “athletic mega-events turn into neoliberal Trojan horses.”