August 7: Brasil vs. USA Soccer Benefit
June 15, 2010 | Bahia StreetTHANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CAME OUT WITH GREAT ENERGY FOR THIS EVENT! TOGETHER YOU RAISED $2,000 FOR BAHIA STREET, AND HAD A LOT OF FUN! Pictures here.
Don’t miss Bahia Street’s “Brasil vs. USA” soccer game this Saturday, August 7th from 1-3 pm at Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill in Seattle. At half-time, there will be a Brazilian-style bateria/percussion group, “Unidos da Samba,” led by Will MacArthur, capoeira by FICA Seattle led by Contra Mestre Silvinho, and joining them will be Brazilian capoeirista and sambista, Francisco Pacifico.
The after-party, beginning at 3:30 pm, is at La Spiga (1429 12th Avenue, with all proceeds benefiting Bahia Street. A HUGE THANK YOU to La Spiga, All Nations Soccer Bar & Restaurant and Novo Fogo for their support!
WHEN: Saturday, August 7, 2010, 1pm – 3pm
WHERE: Cal Anderson Park/Bobby Morris Playfield, 1100 E Pine St, Seattle, Washington 98122
For more information, please email brasilvsusa@thelaporas.com.
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Defining Beauty in Brazil
June 8, 2010 | Nancy BaconThe New York Times just published an interesting article about changing concepts of beauty in Brazil. It reminds us of Rita’s tremendous effort to promote concepts of beauty for African-descent children. She has a bulletin board and pictures of black women all over the Bahia Street Center — models as well as “regular” women– to show Bahia Street girls and young women that they are just as beautiful as all of the southern Brazilian models that fill local magazines.
June 2010 Bahia Street Update
June 1, 2010 | Margaret WillsonI am writing this at early dawn, watching the pouring rain of this strange cold spring, one of the wettest, coldest I can remember. The intensity of the greens, as they enfold, a depth of green that seems to come at not other time than with this heavy misty rain we get here in Seattle.
I spoke with Rita yesterday and she has had a hard week. Her aunt, who she very much loved, just died. Her aunt went to Rio some forty years ago with the wave of Northeasterners who went South in search of work, and she stayed. But she always returned to Salvador to visit the family, and she, with Rita’s mother, became Rita’s models for how a strong woman can lead her life: loving the men around her but not letting them control her, remaining independent at the same time connected to her family and community. Rita said that this aunt was part of what made her who she is.
So, she flew down to Rio with one of her cousins to represent their family at the funeral. Because she is so busy at Bahia Street, she flew down on Sunday and returned on Monday. She arrived at Bahia Street to discover that a young man who has been helping for over a year on the building, a fellow everyone adored, was shot over the weekend. It was over a DVD. He and a neighbor had an argument over a DVD that both he and the neighbor thought was theirs, so the neighbor went into the street, found two assassins and hired them to shoot him. They walked in, shot him and that was that.
Rita had spent much of the week trying to calm the girls and staff, while dealing with her own sadness over both the young man and her aunt. It was hard to hear Rita, always so strong and positive, sounding almost bitter. “It is as though we are insects, as though our lives are worth no more than a cockroach, that we can kill each other so easily without even thinking twice.” She is also stressed because the mother of one of the girls died recently, and she is trying to stabilize a living situation for the child. Also some of the girls’ homes were destroyed in the flooding a month ago—although Rita is grateful that no one was killed this year. (Last year a mudslide caused by rain came down and crushed the sister of one of the girls beneath a wall.)
I worry about Rita’s health. Not surprisingly she has high blood pressure and other effects of stress. She eats carefully, drinks very little these days, does swim-aerobics, but she also has stressful situations daily. I am pleased to say, however, that she is actually taking a two-week holiday in June, a space for regeneration that she does not do enough.
One of the reasons Rita can take a holiday is because over the last few years several young women have become leaders within Bahia Street to the point that they can support Rita and even run the Center for periods while she is gone. Two are young women who have come through the Bahia Street program: Michele is a former Bahia Street student who is working at Bahia Street while also attending university. The other came while quite young to work in the kitchen. Then, with Rita’s direction, she moved to directing the kitchen program, then moved to the administration office as she got her high school degree and learned how to use a computer. Then, again with Bahia Street help, she finally passed her university exams (after three tries—she almost gave up, but Rita wouldn’t let her), and she is now working at Bahia Street in a leadership role while at the same time attending university.
Recently, Rita and the girls wrote an invitation to First lady Michelle Obama to visit Bahia Street if she comes to Salvador because the Obamas mean so much to them. She sent me the letter she had written, asking me to translate it. I would like to share just a bit of what Rita wrote.
In November of 2008, I went to New York to the United Nations, to receive the World of Children Award in recognition of the work of our project Bahia Street…. In 2009, I returned, to Washington, this time to receive the Ivy Humanitarian Award for “extraordinary work” in my involvement in helping young women of the Americas. During this time, I also had the opportunity and honor to see the White House and was even happier to be allowed to visit it to see its interior rooms. At that time, I thanked God that he had been so extraordinarily generous with me to permit me to see this place and to give me the understanding that in the fight for equality and recognition of our black people we had only just begun. Indeed, I left with more strength to continue my work with our young women in Salvador.
It would be an honor for us to invite you to visit our project Bahia Street. I would love for you to see within our city the reality of the resistance of the population that is behind the political and social culture of Salvador, a resistance that has continued to manifest itself through our internationally-known traditional black culture in capoeira, candomblé and local foods. I would be very honored for you to see our work, which is of great importance to the women of our city.
We are in a flurry of activity here in the Seattle, the Summer Beat event that everyone loved so much last year, is happening again June 11 (details are on our website: ) so I hope to see you there. Also, for those who have not heard this incredible news yet, University of Washington Press (UWP) has accepted Dance Lest We All Fall Down for re-release (with an updated Afterword) to come out this October! It has a new cover that echoes the old one. A small group of people is now meeting to get the word out about Dance (if anyone would like to join, just email us), starting with a launch party in mid-October. With this publication, Dance really has a chance because it can now be reviewed, sold in all major bookstores, be a focus of radio interviews—whatever to get the word out. If any of you have ideas, I would love to hear them. You can pre-order it now, through UWP’s website and on Amazon.com.
We are in volatile times, both of the earth and economies. But the violence, fear and destruction of inequality is like climate change; it can indeed destroy us all, but it is also something we can work to change—particularly if all of us—rich, poor, young, old, in whatever nation or state—work together. This is what we are doing at Bahia Street, Rita, myself, you who are engaged through reading this letter and your other involvement, whatever it might be, the girls at the Center—all of us together across borders of difference, sending shoots that are growing into plants that can then become strong trees. It is wonderful to be a part of this. Thank you.
Abraços,
Margaret
June 11: Summer Beat!
June 1, 2010 | Bahia StreetTHANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CAME OUT IN SUPPORT OF BAHIA STREET! TOGETHER WE RAISED $2,700!
Bahia Street will launch the summer season with live Brazilian music and drumming, Capoeira, and dance performances.
Friday, June 11, 2010, 7:00pm – midnight
Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, 4408 Delridge Way SW, West Seattle
Who: Bahia In Motion (dance), Bantos Capoeira Seattle (capoeira), FICA (capoeira), GiraSol (dance), Sambatuque (band), Tudo Beleza (dance), Vamola (drumming & dance)
Youngstown Cultural Arts Center will be transformed into a Brazilian festival with all of the sights, sounds and flavors of this fascinating country. Bringing together some of the best Brazilian performers in the region, the Summer Beat festival begins with a multi-age Capoeira roda (circle) featuring Bantos Capoeira Seattle, FICA, and other Seattle-based Capoeira groups. Seattle’s premier drum and dance ensemble— Vamola— will get everyone on their feet with the pulsating rhythms that bring to life the celebratory spirit of Carnaval. Vamola, Bahia in Motion, and Tudo Beleza dancers will transport us to Bahia with a Samba Reggae dance designed to get every audience member dancing as if on the streets of Salvador. Tudo Beleza dancers with their plumes of feathers and colorful costumes will further heat up the night dancing to the fast-paced and exciting Rio-Style Samba (Samba no Pe). Audience members will finish the evening dancing to band Sambatuque, accompanied by vibrant dancers from GiraSol, a Brazil-inspired Samba dance group.
The event will begin at 7pm and is intended for a 21 and older crowd (though children are welcome). Beer and wine will be available for purchase. Kitanda Café will provide authentic Brazilian food and drink.
Entrance with a requested $10 donation, with all proceeds benefiting Bahia Street.
Bahia Street is a non-profit organization based in Seattle, Salvador, and London, that breaks the cycle of poverty and violence through education. Bahia Street provides high quality education, health and nutrition services, leadership training, and community outreach with the goal of fostering greater equality for impoverished girls and their families living in the shantytowns of Salvador. Because of Bahia Street’s commitment to locally-driven social change, twelve girls have now entered university, and new initiatives focused on high school girls and the parents are supporting a next generation of activists able to work for change for their communities. www.bahiastreet.org
THANK YOU TO MARITIME BREWERY, CHATEAU STE MICHELLE, and ROCKRIDGE CIDERY FOR THEIR GENEROUS SUPPORT OF THIS EVENT!
