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Gilberto Gil

Born Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira in Salvador, Bahia, Gilberto Gil began playing music professionally as a teenager when he joined his first band. Although he grew up listening to the forró music of his native northeast region, he started out making music in the Bossa Nova music genre. He later became a pioneer in the Tropicália and Música Popular Brasileira (MPB) musical movements that emerged in the 1960s when he started to focus the lyrics of his songs on politics and social awareness. While exiled to London by Brazil’s military government in 1969, Gil became exposed to Jamaican reggae. Upon returning back to Salvador in 1972, Afro-Bahian afoxé groups and the samba-reggae sounds were emerging and Gil joined the Filhos de Gandhi afoxé. He later worked with Jamaican reggae artist, Jimmy Cliff, who he had encountered earlier in London, to recreate the classic Bob Marley song, “No Woman No Cry,” which introduced reggae to Brazil. He is a classic timeless, musician who has had a long career, perhaps, because he is well-known for his musical adaptability and diversity with his ability to blend music styles.

While maintaining a full-time music career, Gilberto Gil was also actively working the political scene to advocating for environmental protection. In 2003, under the Lula da Silva administration, he was appointed Brazil’s Minister of Culture, becoming only the second black person to serve in the nation’s cabinet.

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Poetry from the Margins: Slam Poetry in Salvador

Coletivo Boca Quente
Much like the afoxés, neighborhood art collectives that make up a network of slam poetry groups and movements throughout Salvador, engage residents, primarily youth, to promote socio-cultural awareness, critical thinking and reflective discussion, civic activism, and pride in African heritage through art and poetry heavily influenced by hip-hop culture and pan-africanism. Collectives commonly host a sarau (slam poetry event) as a way to make literature dynamic and accessible to the public at no cost, and as a means of building consciousness and contributing to conversations on race, gender, socio-economic status, health care, quality education, and overall better living conditions. Organizations like Coletivo Boca Quente, Arte Marginal Salvador, Sarau do Gheto, and Sarau da Onça, for example, are part of a movement that provides cultural spaces previously unavailable to the community.

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Festa da Boa Morte

Festa de Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte (Assumption Day or the Festival of Our Lady of the Good Death) falls on the Friday closest to August 15 and lasts three days. It is a celebration of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (mother of Jesus) that starts off with a solemn mass and then a procession in the streets of Cachoeira in Bahia. Organized by the Irmandade da Boa Morte (Sisterhood of the Good Death)—a secret religious society of elder Afro-Bahian women and the oldest of its kind in the New World—who praise the liberation of their enslaved ancestors with dance and prayer and a mix of themes from Candomblé and Catholicism. It is the second most important examples of religious syncretism in Bahia after Lavagem do Bonfim. For these women, their faith in the ascension of Mary into heaven never meant a denial of their faith in their Nagô ancestral traditions of the orixás and voduns. The orixá Nanã Buruku, a grandmotherly deity and orixá of wetlands, swamps, and marshes and mother to orixás Exu and Obaluaye, is honored and venerated. The festival is a mix of prayer, litanies, hymns, church masses, processions, capoeira and folk dances like maculelê and samba de roda, drumming, feasts, and sacred Candomblé obligation ceremonies until dawn.
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Balé Folclórico da Bahia

Balé Folclórico da Bahia, the only professional folk dance company in Brazil, was formed in 1988 by Walson Botelho and Ninho Reis. Based in Salvador in the northern state of Bahia, and under the leadership of artistic director José Carlos Arandiba, the 32-member troupe of dancers, musicians, and singers performs a repertory that originates from Bahian folkloric dances of African origin and includes slave dances, capoeira, samba, and those that celebrate Carnival. The company highlights the region’s culture within a contemporary theatrical vision.

Balé Folclórico da Bahia made its debut in July 1988, at the Joinville Dance Festival where an audience of 20,000 enthusiastically greeted its performance entitled “Bahia de Todas as Cores” (All Colors of Bahia). The troupe’s immediate success brought invitations to perform at other festivals around the country. After being awarded “Best Performance of the Year” by the Ministry of Culture, through the National Institute of Dance, the dance company was invited by the Ministry to tour all of the principal capitals of Brazil, which earned the troupe the acclamation as one of the country’s most important dance companies. Its U.S. debut tour was in 1995-96 and it has since performed in 88 US cities, earning rave reviews and playing to sold-out houses.