Capoeira with the Locals

Our cool tour guide, Roberto (pronounced Hoberto), is a Brasilian native. Since the city was founded in 1954 and he was born in 1962, he's been here nearly since its conception. Roberto knows and loves his city, so he invited our group to come to his son, Filipe's, capoeira class. Capoiera is a particularly Brasilian form of martial art to music. It came from the early slaves (est. 4,000,000 in total) who were brought from the east coast of Africa to work the sugar cane fields beginning in the 1600s. Legend has it that since the life was violent, slaves practiced fighting techniques among themselves, but when the slave owners would approach the slaves would play music on traditional instruments. The berimbaus looks like a bowed stick with a string attached to a hollow gourd held upright in the lap and played with a stick, a shaker is held in the hand. The three other instruments are the pandeiros or tambourine, and the atabaque or tall congo drum, and the agogo a samba percussion instrument with double bells or gourds of high/low pitch. The music mirrored the beat of the approaching horses and then a call and response technique was used to tell a story by the group leader. When the slave owner approached he would believe that the slaves were merely dancing. Capoeira was outlawed in 1890, just ten years after slavery was abolished and Brazil declared a Republic. It was revived in the 20s and is popular today, sometimes part of a school curriculum.

We went to a school in the north quadrant of the city where Roberto was raised and Felipe teaches. The common area was decorated for June Festival and the art teacher happened to be walking through. Felipe explained that she had designed the vibrant paintings on the walls depicting Brazil's diverse ethnicity. The richly colored paintings depicted Asian, African, European, and Indigenous faces. Our class began with yoga like stretching and then Felipe introduced the jinga, a low rocking movement that evolves into kicks, flips, and handstands. To learn the moves, we partnered with the Brazilian students: high school girls and boys, recent graduates, men and women in their twenties, several highly skilled dancers, and finally Roberto arrived with his famous handstands. We ended with the Roda and formed a tight circle clapping to the complex beat and responding to the sung calls of Felipe while two or three dancers spun, kicked, and jinga'd in the middle. People periodically trade spots among the instruments and dance. For a sexier view, check out this video by Laura: Global Education Questions: How is music used to convey social or political realities? What realities are conveyed by capoeira both historically and in present times? Choose a musical style that you like and explain the social situation it conveys.

Race in Brazil (Be patient--this takes a minute to upload)

Watch Brazil: A Racial Paradise? on PBS. See more from Black in Latin America.

Global Competency: Multiple Perspectives Show Henry Louis Gate's PBS documentary (hopefully embedded here) and engage students in a discussion about Gate's comparison between race in America and in Brazil. Global Citizenship Activity:

Brasilia: Revisioning the Republic

A Cathedral resembling a modern crown of thorns?

A dark underground entrance opening onto a sanctuary of light?

Brazilian Architect Oscar Niemeyer designed this modernistic cathedral along with most of the civic buildings in Brasilia, the nation's planned capital city, and the UN building in NY City.
 

The open, free standing confessionals and the egg shape above the crucifix speak to the emergence of a uniquely Brazilian Church from the heavy traditions of the architecture of the Portuguese colonial past.
 

The Chalice shaped bell tower is both striking against the office buildings of the past and evocative of a modernist Catholicism.  Neimeyer's symbolic use of reinforced concrete is a centerpiece of other civic buildings.  Including the National Congress building with domes representing the two houses and the rectangular "bull ring" where legislation is ultimately passed.

Global Education Competency:  Recognize Perspectives
Examine images of Brasilia's architecture and read about Oscar Niemeyer's viewpoints.  Discuss the attitudes conveyed by his designs.
Examine images of DC's civic buildings and compare the differences and similarities in attitude and style.

Consider elements of global citizenship and design a building that might be used in a capital city of Planet Earth

Brazil Bound

iPad - Check
Luggage - Check
Passport - Check
Manicure - Check
Well Slept - Check
Global calling plan - Check
Gifts for the friends I'll make when I get there - Check

 Nothin's Missin'

 Bye Bye John Mayer.

Hello Fernando e Sorocaba.