Martha Abreu, Da senzala ao palco. Canções escravas e racismo nas Américas, 1870-1930

During the nineteenth century, writes Ronald Radano, “Black musical forms produced a kind of valuative loss for whites by giving material form to that which lay beyond their grasp.” As European visitors and others commented on the prevalence of Black musical forms in the U.S. south—and as blackface minstrelsy became a vehicle for depicting slave culture—Black music came to represent something that even masters could not fully own. This genie slipping out of the bottle hardly represented an en..

O Largo da Banana e a presença negra em São Paulo

The Largo da Banana relates to the history of the black population in São Paulo. Acknowledged as one of São Paulo’s “cradle” of samba, samba musicians are its main spokespersons. Largo da Banana used to be located near the former Barra Funda Railway Station. From the first decades to around half the Twentieth century, informal laborers in the railway logistics used to gather together in that space. Within a precarious and unsteady daily life, they used to play samba and tiririca. In the fifties, the municipality built the Pacaembu Viaduct in that area, aiming to extend the homonym avenue beyond the railway road. In the sixties, samba musician Geraldo Filme wrote two songs in which he paid homage to Largo da Banana and regrettedits disappearance after the viaduct’s inauguration. In these and other of his songs, the artist recorded his perceptions on the life conditions of São Paulo’s blacks and samba musicians, their sociabilities, and also the urban changes he witnessed. Considering that his artistic work contributes to enlighten aspects of social reality, I analyze some of his songs to interpret the sociabilities at Largo da Banana, as well as the urban intervention in that location.O Largo da Banana está associado à história da população negra em São Paulo. Reconhecido como um dos “berços” do samba paulista, é sobretudo através dos próprios sambistas que essa história pode hoje ser conhecida. Localizado junto à antiga estação da Barra Funda, desde as primeiras décadas até meados do século passado, aquele espaço concentrou trabalhadores informais vinculados às atividades da ferrovia. Em meio a um cotidiano precário e instável, essa população realizava rodas de samba e de tiririca. Nos anos 1950, foi construído naquele local o Viaduto Pacaembu, que prolongava a avenida homônima para além davia férrea. A partir da década de 1960, o sambista negro Geraldo Filme compôs duas canções em que homenageava o Largo da Banana e lamentava seu desaparecimento após a inauguração do viaduto. Nessas e em outras composições, o artista registrou suas percepções sobre as condições de vida da população negra e sambista na cidade, suas sociabilidades, bem como sobre as transformações urbanas que testemunhou. Considerando que sua obra artística contribui para iluminar aspectos da realidade social, ela é adotada como fonte para analisar as formas de sociabilidade no Largo da Banana e a intervenção urbanística naquele local

Lire et narrer le post-esclavage

Ce dossier est consacré aux formes narratives du post-esclavage, cette période complexe suivant l’abolition formelle de l’esclavage. Il interroge ce concept à travers des récits de vies individuelles (celles d’anciens esclaves), produits tant par la littérature, le cinéma, la traduction, la mobilité que par des associations militantes anti-esclavagistes. Les analyses croisent et confrontent les représentations fragmentées et normatives du post-esclavage, en en soulignant la polyphonie, voire la cacophonie. This special issue is devoted to the narrative forms of post-slavery, the complex period following the formal abolition of slavery. It interrogates this concept through the narratives of individual (ex-slave) lives, as they are (re-)circulated in literature, film, translation, movement and militant anti-slavery associations. The contributors cross-reference and confront fragmented and normative representations of post-slavery, thereby highlighting its polyphony, even cacophony