Black Conciousness and Literature In Brazil: A Conversation with Writer Conceição Evaristo And Prof. Eduardo De Assis Duarte

A talk by prominent Afro-Brazilian writer Conceição Evaristo and Professor Eduardo de Assis Duarte about black consciousness and literature in Brazil, the Afro- Brazilian literary and cultural tradition, and the contemporary challenges for resisting the cultural politics of racism in Brazil and the Diaspora. 

Conceição Evaristo is an Afro-Brazilian writer from Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, now residing in Rio de Janeiro state. She started publishing poetry in the literary journal Cadernos Negros in 1990, where she has continuously published both poetry and short fiction. Her 2003 debut novel, Ponciá Vicêncio, was published in English in 2007. Her other literary works include Becos da Memória (novel, 2006), Poemas da Recordação e Outros Movimentos (poetry, 2008), , and Insubmissas Lágrimas de Mulheres (short fiction, 2011). Evaristo also received her PhD in Comparative Literature from the Universidade Federal Fluminense, where she now teaches. She has participated in a number of conferences in Brazil and the USA. In the spring of 2012, she became the Portuguese School writer in residence at Middlebury College, VT, where she taught courses on Afro-Brazilian Literature. 

Prof. Eduardo de Assis Duarte, a PhD in Literary Theory and Comparative Literature, has taught at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais for over nine years, with which he continues to be affiliated as a Volunteer/Collaborator in the Graduate Program of Literary Studies. Prof. Duarte develops research with the “Núcleo de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Alteridade” (NEIA) and coordinatestwo other research groups: “Afro-descent in Brazilian Literature”; and “LITERAFRO”, a web portal of Afro-Brazilian Literature, holding bibliographical references, as well as critical and literary resources about over 100 writers. His publications include: Literatura, Política, Identidades(2005); Jorge Amado: Escritos de Caramujo (1996); and the edition andco-edition of a number of titles, including four volumes of Literatura e Afrodescendência no Brasil: Antologia Crítica (2011). 

*** Promoted by: The W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies (UMass Amherst), in collaboration with the African and African-American Studies Program at Dartmouth College. Co-sponsors: at UMass Amherst - Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies; English Department; History Department; Comparative Literature Program; Spanish and Portuguese Program; Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success – CMASS; the Five-College Afro-Luso-Brazilian Faculty Seminar; and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (Smith College).

Fonte: http://www.umass.edu/?events?b%C3%A7ack-conciousness-and-literature