From The Favela To Our Manor

Pub0686 Favelav5:Layout 1 20/01/2010 09:54 Page 1
From the favela to our manor

Translating AfroReggae:
the impact and implications of an international intervention
in arts work with young people at risk
A People's Palace Projects Publication
Dr Richard Ings
Written by Richard Ings This publication has been made possible

richardings@blueyonder.co.uk with funding from:
Arts Council England
Photographs by Ierê Ferreira The Westfield Trust
and Richard Ings (pp12-27 only) Queen Mary, University of London
London Centre for Arts and Cultural
Published by the Publications and Web
Enterprises (LCACE)
Office, Queen Mary, University of London
The views expressed in this book are those of
For further information, contact:
the author and do not necessarily represent
People’s Palace Projects
those of People’s Palace Projects or Queen
Queen Mary, University of London
Mary, University of London.
Mile End Road
London E1 4NS The author would like to thank:
Paul Heritage and People’s Palace Projects
T: +44 (0)20 7882 7823 for their expert advice and guidance
F: +44 (0)20 7882 3195
Grupo Cultural AfroReggae for their
E: ppp@qmul.ac.uk kind hospitality in Rio de Janeiro
People's Palace Projects (PPP) puts The Arcola Theatre, Shoreditch Trust
performance research into action. and Contact Theatre for their openness
Based in the Drama Department at José Junior, Altair Martins & the other
Queen Mary, University of London, members of AfroReggae’s delegation
to the UK for their inspiring example
PPP manages a range of projects
that find practical application for Silvia Ramos, from the Center for Studies
academic scholarship. For further on Public Security and Citizenship (CESeC),
at the University Candido Mendes, Rio de Janeiro,
information, visit
& Damian Platt, formerly Amnesty International
(Brazil) and now working for AfroReggae for helping
www.peoplespalace.org.uk me to understand AfroReggae's significance in the
Brazilian context.
ISBN 978-0-9551179-3-0
From the favela to our manor

Translating AfroReggae:
the impact and implications of an international
intervention in arts work with young people at risk
Dr Richard Ings

Contents
Foreword: Raising the stakes 4 The workshops Keeping it local 60

Professor Paul Heritage, Director, Working with the ‘worst’ 34 In praise of availability:
People’s Palace Projects Identifying the principle behind making a 24/7 commitment
AfroReggae’s work with young
From the favela to the world: people at risk The implications
A cultural invasion 8 Assessing delivery 64
Dr Richard Ings Three workshop programmes 38 Evaluating the strengths and
Profiling the three UK organisations weaknesses of the workshop
The rationale participating in AfroReggae’s workshop programme
Another Rio 12 programme and their approaches to
Visiting the favela and learning recruiting young people at risk Impact on participants 68
the origins of AfroReggae Exploring the immediate
Visiting a workshop 46 impact on young people
Making it work 20 Analysing the workshop approach
Discussing AfroReggae’s strategies Developing practice 72
towards drawing young people
The analysis Exploring the wider implications of
out of the drug trade; spreading Keeping it real 48 AfroReggae’s visit for practitioners
its influence; maintaining In praise of authenticity: and policy makers developing this
self-sufficiency; and changing offering strong role models area of work in the UK
perceptions about the favela
Keeping it positive 52 Afterword 76
Our own favela? 28 In praise of purposefulness:
Further reading 78
Exploring parallels between the using creativity to make a positive
inner city here and the favela and statement Partners 79
the relevance of AfroReggae’s example
to current policy towards young Keeping it personal 56 Acknowledgements 80
people at risk In praise of intimacy:
embracing the troubled young person
From the favela to our manor 3

Foreword: Raising the stakes
Paul Heritage, Director, People’s Palace Projects
Although I had entered various favelas or shantytowns

in Rio de Janeiro over 15 years of working in Brazil, it
was not until 2004 that I began to make nightly visits.
At the invitation of Grupo Cultural And for the first time I really understood
AfroReggae, I was directing a performance what it might mean to say with AfroReggae
of Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra on that culture is our weapon.
the border between two rival communities.
It was only at night that I could negotiate As I have written elsewhere1, what secured Antonio e Cleópatra, Vigário Geral
the means by which this unprecedented my safety on that night in March 2004 was
performance could take place. And it was the respect that the rival gangs hold for
at night that I was to understand most the daily work that is done by AfroReggae
profoundly both the challenge and the with young people within the heart of
promise that is at the heart of AfroReggae. their communities. José Junior, founder and
director of Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, is
The border where we were to evoke the clear about their tactics. They use the same
violent passions of Rome and Egypt was a strategies as the drug-traffickers: talk the
200m dusty track between the communities same language, wear the same clothes or
of Vigário Geral and Parada de Lucas. better (more logos, more up-to-date styles)
Gunfire during the day is not common, and have lived the same lives as the
but at night this frontier becomes a shooting young people with whom they work. Their
gallery. When I was taken to stand there attitudes are tough and uncompromising.
for the first time, nervous discussions with Some of the original members of the band
gang leaders on both sides were my are ex-gang members and have no illusions
assurance that I could walk across the about the choices that young people have
border. I stood with AfroReggae band to make. But they also know the means
members in a darkness imposed by the shot- into and out of the gangs, and can support
out lampposts, the silence emphasised by people as they start to make new choices.
the AK-47s and AR-15s that hung loosely Although the group strictly prohibits any
in the hands of the adolescents at our side.
LG, singer, AfroReggae
64 From the favela to our manor
involvement with the gangs, it is not London. The partnership between London. People’s Palace Projects/PPP has been
evangelical about the process by which AfroReggae and People’s Palace Projects took privileged to work with and learn from
people negotiate their lives. a further step with our acceptance of the artists on a variety of programmes and
Barbican’s courageous invitation to create projects based in Brazilian favelas over the
AfroReggae runs over 65 projects across the From the favela to the world series of last decade. Each of the artists that PPP
Rio’s favelas, involving over 2,000 young performances and workshops in the UK in has taken to Brazil has been challenged
people in a daily programme of cultural 2006. to face what the arts can achieve in such
and educational activities. But it is not just environments.
in numbers that AfroReggae surpasses From the favela to the world is based on
the average arts-based social programme. a few simple observations: From the favela to the world is an
It is in the nature of the relationships that opportunity to bring these experience
AfroReggae re-imagines through their • Brazilian favelas/shantytowns have to the UK. Not only to stimulate debate
cultural practices. The authenticity of their developed sophisticated cultural strategies and share strategies, but also to celebrate
experience and the confidence that their to combat the extreme effects of social, the hope and optimism generated by the
voice inspires have ensured that they are political and economic exclusion. creative energies of the marginalised
now the principal mediators of conflict • Culture has become an effective weapon communities of Brazil’s contemporary
within their communities. Not only have against the violence that threatens their urban landscape.
they been successful in renegotiating the daily lives.
relationships between adolescents and the In order to produce the programme of
• Arts-based organisations are offering performances and workshops described
drug gangs, but also in establishing new
young people realistic alternatives to gang in this report, we relied on a range of
dialogues between the military police and
and gun culture. partnerships. It began with another
young people2.
invitation, when Louise Jeffreys, Head of
And it poses simple questions:
Their invitation to make Shakespeare with Theatre at the Barbican Centre, came to an
them within their communities followed • What do we as artists and arts outdoor show by AfroReggae in a favela that
my invitation to them to join me working organisations in the UK need to do now was subject to the threat of armed invasion
in Rio de Janeiro’s juvenile prison system in response to the perceived crisis around by both a rival gang and the military police.
in 2003. We worked together for two years guns, knives, drugs and gang culture? The night was tense and we were under
on Changing the Scene, a programme for the constant vigilance of heavily armed
young people in conflict with the law, run • How extreme has our situation become? adolescents, yet the night’s most electrifying
by People’s Palace Projects, an applied arts • How high do we have to raise the stakes? moments came from the show staged by
research centre at Queen Mary, University of AfroReggae. Their urgency of their drums,
Raising the stakes 75

the insistence of their guitars, the anger and significant in the exchanges that took place that also benefits from the dialogues of
love of their vocals inspired thousands of between the UK and Brazil, asking through international exchange.
young people present to identify with this its analysis what works and what should
positive force for resistance. And it inspired we be seeking to prioritise and fund that Urgent issues of public security, community
Louise Jeffreys to invite them to the can be effective in the current political and safety and social cohesion have raised the
Barbican in 2006. social crises. Through the report, we see stakes about the role that artists and arts
what AfroReggae in particular has to offer organisations are called upon to play. Our
Louise’s vision and her belief that to a range of current debates on human aim, as this programme develops, is to find
AfroReggae were a phenomenon that rights, cultural mediation and artistic ways in which the arts can enable young
needed to be seen and heard in London, development. The report looks carefully people to contribute to the debates about
gave PPP the platform to build a series at the way such work is structured, the how to make our lives more secure and less
of workshops and debates to accompany techniques of engagement with young at risk. AfroReggae shows that security is
the performances in London, Oxford and people and the methodologies of ensuring both a real and imagined state, as it brings
Manchester. We built partnerships with artistic quality. But above all, it shows that us work that has emerged with such high
other artists (Estelle, Ty and Asian Dub the central question which hung in the voltage from situations of extreme risk. We
Foundation); with arts organisations silence of an armed border is as relevant in hope that this report will help us to reflect
(Contact Theatre and Arcola Theatre); the UK as it is in Brazil: can culture really on how we might imagine security in ways
with Barbican Education, The Learning be an effective weapon in the fight we that do not exclude or threaten the lives of
Trust in Hackney and the Shoreditch Trust; face today? those who are most vulnerable and most
the Brazilian Embassy in London and the at risk.
Metropolitan Black Police Association. We are now embarking on a five-year
AfroReggae worked with young people in programme with AfroReggae, which will Queen Mary, University of London
May 2007
and out of schools, from inner city London include a range of performances, workshops,
and Manchester to the Dragons School in debates, training opportunities and
Oxford. publications (see www.favelatotheworld.org 1 “Parallel Power: Shakespeare, Gunfire and Silence” in
for further information). The UK AfroReggae Leslie Hill and Helen Paris (eds), Performance & Place
In order to reflect on the issues being raised Partnership continues to grow, as points (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
by the programme, we commissioned Dr of contact develop between British and 2 See ‘Youth and the Police’ Silvia Ramos (Rio de Janeiro:
Richard Ings to accompany the programme Brazilian initiatives. At every stage, we Centre for Studies on Public Security and Citizenship,
and this publication is the result of his are seeking to make work that maintains Research Bulletin Nº12, 2006)
enquiry into AfroReggae’s work with an intense and particular local focus but
young people at risk. It identifies what is Right: From the favela to the world, Barbican, 2006

Raising the stakes 7

The favela to the world:

A cultural invasion
Dr Richard Ings
I am up at the back of the main auditorium of London’s Barbican Centre, on my feet

with the rest of the audience, clapping and cheering on Banda Afroreggae as they
drive towards the show’s climax, the stage awash with musicians and rappers, vast
slogans and images of police violence stuttering and flashing behind them. It feels
as if they really have brought the favela to the world.
If we are talking numbers, the visit of AfroReggae to the UK in Another writer, Alex Bellos, who is something of an authority
Spring 2006 is remembered by most people for its two spectacular on Brazilian popular culture, wrote:
shows at the Barbican Centre, as part of the venue’s ambitious
celebration of Tropicália, the short-lived but hugely influential The group's name is, to musicologists, a misnomer: the style is
flowering of the counter-culture in Brazil in the late 1960s. a mix and match of rock, hip-hop, pop and reggae with heavy
Around 2000 people saw AfroReggae perform and there was Brazilian percussion. With a huge graffiti screen as a backdrop,
a lot of coverage in the press. The Guardian had this to say: men beating huge drums hanging from their waists, and forceful
political lyrics, there is nothing laid-back and Jamaican about
They aim to show that hip-hop can be a positive force while their stage shows. The performances are loud and energetic and
still providing great dance music, and their opening songs full of capoeira-influenced circus acrobatics.
succeeded on both levels. At the front of the stage were
three percussionists, bashing away at hefty drums suspended This mix and match approach is, according to Silvia Ramos, speaking
around their waists, while behind them were more drummers, at a Barbican seminar on AfroReggae, not fusion but collage:
guitar, bass and decks, along with a trio of rappers, performing
That is the first point of contact with Tropicália, which
in front of a large screen showing images of the police
defined itself as indefinable. There is an absence of a fixed
brutality that inspired the band to offer an alternative to
style or model. The second point of contact is in Afroreggae’s
ghetto confrontation.
corporeality – their use of colours and of the body. Unlike hip-
Robin Denselow
hop, where there is only limited movement on stage, Afroreggae
is an explosion of movement, just as Tropicália broke with the
black and white, the chair and guitar of bossa nova.

Banda Afroreggae in action
When Paul Heritage of People’s Palace Projects was approached Bellos quotes Hermano Vianna, anthropologist and advisor to Gil,
in 2004 by the Barbican Centre to create a performance work that who makes the link between this crisis and the music of AfroReggae:
would fit into a celebration of Tropicália, he first considered and
then rejected the idea of reviving a theatre piece, proposing instead Usually, the noise that governs favelas is the sound of
a contemporary cultural group that seemed to him to be infused gunfire. “What you hear in AfroReggae is a sonic revolt: the
with the same spirit and purpose as leading ‘Tropicalistas’ like singers regime of sounds that were suffocated by bullets returning
Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa and the band Os to be heard. There are many different sounds… it's not a
Mutantes: cacophony but an aesthetic posture intimately linked to an
experience of favela life.”
You’ll see in the Tropicália show that what all these artists were
trying to do was in some way to bring the periphery into the That experience is perhaps best represented by the constant threat
centre of Brazilian culture so that the centre could not hold of an ‘invasion’ of the favela, where the dominance of one drug
any more – so that it couldn’t remain the same. Today, faction is violently challenged by another.
AfroReggae are the torchbearers of this movement and they
AfroReggae’s visit to the UK might be seen as a benign version of
are launching the series of performances at the Barbican.
such an incursion into foreign territory: a cultural ‘invasion’. For
Tropicália was an all-too-brief focus for cultural and political Grupo Cultural AfroReggae is about more than Banda Afroreggae,
resistance to the military dictatorship which ran Brazil in the 1960s, the recording and performing stars who had us all on our feet that
before the authorities cracked down even harder, exiling Gil and Veloso night. The visitors from Rio de Janeiro did much more than perform
and silencing other voices of protest. AfroReggae is working in a very while they were here. In bringing the margins into the centre – and
different political situation; President Luiz Inácio da Silva (‘Lula’) is the thus making the favela and its culture visible to the wider world –
head of the Partido dos Trablhadores – The Workers’ Party – and has they had a message for us.
overwhelming support from Brazil’s poorest citizens, as his re-election
Founded as a direct response to a notorious police massacre in
in November 2006, notwithstanding numerous corruption scandals
the Vigário Geral favela in 1993 and now active in several other
surrounding ministers in his previous regime, demonstrates. Yet,
communities in Rio de Janeiro, AfroReggae has earned the respect
despite a progressive regime, which includes Gilberto Gil as Minister of
of both the police and the warring drug factions as well as local
Culture, there is a social crisis in Brazil of epic proportions, located in
people for its success in drawing young people away from drug-
its poorest urban quarters: the shanty towns or favelas. Here, an
related crime into music, circus, graffiti, theatre and other creative
undeclared war between rival drug factions claims more lives each
activities. The organisation has now worked with an estimated
year than were lost by the United States in Vietnam in total. Although
10,000 children and young people.
it is said that only one per cent of favela residents are involved in the
trade, no one in the favela is unaffected by the mayhem.
A cultural invasion 11
9
AfroReggae's success as artists has been equally extraordinary. The From the favela to the world was a hugely ambitious programme
main group – Banda Afroreggae – tours extensively throughout Brazil that engaged at a remarkably wide strategic level with the UK arts
and abroad; it has even performed at Carnegie Hall in New York. sector in the space of three short weeks: programming work in major
cultural venues; contributing to arts education provision; making arts
People's Palace Projects has been working with AfroReggae since interventions with young people at risk or excluded from education;
2003 to create theatre projects aimed to encourage mediation and exploring arts in criminal justice work; engaging in artist professional
offer alternatives to violence for young people in the favela. PPP development; and collaborating creatively on campaigning for
invited AfroReggae to the UK for Spring 2006 to undertake a major human rights.
project, called – ambitiously enough – From the favela to the world.
I will be focusing on just one of these areas – AfroReggae’s work
Paul Heritage, the artistic director of People’s Palace Projects at with young people at risk – and raising one key question: what can
Queen Mary, University of London, listed, some of the many ways we learn from AfroReggae for our own development of effective
in which the project’s success could be measured for its main funder, practice in creative and cultural work with young people at risk?
Arts Council England:
Behind that question are many others, of course, and not just about
By the thrill of the young people in the Barbican Theatre the ramifications of how we might improve our practice. What, for
audience at seeing their workshop leaders on stage; by the example, does its success imply about our policy priorities, not just
four-star reviews; by the purchase of the drums by the schools in arts and social inclusion work but in arts funding as a whole?
and community groups immediately after the project ended, How far does it challenge our deep-rooted notions of excellence and
so that they could carry on the work; by the immediate access, or of the social utility (or uselessness) of the arts? And so on.
re-booking of Banda AfroReggae by the Barbican for 2008,
2010 and 2012; by the echoing cheers that wouldn’t let If we compare the situation for young people in Rio’s favelas with
them leave the stage in Manchester; by the intense debates that of young people designated to be at risk in the UK, it appears
in London, Oxford and Manchester about the efficacy of the that, in certain communities here, the differences may not be as
arts in situations of extreme social crises; by the response great as some might assume – at one level, for example, there seem
of the Black Police Association who are going out to Brazil to be similar patterns of deprivation and disengagement leading
to help their colleagues form a parallel group; by the artists to the risk of involvement in crime; at another level, territoriality is
who accompanied AfroReggae on the Insight programme who important to both groups, whether based on drug faction boundaries
analysed, interrogated and dialogued with AfroReggae in Rio or postcode or estate divisions here.
through the seminars, workshops and internet site…

AfroReggae’s approach to creative workshops here was close if not

identical to the methodology its members use every day in the
favela: it was not adapted for export. That meant that AfroReggae’s
presence in the midst of our cultural ecology acted, in one sense, as
a litmus test showing what works well and what works less well here
- or, in another, more positive sense, as a catalyst provoking new
thinking about our own policy and practice.
We are in sore need of a new paradigm for our cultural work with
people and, most urgently, with young people who are excluded
from education or at risk of offending or reoffending. This report
has been written as a contribution to the debate we need to make
that happen.
A cultural invasion 11
Another Rio: the favela and

the origins of AfroReggae
Copacabana. The man who of notes from my visits to the other city
of Rio de Janeiro: the shanty towns or
that does agree to take us drives a mere
two blocks inland and begins to climb a
owns the beach side stall favelas which climb up the cliffs above the narrow, badly maintained street, lined with
glamorous resorts of Rio’s Zona Sul and precarious and often makeshift houses and
brings his machete down which stretch all the way to the airport kiosks selling drinks and groceries. At points
with practised violence, alongside the Linha Vermelha, where a the journey feels almost vertical but it
minibus of English tourists was spectacularly only takes us about ten minutes from door
splitting off the top of relieved of its money and jewellery the to door to reach our destination, a vast,
the shiny green coconut week before I arrived. echoing, whitewashed concrete structure
which was originally designed as a casino.
and handing me the whole It is this other city I have come to visit, It never opened as such and today it
in order to learn more about AfroReggae,
thing. I go over to a table an extraordinary organisation whose main
houses a strange menagerie: a police station
(we squeeze past a squad car, which I can’t
with my first perfect band will shortly be opening for the Stones help but notice has been pockmarked by
and whose members will be going over
drink of coconut juice to England, not just to perform but to
the impact of numerous bullets), a secondary
school, a ballet academy and, down the
and watch all the beautiful work with young people in the inner city. stairs, the circus centre run by Grupo
people stroll by in the Outside our hotel in Copacabana, Paul
Cultural AfroReggae, which is where we
are headed.
sunshine. Heritage of People’s Palace Projects and
I meet up with Damian Platt, formerly A young man, Jonathan, shows us proudly
This is my first visit but I know that this is of Amnesty International (Brazil) and now around the centre. Jonathan is my first
what it is supposed to be like. Not everyone working for AfroReggae, and Tom Phillips, personal encounter with the powerful ethos
is relaxing, though. Further along the the Guardian’s Rio correspondent. As if that drives AfroReggae. As he shows us the
seafront, teams of workers have cordoned orchestrated for my benefit as a fresh-faced history of the organisation in photographs
off a large section of beach and are busy newcomer here, the first taxi-driver refuses that are mounted in the reception area, he
with scaffolding poles and wood. I learn to take us up to Cantagalo, giving me my explains that young people come here not
later that they are building a giant stage for first glimpse of the level of social division to be artists per se but to value themselves
the first concert in the Rolling Stones’ new and fear that separates the asfalto – the and to develop personally and socially.
world tour. Two million turn up to see them official city – from the morro – the 600 or
perform a couple of weeks later but by then more favelas which rise above the city and
I have returned to London, my notebook full extend beyond it into the badlands. The taxi
The rationale 13
Later on my visit, a director of the

programme, Patrícia, tells me:
The main goal here is not to make

people professional. Circus here is a
tool to draw young people out of the
drug trade into a better life. However,
once we have given them some
techniques, a few talented individuals
do emerge – and, being professional
circus performers ourselves, we want
to develop that talent.
Jonathan himself came to the project ten Rodrigo das Freitas – down to my right.
years ago, with little interest in circus; he In other circumstances, this would be an
is now studying at the Escola Nacional de ideal spot for locals from the city below –
Circo (national circus school) and taking the the asfalto – and tourists alike to come and
equivalent of his GCSEs there. He is also one take their pictures. As it is, I am somewhere
of the ‘youth leaders’ whom AfroReggae is that most such people have never set foot –
training to work in their own favela and, in 99.9 per cent of them, I am told later, only
an attempt to overcome the territoriality half-jokingly, by an academic who works in
that blights young lives here, in other the city.
favelas, too.
Cantagalo is one of the older favelas
After watching students practising in the – the first emerged around the end of
performance area, we stroll out and onto the nineteenth century. More recently
the balcony. Jonathan is pleased when I ask established communities are to be found
if I can take his photograph. Looking at it out on the outskirts of the city, far from
now, I am reminded of the spectacular amenities and often built over swampland.
view that loomed behind him: the beach Tomorrow I am invited to one such favela,
at Ipanema down to my left, the Pedra da one that long had the reputation of being
Gavea mountains ahead, a lake – Lagoa the most dangerous of all: Vigário Geral. Jonathan at AfroReggae’s circus centre in Cantagalo

In Vigário Geral To understand Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, obvious reaction to the massacre would
Waiting with Damian for Vitor to take us you have go back to that moment and to have been finally to throw in his lot with
out for another stroll around, I look out of the decision of José Junior and his friends - the Comando Vermelho (Red Command),
the window and scan the courtyard below. including Anderson Sá, whose uncle was the drug faction that dominated Vigário
To my left there’s a small, closed shop that amongst the murdered – to turn the charnel Geral then, as now, and join the endless
rents out DVDs and a long bright piece of house where the bodies were laid out into dialectic of revenge. Instead, he elected
graffiti covering the wall. Directly opposite a community centre where they held to reject violence altogether; he joined
are the steps up to the bridge over the impromptu music, capoeira and recycling AfroReggae’s capoeira classes, eventually
railway tracks – from Vigário Geral, it is classes as a response of resistance to the graduating to lead vocalist for Banda
over ten kilometres up the line to the central atmosphere of violence that had suffused Afroreggae and close deputy to Junior.
station in Rio. To my right is a small drinks Vigário for a decade or more but which
kiosk with a couple of tables out in the sun this latest atrocity had raised to an None of this was planned.
and further over is a basketball court, unprecedented pitch. We didn’t know that AfroReggae was
its low wall decorated with more graffiti going to be what it is today – when it
figures. A general store is busy on the Up to this moment, AfroReggae had been
started, some of us couldn’t even afford
corner; members of AfroSamba mill around, largely a consciousness-raising organisation,
the bus fare. We had no experience of
shooting the breeze. publishing a newspaper that celebrated black
social work; all we had was goodwill and
history and culture and that extolled the
many barriers in front of us: not just lack
It was here, in this confined praça and along achievements of such iconic figures as
of money or experience, but the simple
the narrow lanes leading into it, that a Malcolm X and Bob Marley. Now its
difficulties of getting from A to B during
disguised convoy of military police drove historical moment had arrived and theory
the daily war. In the early days, we could
one August evening in 1993 and shot 21 turned to practice, as Junior brought his
be rehearsing in the very entrance to
innocent residents dead – in the bar, where brand of musical entrepreneurship to bear
the favela when shooting might begin at
people stood drinking; in a house where a on the problem of violence in the favela and
the drug-selling point. Eventually, we got
whole family were at prayer; whoever they on its root cause: o tráfico – the drug trade.
to a point when the dealers would not
could find in a fury of revenge for the
In Favela Rising, a powerful documentary respond to police fire, knowing we were
murder of a corrupt police captain and his
made by New Yorkers Jeff Zimbalist and there, and the police would not enter
three colleagues by the local drug baron
Matt Mochary in 2005 which traces the community, knowing we were there.
the previous day. The massacre sent shock
waves through the city and the whole AfroReggae’s history through Anderson Sá’s Thirteen years later, AfroReggae is a shanty-
country; it was a turning point. personal experience, Anderson discovered town phenomenon, with 65 AfroReggae
he had a choice at this moment. The most projects and ten sub-groups in Vigário Geral.
The rationale 15
There are four permanent favela nuclei and bodies had just been discovered and, later Sociologist Silvia Ramos, from the Centre for
AfroReggae is working in another favela on that day in Vigário, I met Patrícia, from Studies on Public Security and Citizenship
a semi-permanent basis. It works directly a network of Rio NGOs working for the at Candido Mendes University, has looked
with around 2,000 people, offering a range relatives of victims; she had been with the in detail at the homicide figures in Brazil
of activities to draw people, particularly mothers when the bones were taken away and has identified what might be called the
young people, away from the drug trade, for DNA testing to see if these were, indeed, demographics of death. There are twice as
most of them creative – music, theatre, the remains of their murdered sons. It was many homicides among 14-25 year olds
circus, graffiti, digital technology – and a shock to learn that this admirable woman (over 100 per 100,000 people) than other
some geared to business training and was the sister of one of the very few age groups. “This,” she says, “…is the age of
what Brazilians call ‘professional formation’. survivors of another infamous massacre, death.” The rate of homicides among young
Yet, thirteen years later, the violence is still this time in the heart of the cidade black Brazilians is 20 per cent higher than
present. marvilhosa in 1993 when eight street among white. “This is the colour of death.”
children were gunned down in cold blood While resorts like Copacabana have a similar
My hosts at the AfroReggae office in Vigário by military police on the steps of the homicide rate to that of Europe (4-10 per
had hoped, right up until they heard the Candelaria cathedral. 100,000 people), the rate in the favelas is
warning shots, that I would also be able to vastly higher (84 per 100,000 people).
visit the neighbouring favela, Parada de Brazil is not at war, but the indicators “This is the geography of death.”
Lucas, to see their centre there. This favela of violent death in the main urban
is controlled by the second of the three main centres are similar to those in countries In Rio de Janeiro, the police are responsible
drug factions in Rio – Terceiro Comando or that are involved in armed conflicts. In for more than 10 per cent of killings. Most
Third Command – and it has a longstanding 2002, 49,695 citizens were murdered. of these deaths occur in ‘confrontations’
grudge with Vigário that actually predates This national rate of 28.5 killings per in the favelas, which are registered as
the drug war. The shots we heard were in 100,000 inhabitants places Brazil among ‘resistance followed by death’ – they usually
fact fireworks set off to alert the drug the most violent countries in the world, bear the hallmarks of executions. Silvia
traffickers of Parada de Lucas that the civil bearing in mind that rates in European points out that the bulk of the victims are
police had been spotted on their way into countries are below three homicides young people, mainly black, and that the
the favela. Their task was to pursue an per 100,000 inhabitants and the police forces of the State of Rio de Janeiro
investigation into the torture and killing of United States is below six homicides kill, in one year, more people than all the
eight young men from Vigário by rival drug per 100,000 people. In Brazil, when we police forces of the United States together.
faction members that had occurred just a study specific poor urban areas and
month earlier. Bones from dismembered focus on youth, we find rates of 230 What has turned a disaster into a crisis over
killings per 100,000 inhabitants. the last thirty years has been the drug war.

Trafficking and consumption of drugs is

responsible for a very high proportion of
violence (from the police as well as the drug
factions), particularly since the appearance
of cocaine in the 1980s and its high
profitability.
The favelas are outside civil society. There

are few if any schools; few if any health
centres. Administration, such as it exists,
is provided by residents’ committees, most
of them run by whichever drug faction
controls the territory. Silvia writes of the
impact this has on young people growing
up in the favela:
Given these conditions, drug trafficking

has an extremely powerful attraction
for children and adolescents who find
few opportunities for employment or
for income generation, and whose
prospects for the future are fragile.
The quick profits and the ‘glamorous’
lifestyle provided by the power and
visible presence of firearms make many
young people see drug trafficking as an
attractive way out of their predicament,
however lethally dangerous it may
be. This feeds a culture dominated
by despotism, machismo, arms and
violence, which contaminates a high
proportion of the young people in
A view from AfroReggae’s base in Vigário Geral
these areas.
The rationale 17
As we walk around Vigário, Paul Heritage

explains to me how pernicious this influence
is on life in the favela, even among those
not directly involved in drug trafficking
or in crime:
The economy here revolves around

drugs: when the price goes down,
there’s less money for everything here.
Junior says we cannot be simplistic
about what the narco-cultura
represents, as so much depends on it.
Vitor (second from left) showing guests around So, how can you talk about ‘dirty’ or
Vigário Geral ‘clean’ in this situation? We all have
links with the drug trade, even the old
woman over there, selling marmelitas
[bean stew] to the lookout boys; she’s
part of the market.
Vitor walks ahead of us, keeping his eyes

open, looking out for us. He has been a
stalwart member of AfroReggae since the
beginning, apart from doing the odd jobs
here and there to support his family. A few
years ago, his brother had been on the edge
of the drug traffickers – no one knew how
involved he was until the day he fell out
with them and they killed him.
Ironically, given its reputation and the fact

that its population has fallen from 35,000 to
9,000 in a decade as residents flee the drug

war, Vigário Geral is, in many ways, a careful transcription of Psalm 91, whose Although in a handful of cases the
stunningly beautiful, its walls painted in sentiments are popular in times of trouble. authorities have paved main streets or
saturated pastel shades of mauve and blue Part of it reads (in translation): supplied mains water and sewage, the
and its streets an unruly, picturesque tangle. favelas have largely had to fend for
Its architecture is improvised – if a family He who dwells in the shelter themselves; in Vigário I saw how residents
needs more space, it builds another room – of the Most High had siphoned off electricity from the
and the use of found materials (for example, will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. national grid with a tangle of connectors
an old lettered sign incorporated seamlessly called gatos (‘cats’). Until very recently,
into a door) produces what Paul Heritage, I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge official maps of Rio simply ignored the
who has been visiting Vigário for many and my fortress, favelas, rendering them invisible, even
years, refers to as an ‘aesthetic of the my God, in whom I trust.’ though 20 per cent of the city’s population
periphery’: lives in them, most of whom (and we are
Surely he will save you from talking of over two million people) come
Recently, the head of Mangueira, the the fowler's snare down to the asfalto each day to work as
Manchester United of samba schools, and from the deadly pestilence. cleaners, waiters or other kinds of servants.
said to me that, if all the houses in When I was there, at the beginning of 2006,
the favela were painted white with He will cover you with his feathers, the Rio papers were reporting on the latest
blue window-frames, you would think and under his wings you will find refuge; political campaign to rid the city of the
they were as beautiful as those on his faithfulness will be your shield favelas – to enforce, as it were, the
the hillsides of Greece. and rampart. invisibility of the underclass.
As we walk round this place – is it urban or You will not fear the terror of night, My visit to Vigário ends with a visit to
rural? – there are inscriptions on the walls nor the arrow that flies by day, see the foundations of the new centre
that indicate that this is not tourist territory. that AfroReggae is constructing, a short
There is the ubiquitous ‘CV’ (for Comando nor the pestilence that stalks in the distance from the building where it ran
Vermelho) on the walls; when Parada de darkness, its first classes and which it will eventually
Lucas invades, it paints these out and nor the plague that destroys at midday. replace. Tomorrow I am to meet Junior
substitutes ‘TC’. After the last incursion, and his colleagues to learn more about
those marks were erased in turn, but this the organisation that manages to provide
Apparently, one of mothers was discovered
time someone has written up large texts 24/7 support for young people in Vigário
here reciting this psalm, after men from
from the Psalms. We stop to look at one, and eight other communities here.
Parada de Lucas had seized her son.
The rationale 19
Making it work:
talking strategy with AfroReggae
“AfroReggae is changing – symbolically – ideas and

images that were frozen before. Rather than trying to
change each and every person directly, an impossibility,
it concentrates on creating new ideas, new images,
new models. Every day it has to turn down an invitation
to open a new centre in another favela, because it
thinks it is better for someone in that favela to hear
about what AfroReggae does or read about it in the
newspapers or see it on TV and think to themselves:
I could be that person – he used to be a drug dealer
and yet he’s managed to turn his life around…”
Silvia Ramos
Jorge, who prefers to be called, simply, JB, Vigário. I’d met Junior at the time
described to me his former life as the right- of the massacre and not got involved
hand man of the local drug faction boss. in AfroReggae then, but he invited
Born and raised in Vigário Geral, JB became me now to help organise their events
involved in the drug trade in 1995: and concerts, as I was able to go into
any of the communities controlled by AFROREGGAE’S MISSION
My life was spent on the beach, going the Red Command. Junior could see TO PROMOTE SOCIAL INCLUSION AND
to baile funk parties. As the driver for I had talent and ability but that it SOCIAL JUSTICE USING ART, AFRO-
the local Red Command boss, I took was difficult for me to leave. In the BRAZILIAN CULTURE AND EDUCATION
part in various actions – invasions – end, my boss gave me the chance TO BRIDGE DIFFERENCES AND CREATE
as a drug soldier. There were around to abandon that life – he was being THE FOUNDATIONS WITH WHICH TO BUILD
70 to 90 people in my gang and we pursued and he thought it best SUSTAINABILITY AND EXERCISE CITIZENSHIP
created a big power base outside I got out.
Left: Workshop in AfroReggae’s base in Vigário Geral The rationale 21

However, JB’s old life pursued him even Damian to translate back to me. His multi- narco-cultura. You can see that to a
after he had joined AfroReggae as a tasking occurs, of course, on a much grander certain extent in the way that they
producer. In 2002 he was kidnapped by scale if one steps back to view just how dress, in the attitude they bring to
military policemen who had recognised him complex a web AfroReggae weaves here in their work, in the music and lyrics
and who demanded a ransom. Junior moved Rio and beyond: with government officials, they create. They have also taken on
quickly and found him before anything had drug faction bosses, international charitable the ways in which the drug traffickers
happened; the authorities apologised. foundations, local NGOs, record companies, interact with the young people in their
rock venues - but always coming back to community. They’ve learned strategies;
That taught me the value of the favelas and AfroReggae’s main raison they also work at 3.00 in the morning
AfroReggae’s work. Now I’m helping d’être: to remove young people from drug because the early hours are when the
others to get out of the drug trade – trafficking and to keep them out through drug business is active.
we’ve got six out in the last six months. offering them a range of creative and
It’s a lot of work but it helps you professional opportunities.
readjust to normal society. When
you are brought up in the favelas, The main point, as Junior explains, is not
drug trafficking is one of the only to produce artists.
opportunities open to you, so you’ve
got to occupy young people here with Not everyone in AfroReggae will
other kinds of activities. The greatest become an artist but we want them to
challenge? Every day is the greatest use the methodology they learn in the
challenge; every day there’s more we workshops, be it capoeira or percussion,
could be doing. in their own lives, whether they become
a business owner or a doctor or lawyer.
José Junior, Director of Grupo Cultural
AfroReggae, defies the canard that no man It provides them with a secure and
can multi-task gracefully. He takes urgent structured environment, which in some
calls, amends what is flashing at him on important ways is similar to that of the
the computer screen, responds to colleagues drug factions. Paul Heritage expands upon
poking their head round the door and is this last point:
still a perfect interviewee. He takes time to
It is interesting how much they take on
consider my questions and his replies are
the language and the methods of the
delivered at a comfortable enough pace for José Junior in his Rio office

Junior emphasises that the process of personal fame believing that this is the As we speak, secret negotiations are indeed
change can take a long time before these way they can draw young people away underway with the leadership of the Red
young people can stand up to the from the drug dealers. In terms of these Command on behalf of its man in Vigário
temptations of the narco-cultura and sectors and, indeed, the traditional Left, Geral. He is weary of the armed struggle for
achieve true self-esteem and independence. this is totally new. existence and he wants out. It looks hopeful
One of the challenges of working with that AfroReggae will make it happen.
young people in the favela is their As a result of all this, AfroReggae has earned
disinclination to invest time in their not only the respect of young people in the Spreading the word
development as Junior’s colleague, Patrícia, favela but of the two armed forces that Given AfroReggae’s stature within and
told me: dominate their lives: the police and the beyond the favelas and its hotlines to the
drug dealers. It seems that wearing the top echelons of both government and the
They have to hurry to survive, so they AfroReggae tee shirt – literally or drug factions, it comes as a surprise to learn
don’t spend several years, four hours a metaphorically – is to wear a bulletproof that Junior and his team have no interest
day, five days a week doing something vest. In the case of the drug factions, as in setting up an AfroReggae franchise in
like this without being very sure that Anderson Sá commented to me, both they order to strengthen its influence; as Junior
there’ll be a return at the end of it. and AfroReggae are “the same type of wryly puts it, “We are not in the business of
We try to make them believe every people and from the same community” so setting up branches like McDonalds”. There is
minute of the day that the future perhaps it is not as odd as it might seem no impulse towards empire building, at least
will come if they invest in the present. that joining AfroReggae is seen by some not in any conventional business terms.
drug chiefs as a rather better option for
Even in the more cushioned culture of the their younger brothers and their sons than This reflects AfroReggae’s belief that there
UK, many arts and social organisations becoming a traficante. Junior smiles when is no formulaic solution to problems in the
working with young people at risk face a he tells me: favelas; on this basis, it does not take a one-
similar challenge. What makes AfroReggae’s size-fits-all approach in setting up centres in
approach so effective lies partly in its Most of the leaders of the drug different favelas but allows the communities
unusual emphasis on the individual’s traffic are in gaol so, when they see to shape what it needs from an organisation
development, according to Silvia Ramos: AfroReggae on television doing concerts like AfroReggae:
or dealing with conflict resolution, even
In the world of NGOs and human rights they feel they would like to be part of AfroReggae hasn’t got a ready-made
organisations in Brazil, it is usually all our group. “If I’d had this opportunity methodology. We adapt it to each place
about the collective, but AfroReggae is back then,” they think, “I’d be part of we’re working in. We will see what the
also about individual success and even AfroReggae”. real situation is and start from there.
The rationale 23
AfroReggae prefers to encourage and inspire

others to create their own ventures, their
own approaches. As another staff member
put it to me, rather than hand out fish,
which would satisfy hunger temporarily,
AfroReggae teaches fishing.
Self-sufficiency
There is, nevertheless, a strong
entrepreneurial streak in Junior, going
back to his days organising baile funk
parties, and this has helped to strengthen
AfroReggae’s presence in the youth ‘market’.
The organisation is also more than willing to
court big business, including international
corporations, in order to disseminate its
influence. Silvia Ramos points out that this
is linked to an unashamed desire to turn a
profit:
They value their local territory but

at the same time they mix with the
national and the international, from
working with Globo [the Brazilian
television and media empire] to
corporations like Nike. They sing
about Vigário Geral but they talk
globally. They talk to the markets.
Junior and his staff proudly boast that

already a third of AfroReggae’s income is
earned, largely through the activities of

Banda Afroreggae. This does not mean, of it is at its most creative. For example, This has come at a special moment for
course, that they are conventional capitalists not having instruments, you can still us - Banda Afroreggae has just launched
– perhaps, as Junior suggested to Damian use the same energy on an oilcan. its new CD, Nenhum Motivo Explica a
Platt, they are the vanguard of ‘the social Guerra [Nothing Justifies War], and is
capitalist movement’. Nor does it mean that Changing perceptions of the favela appearing with the Rolling Stones; a
AfroReggae would accept sponsorship from Looking outwards, AfroReggae is determined documentary about us, Favela Rising,
tobacco or drinks companies, for example, to make the favela and its people visible may be on the shortlist for an Oscar.
as Junior sees those as equally destructive (and audible) to the wider society and to All this along with our visit to England
drugs to those decimating the favelas. change mainstream attitudes towards people will create resources that will go back
AfroReggae is still an NGO but it is one that, who live there. Silvia is admiring of the way into our work, here in the favelas.
thanks to recent legislation allowing NGOs it has now transformed the image of Vigário
to generate profit, is no longer so reliant Geral and successfully conveyed the message He has been over to England a couple of
on handouts to survive. Its mission remains that: “If you want to know what is in the times before and the main band did a couple
the same, as Junior explains to me: hearts and heads of young people in the of gigs in Leeds and Manchester in 1999, but
favela, you have to listen to AfroReggae”: this is a much bigger deal, in every sense.
It’s no good us playing at the Barbican
and losing our base. In 2004 we played This began when Caetano Veloso came This is one of our most strategic visits
Carnegie Hall and had huge coverage to Vigário Geral, then the most violent outside Brazil – we have been working
in the New York Times – if we’re not favela in the country and, for the first towards it since 2004. It will be a
careful, we could become bourgeois! time, the newspapers ran a story about meeting of cultures and it will include
One way we have of not letting money the community in the cultural pages, a huge mixture of activities: workshops,
or fame take over is by constantly rather than in the crime section. In the debates, films, performances…
focusing on getting more and more eleven years since then, it hasn’t been
out of the cultural news. One important element of it, he tells me,
people out of the drug trade and on
will be meeting the police.
mediating conflict – that’s what gives
This shift in media perceptions is very
us our energy and strength. Cultural mediation
welcome as AfroReggae, unsurprisingly,
wants to spread its philosophy of AfroReggae is one of the most
In any case, the main thing is never the
transformation and hope as widely important groups among what I call
money, as percussionist Altair Martins says:
as possible – and now to the UK. This the ‘new mediators’. It provides a bridge
The funny thing its that when imminent visit to our shores is clearly the between the favelas and the city, a
AfroReggae has no money, that’s when main thing on Junior’s mind when we meet. bridge across the divided city, the
The rationale 25
fractured city. They not only present shot and wounded an AfroReggae musician AfroReggae’s approach to artistic expression,
the favela to the city, but the city to as he entered the favela on business. Again, the way in which their presence is felt. It
the favela. Junior acted in a totally unexpected – and seemed fitting that of the two professores
Silvia Ramos equally strategic – way, approaching Silvia leading the successful programme that took
Ramos with a proposal to work with the place with military police in Minas Gerais,
It is intriguing to discover that one of Jose military police on a drumming and graffiti one was Altair Martins, who as a teenager
Junior’s obsessions is Shiva, the destructive project. had been temporarily deafened in an
member of the Hindu trinity that also unprovoked assault by a policeman. The
includes Brahma the creator and Vishnu At first, Silvia thought she had misheard other was the musician whose shooting
the preserver. Shiva’s destructiveness is, and that Junior must mean working ‘contra’, had triggered the whole initiative.
however, fundamentally creative in its meaning ‘against’, the police, not ‘con’,
renewal of the world. As Lord of the meaning ‘with’. She had spent years helping The transformation of such projects was, in
Dance, Shiva destroys ignorance and old to document police abuses and struggling to this instance, made plainly visible, in the way
habits and arouses energies that have lain teach police squadrons about human rights
dormant. It is this idea of transformation and now she was about to discover a whole
through destruction that, one colleague new way of changing hearts and minds.
tells me, fascinates Junior:
When the drums start, something magic
Just as he likes working with the happens that has nothing to do with
‘worst of the worst’, he likes going into going to human rights classes. I have
situations that don’t work and making given those classes to policemen and
them work. women for ten years, talking on behalf
of social groups, but here they were
One obvious example of a situation that talking to each other through the
didn’t work occurred in Vigário Geral in mediation of the drum.
August 1993, in the days following the
massacre. It takes a certain kind of lateral As an academic, she has come up with a
thinking to respond to such an outrage pleasing thesis title for this phenomenon:
with music classes. Almost a decade later, the pedagogy of the drum. The drum stands
when both the drug factions and the police for all the creative arts and what can be
seemed to have accepted the value of learned through involvement in them.
AfroReggae’s activities, a rogue policeman It also stands for the sheer physicality of AfroReggae’s base in Vigário Geral

that the police learned to match rhythms West. AfroReggae draws on that spirit – 18 days of peace as well as a unique
with the visitors, and even in the way they embodied in that same period in Brazil theatrical and social experience.
carried themselves – adopting the street by the hedonistic and anarchic playfulness
swagger and attitude that anyone who has of Tropicália – but manages to go a It is as if, having been bloodily birthed in
encountered AfroReggae can only describe practical step further. Its facilitation of Paul the massacre in Vigário, AfroReggae must
as cool. In achieving such trompe-l’oeuil Heritage’s 2004 extraordinary production of keep focusing on the wound which that
effects – which is the slum kid, which the Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra on the emblematic event uncovered in Rio’s social
cop? – AfroReggae manages to break up the ‘Gaza Strip’ – the shooting gallery between fabric. They are drawn again and again to
logjam of stereotypes that bedevil both Vigário and Parada de Lucas – showed how the shifting frontlines and fault lines of the
groups and reveals the fundamental truth its appreciation of the potency of symbol fractured city, seeking to meet the crisis
of the situation, which Silvia describes thus: and metaphor is matched by its courage in head on and to bring transformation about
negotiation, in this case persuading police at the points where it seems most unlikely.
Both groups – the police and the favela to stay away and rival drug factions to cease It’s a philosophy that applies as much to
youth – are marginalized in Brazilian hostilities, so that residents from the two individuals as to the community.
society. They may be at opposite poles favelas were able to enjoy an unprecedented
but they are both objects of prejudice.
On my own visit to Vigário Geral I

witnessed something that would have
been unthinkable even a year earlier –
police officers strolling up to the musicians
from AfroReggae to discuss the fine details
of a forthcoming joint concert, where
AfroReggae would be playing alongside
the 911 police band. Getting to this point
was remarkable in the heart of what has
been called a ‘pre-modern’ culture of tribal
honour and revenge.
Poking a flower into the barrel of a

policeman’s cocked rifle is a recurring
signifier of peaceful Sixties protest in the
Johayne Ildefonso, artistic director, at the office in Vigário Geral
The rationale 27
Our own favela?
Too much fighting I cry when my Afroreggae; it means ‘On the magazine
cover/In the newspaper/We are
Too many guns father cries Afroreggae/From Vigário Geral.’ The Blue Hut
version thus intertwines, in a kind of mutual
Not enough love I cry when my translation, the experience of being young
In the fast-growing slums mother cries in Shoreditch with the rallying cry of favela
pride that is AfroReggae.
Capa de revista, I cry when my sister cries
But is the situation in the UK really
folho do jornal I cry when my comparable to that in Brazil? To be more
Somos Afroreggae brother cries specific, is the situation in Dalston, Hackney
or Moss Side in Manchester similar to that
de Vigário Geral I cry, cry, cry in Vigário Geral or any of the other favelas
dominated by the drug factions?
Listen to your heart I can’t stop crying –
Listen to your heart Only way I’ll stop It puzzles some of those I spoke to from
the West who are now working in Brazil
Feel the beat Is if people stop dying that we have here so many ‘disaffected’
young people in the midst of one of the
Peace and respect Capa de revista, wealthiest societies in the world. Their
Peace and respect folho do jornal environment might not be ideal but it was
far more comfortable and protected than
Capa de revista, Somos Afroreggae the lawless and impoverished favela: why
folho do jornal de Vigário Geral weren’t they counting their blessings and
picking themselves up off the floor? UK
Somos Afroreggae These lines were produced by individual singer Estelle implied as much in a brief
young people working with AfroReggae DJ speech to the young people after watching
de Vigário Geral Magic Julio and rapper Dinho at the new their performance at the Blue Hut:
Blue Hut youth centre in Shoreditch in East It’s up to you guys to take this and run
London. The chorus, of course, is in Brazilian with it, because there are people worse
and comes from an early song by Banda off in the world who are doing way
better than us right now.
Left: Section of final graffiti piece created at the Arcola workshops The rationale 29
Nevertheless, as Dwight Bond, about to take divisions that make so many lives there
over as Chair of the new facility, remarked intolerable. The disparities of wealth in Rio –
to me: the older favelas a mere block away from
the hotels of Copacabana and Ipanema –
To be young at this precise moment in may not appear so stark in the East End
the inner city is dangerous, for no other of London or on the estates of Manchester
reason than your age. but they are there, nonetheless, along with
the social costs. An area like Shoreditch, for
In the English inner city, the level of
example, with its increasing culture of gun
organised violence is considerably lower
crime and drug abuse, is a stone’s throw
than in the favelas but there are disquieting
from the heart of the City – a literally
parallels between the growth of gun and
capitalised city on the doorstep.
drug-dealing cultures in many of our
communities and the situation in the slums As a teacher of Applied Theatre at Queen
of Rio. Politicians and sociologists, rappers Mary College and an active member of
and writers, teachers and youth workers, all People’s Palace Projects, Ali Campbell often
kinds of pundits and observers agree that works in the thick of such disadvantaged
we are facing a major challenge in engaging communities. Talking to youth arts workers,
with many of our young people – and not he admitted:
just those at immediate risk of offending or
of victimisation. The increase in exclusions I don’t have to cross Mile End Road,
of young people from mainstream education where I am based, to have more work
is a worrying trend, particularly when there than I or my students can possibly cope
is a similar surge in custodial sentences for with, from the elders on the local estate
young offenders. The Respect agenda is to the local youth offending team.
only the Government’s latest attempt to
curb what it – and many voters – sees as There is a multiplicity of pressures on such
an epidemic of yobbishness. neighbourhoods, from poverty to racism to
drug abuse. Nicole Bayes from Contact
At fairly regular intervals since the Second Theatre in Manchester told me about some
World War, the inner city has erupted, of the young people who had participated
making visible the poverty and social in AfroReggae’s percussion workshop there:

These young Somali people are on our over two hours before processing in a city The fundamental problem is much the
list of ‘hard to reach’ groups. They are centre police station and her son, over six same everywhere: the lack of money.
disempowered – they don’t care about foot tall and 16, continues to be stopped People who are excluded from the good
anything, including themselves a lot of and searched regularly as he passes to and things that the city can offer don’t
the time. There is a cycle of repression from college, work and his many sporting always understand why they are
and domination that lies behind these activities. excluded, but they feel it. Anger
attitudes; our work is about breaking develops inside them but they don’t -
that cycle. I personally know teenaged young men in can’t - rationalise it.
London’s inner boroughs who have to plan
The territoriality that is so lethal in Rio, their route to school very carefully, who John Goodenough, a detached youth worker
where a favela like the Complexo do Mare have been mugged several times, who have in Shoreditch, agreed that money was the
is bloodily fought over by the three main had a relative stabbed to death in a skirmish key issue:
drug cartels, is, if in a less extreme way, on the streets, who have been shot. A
reproduced in the postcode rivalries between youth arts worker involved in the Shoreditch Young people here are no different from
young gangs in London, Manchester and programme told me that only recently young people anywhere else: they want
other cities here. twelve local young men had been released money in their pocket. There is a street
from Feltham (HMP Youth Offenders culture of how you get that money,
Ekua Bayunu, who lives in Moss Side Institution) after one of them stabbed which I don’t judge them for. This type
and works at Contact Theatre, confirms and murdered a young person from a of music culture – MC’ing, rapping –
shootings are rife in some parts of neighbouring area. often runs hand-in-hand with the drug
Manchester as, indeed, they have been scene. The young people we work with
in Dalston, with its infamous ‘Murder Mile’ They were all sent down because they would love to make it in the music
even hitting the US press a few years ago. wouldn’t give him away, which was business – and there is a lot of talent
She has been present at a drive-by shooting, awful for the community that were left here – and then they’d leave this life
having to make a hasty exit from a main with so many questions. It’s all about behind. Until then, they keep both
street close to her home, when she saw and low education, limited hope, the feeling activities going.
heard automatic weapons being used by and of marginalisation.
against local young men. A member of the One difference over here is that the state
black community, she has also seen the So, the scale may be very different but the in its various forms – the police, the social
forces of law and order overstep the mark: cause and effect – dramatic socio-economic services, the education authorities – can
her daughter, whilst still a teenager, was left inequities – are similar, as Patrícia from intervene and impose a measure of discipline
handcuffed on the floor of a police van for AfroReggae, commented to me: on the situation. In Rio, thanks again to
The rationale 31
larger socio-economic injustice, the police their shackles when they appear in public of criminal responsibility (age 10) to well
on the ground are more likely to be part of (the tag making a telltale lump at their under EU standards and instituted a system
the violence and corruption than protectors ankle). of ASBOs to check and punish anti-social
or defenders of the rule of law. behaviour - both have resulted in the
One youth arts worker, speaking at the criminalisation of new cohorts of troubled
Nevertheless, as the Stephen Lawrence case Insight review meeting at the end of young people, who are, in the words of
demonstrated, we share some of the same AfroReggae’s visit, identified what might the Youth Justice Board, mostly victims
political and social challenges. Although mark our situation out here, amidst our themselves.
street crime may not be as rife as some of relative privilege, from that in the favela:
our media and political leaders claim, the Imprisonment is, to put it mildly, a
ready use of knives and guns is on the We don’t live in a favela but we have blunt response to this social tragedy but
increase. Racism is not simply residual in serious problems. There is chaos in government is not the only villain here.
pockets of the white working class estates our schools and in our culture - we A recent report, Freedom’s Orphans: Raising
that produced Stephen’s killers but, we have don’t know where we are within our Youth in a Changing World (IPPR, 2006),
learned, is institutionalised in our police own culture. We live in a heightened shows that teenaged young people in the
force (which hasn’t yet brought those killers state of materialism, while the favelados UK are both more likely to be socialised
to justice) and, almost certainly, within other are living where there is still a sense of amongst peer groups than within their
branches of government; even, some would community and an understanding of family and more likely to behave in an
claim, in our classrooms. what human nature is about. anti-social manner or to commit crime.
Something must have decayed within
There is also increasing concern over the This might help to explain the evident
our social fabric to have allowed this to
erosion of sociability – most commonly confusion at the heart of a New Labour
happen on such a scale and we all have
personified in the media by sullen young government that has, on the one hand,
a responsibility for it – and for repairing
men in hoodies. Government responds with supported and developed the holistic Every
these communal bonds.
ever more draconian impulses towards Child Matters agenda to protect the child
disciplining ‘disaffected youth’. Unruly and and, on the other, locked up more young So, allowing for the difference in the scale
disturbed pupils are removed from school people and at a younger age than any other and intensity of the social problems in Rio,
and housed together in separate institutions. G8 country bar the United States. Young there is still, many believe, an urgent need
Young people who have been a nuisance people suffering poverty and social exclusion for intervention here of the kind provided
are awarded ASBOs – anti-social behaviour make up the overwhelming proportion of by AfroReggae in the favela, not just so
orders – and shamed in the local press, while those in custody or under supervision; recent that young people can be drawn away
those who have offended are forced to wear legislation has effectively lowered the age from criminal and anti-social activity but

in order to demonstrate to government that

there are more imaginative and sustainable
ways of achieving this than increasing
punishment and extending custody.
That is why the inclusion of a participatory
programme of workshops for young people
at risk during AfroReggae’s visit to the
UK in the early spring of 2006 was – and
remains – so important. Not because the
workshops, which after all ranged over just
a few days in each location, could transform
the young people who attended them, but
because – in the symbolic fashion favoured
by AfroReggae – they demonstrated the
potential for transformation.
The rationale 33
Working with the ‘worst’
“The first thing we saw in Hackney Free was a fight,

so we knew we had a lot of work to do. It reminded
me of what we had done with young people in prison
in Brazil and it made me even more keen to work
with you. By the end of the second day, some of the
boys were having fun, pretending to fight over an
instrument, and that showed us that we were already
having some effect.”
Altair Martins, addressing Hackney school students
When Junior was asked at a presentation of Watching the various groups under the
his organisation at the Barbican Centre how AfroReggae banner perform – from
AfroReggae selected the young people it AfroLata, a percussion group that uses tin
worked with in the favela, he replied: cans, to the Cantagalo circus group – it is
easy to overlook the fact that the
Those who are considered the most professionalism and energy on show are not
violent and feared. the product of a Fame-style academy for
highly motivated and often well supported
He was echoed by Altair Martins, lead
students but have been carved out of the
percussionist, in the course of an eloquent
most unlikely material. AfroReggae’s
off-the-cuff speech he made to artists and
approach is to try to redirect the vast
youth workers at the end of AfroReggae’s
amount of energy that the more challenging
visit to the UK:
young people have into more creative and
Always work with the ‘worst’ kid. positive channels. Their belief is that, if this
Always go for the young person kind of young person is given responsibility,
Silva, circus tutor, in a Shoreditch workshop
that nobody wants to work with. he or she will – as Altair puts it – “use their
leadership in a good way”.
Left: Graffitti workshop at the Blue Hut, Shoreditch The workshops 35

This principle of working with the ‘worst’ is targeting those young people who are often Insight programme to run alongside the
a methodology that our own most effective considered the ‘worst’ in our classrooms and workshops and performances in order to
and inspirational teachers and workshop on our streets, who are in the most trouble “give people working in the areas of arts,
leaders would recognise and pursue, but and who could, of course, cause the most education, human rights and policy-making
too often the arts sector as a whole fails trouble to the rest of us. When I talked to a unique opportunity to see how AfroReggae
to engage as strategically or as deeply as Dwight, he summed up the crucial issue: engaged with young people at risk of gang
it could with those ‘worst’ young people culture, drugs and gun crime through the
who are at the greatest risk of involvement It’s the type of people you reach that’s arts”. Their reflections inform my analysis
in crime as perpetrators or victims. One important. We could have filled these of what made this international intervention
of the most important ambitions for workshops easily, but I don’t want a so valuable.
AfroReggae’s first major project in the UK workshop full of people who are always
was to contribute to the growing expertise going to volunteer - as I used to when
in this area of work and to give it a higher I was younger. I want the ones who
and professional profile. hardly stick their hands up, not the
ones who do the school play or always
People’s Palace Projects secured the go to workshops… We’ve young people
involvement of cultural organisations in participating here, especially in the
Dalston, Shoreditch, the City of London, circus session, who have attention
Manchester and Oxford in the hope that a deficit disorder or learning difficulties
programme of workshops run by AfroReggae and there’s no greater reward than
in these places would help to encourage, seeing them arrive at the beginning
develop and challenge approaches to this of the workshop, stay till the end and
vital area of work, perhaps inspiring new turn up the next day for more.
ways of engaging with young people we
find hard to engage with. The next chapter examines the three
workshop programmes in more detail,
In terms of those programmes run outside setting them in their local context, before
the formal education system, Dwight Bond going on in later chapters to explore
and his colleagues in Shoreditch, Sarah AfroReggae’s own practice and its
Sansom in Dalston and Ekua Bayunu in implications for our work in this country.
Manchester were natural partners for That exploration was aided by the decision
AfroReggae, for they all made a point of of People’s Palace Projects to set up the

The workshops 37
Three workshop programmes
Arcola Theatre, Dalston promoting director-led youth work would visit each other's cities as a way
AfroReggae workshops collaborating with writers from the National of sharing practice and building bridges
21-25 February 2006 Theatre Connections programme. This is for the future. Crucially, Contact also
Since it was opened in 1999, the Arcola comparable to bringing in AfroReggae to indirectly provided Sarah Sansom, who
Theatre has helped to regenerate its run workshops, he feels: “Young people had worked in Manchester and who was
immediate area in Dalston; this used respond better to artists with a high now commissioned by People’s Palace
to be a red-light district. The artistic professional reputation.” Projects to produce the Arcola workshops.
programme is intended to relate to what The proposal was for AfroReggae to run The amount of groundwork that has to be
is going on around it; Crime and Punishment a week-long residency for local young done to make the most of an intervention
in Dalston, a dramatisation of Dosteyevsky’s people aged 15-25 who would not normally like this is considerable, which might
classic novel, was one of the Arcola’s first access arts activities or mix with each other. explain why it is so seldom attempted. In her
critical and popular successes. More recently The two programmes, one on Brazilian detailed evaluation of the workshops at the
it has presented a musical, Release the Beat, graffiti skills and the other on drumming, Arcola Theatre and in an interview with me,
aimed at the ‘ecstasy generation’. According would lead up to a ‘free and informal’ Sarah Sansom gave a thorough account of
to Ben Todd, the General Manager, this performance of the work for family and how she set about recruiting participants.
artistic policy is based on the belief that it friends on the Saturday. Apart from
is more effective to reach and develop new empowering and inspiring young people It’s really rare that young people
audiences through programming rather than through these workshops and raising come on their own – not to come
putting already slim resources into outreach awareness of the risks involved in drugs, with at least a couple of friends is to
schemes, with all the bureaucracy those can guns and gang culture, it was hoped that venture outside their safety zone. That,
entail. This comes in part from the success, this project would support the growth of of course, relates to the notion of gangs
pre-funding days, of its on-site community Arcola Theatre’s youth provision and among young people. I would have liked
theatre work with local Turkish and Kurdish diversify their young people-focused to bring young people from different
people. activities. areas, from different gangs together
When I spoke to Ben, he thought that one for this project but that would have
way of avoiding a split between mainstream To that end, Arcola had been in touch with required a lot more intervention
theatre and community programming would Contact Theatre from Manchester. During from the local community. Without
be to appoint a resident professional writer the run up to this event, Contact shared AfroReggae coming here ahead of the
already committed to working with young its model of how to run a theatre centred workshops, there was just me and Kath
people; since then, the Arcola has been around young people and both venues each Veith – a voluntary trainee producer –
appointed two ‘young ambassadors’ who and the two young ambassadors from
The workshops 39
the Arcola. Although I did recruit a lot Youth service provision within Hackney groups were contacted, mainly in the
of young people who are at risk in this turned out to be not immediately immediate area of Dalston, Stoke Newington
area, as a white woman it was difficult comprehensible, so Sarah met with a and Clapton. The response was mixed but
for me and occasionally I did feel number of departments to find out who a few – Springfield Boys Club, Claudia
unwelcome. was best placed to support this project. Jones Organisation, Balik Arts, Hoxton Hall,
At Hackney Youth Services, this included Immediate Theatre and the Queensbridge
The project aim was to reach as many young the gun and knife crime prevention team, Trust – agreed to a visit from Sarah and
people as possible to attend the introductory the anti-social behaviour team and the drug the ambassadors. Young people were
sessions at the Arcola Theatre and out of action team, as well as the Head of Youth encouraged to attend taster sessions at
these to engage at least 45 of them to Services. Sarah also saw Hackney Youth the Arcola in January.
participate in the workshop week - Offending Team, Hackney Crime Prevention
ideally 15 in graffiti and 30 in drumming. Scheme and Daniel House Pupil Referral By the end of January other partnerships
By sustaining their involvement over the Unit. Each department and agency was had emerged. Although schools and colleges
course of the project, Sarah hoped to positive about the aims and objectives of were not prioritised, Hackney Learning Trust,
encourage both individual and group the AfroReggae project but preferred to the education provider for the borough,
development. delegate recruitment to staff who worked became a key partner; as well as offering
directly with young people: youth workers, alternative provision to mainstream
First, she undertook a research and education for young people on the verge
community safety officers, teachers and so
development mapping exercise to build a of exclusion, it also offers support services
on. This made it hard for Sarah to monitor
clear picture of existing youth provision for to those who cannot access schools
what was being achieved in terms
young people at risk aged 15-25 in Hackney. provision. Centrepoint, Tower Hamlets
of contacting young people.
Employment Action Zone, Clapton Girls
Two priority areas were identified. The School and Connexions (Westminster and
Having recruited two young ambassadors –
first was organisations working directly Lewisham) all got in touch when they
Zoe and Conrad – from Arcola Youth Theatre
with young people at risk of drugs, received Sarah’s flyer, as they already had
to promote the theatre and the AfroReggae
guns and gang culture. The second was young people they knew would benefit
project back in December, Sarah decided to
organisations engaging with young people from participating in the project.
work with them to come up with strategies
through innovative arts and cultural
that would be effective in engaging their
activities, especially those bringing together All this was not enough, though, for
peers in less formal settings. Alternative
the diverse communities of Hackney. recruiting specifically for young people
provision for young people in Hackney is
to participate in the graffiti workshops.
bewilderingly complex, too, and nearly 20
As Sarah wrote in her report, having

consulted the Anti-Social Behaviour Team, Sarah visited open mic hip hop nights and at risk”. And, seemingly by chance, the size of
the street was the next place to look. found a shop where those in the know could the group that took shape over the course
buy paint and materials for graffiti work. of that week matched what had been aimed
Through the research and development She sourced hip hop culture networks for at the beginning; the workshops
phase I had identified that many of the information on the Internet, visited people’s were full.
conflicts that exist between gangs in houses and asked around areas where
Hackney were being symbolised through graffiti was visible. She succeeded in finding
graffiti tagging around the borough, a diverse range of individuals who were all *
with gang names and postcode wary at first, but who became interested
references defining areas that are Just under 60 people expressed a direct
in taking part once they learned that other
controlled by particular groups, interest in the project and put their name
‘writers’ they respected were getting
feeding the idea that opposing gangs on the text mailing list. There were 16
involved.
or unknown individuals deemed unsafe AfroReggae workshops with an average of
to enter such areas. Examples of this In the final phase of recruitment, two taster 18 people at each session. The final public
tagging are seen around Kingsmead sessions were held at the Arcola Theatre at performance was watched by over 140
Estate, Lower Clapton and Springfield. the end of January, informal drop-in sessions people. Perhaps reflecting the diversity of
lasting three hours, where young people the area, roughly 60 per cent of participants
Research into the London underground could come in to see the Arcola, meet described themselves as Black (or British
graffiti scene uncovered that many project staff and the Arcola ambassadors, Black) and 25 per cent as White; the rest
young people were not keen to take see the AfroReggae music videos and find were ‘mixed’ or ‘other’. The gender split
part in ‘public’ projects due to the risk out more about the project to see if they between those interested and those who
of their identity and therefore illegal wanted to sign up. A week or so before the actually took part was the same: 36
activities being revealed. Trust with project was due to start, the documentary per cent female, 64 per cent male.
these individuals had to be built in on AfroReggae, Favela Rising, was screened
another way, by talking with knowledge at the Arcola – everyone who attended
about the scene, referencing artists decided to get involved.
they would know about and relating
AfroReggae to them in the context of Over the week of workshops, it became clear
graffiti styles and language they would to Sarah that the young people participating
recognise. “represented in many different ways the
various outreach routes that had been tried
and tested in order to engage young people
The workshops 41
Shoreditch Trust/The Blue Hut floor, the rent from which goes back days, culminating in a gala performance,
AfroReggae workshops into the Trust. featuring graffiti, carnival, rap and spoken
7-9 March 2006 word contributions, to celebrate the opening
The Shoreditch Trust is one of 39 New Deal Another bright idea, The Digital Bridge, is of the Blue Hut, a newly built multi-activity
for Communities programmes in the country, an attempt to create the largest broadband youth centre.
a scheme targeted at the most deprived community in Europe. Around 23,000 people
areas that was funded to the tune of live in the area and the intention is to Chris Westwood – ‘West’ to her colleagues
£60 million in total. Voted the best such tackle ‘digital exclusion’ by hooking the and friends – is Director of the Citizenship
programme because of its pioneering work residents up to the Internet via a set-top and Respect Agenda for the Shoreditch
in tackling regeneration, it was in Year Six box that has turned their televisions into Trust. Her work, she says, is 50 per cent
of its ten-year life at the time of this project. computers. As this might suggest, the arts, 50 per cent youth and (she smiles)
Shoreditch Trust may be community led two per cent sport. A hugely experienced
Most arts, sport and leisure activity in the but it is commercially aware. theatre and festival director both here and
Shoreditch Trust area of East London is in her native Australia, West came to the
provided by the voluntary or not-for-profit The proposal was for AfroReggae to run arts Shoreditch Trust in 2002. She is clear about
sector. Local people can rarely afford to workshops for local young people over three the nature of the challenge that faces it:
pay for their participation, kit or fees, so to
overcome barriers to participation it requires
considerable subsidy and an innovative
approach. Roxie Curry, whose main job is
running Shoreditch Audiences, a three-year
audience development programme,
explained to me that the Trust had bought
property for community use which would
also generate income to continue its work:
In one case, we have bought an old

school building in Hoxton Square,
which has a Jamie Oliver-style
training restaurant run by local people,
affordable business space, again for
local people, and two flats on the top DJ workshop

The number one problem in the area is I’m a local resident. I used to go to
poverty – out of poverty comes single- the Blue Hut, which was exactly what *
parent families, teenage pregnancies, it sounds like. There was a lot more I seized on this opportunity when
drug abuse, low educational attainment, provision for young people then – there Paul told me about it. I knew
not to mention boredom and no money was a centre here, one round the corner, AfroReggae would be something
to do anything. It’s not so bad here the Lions Club, and two leisure centres. completely outside the experience of
in terms of gangs, but that’s partly All but the Lions Club have been shut young people here, so they couldn’t say
because there is no obvious place for down and flats have been built where it was ‘boring’. I wouldn’t have had just
them to form – there’s no secondary they were. I’ve no idea why; it just anybody opening the Blue Hut for us.
school, for example. But we have seemed to fall apart. Compared to ‘West’
had kids here used as runners for my generation, young people are more
drug dealers. marginalised. The media doesn’t help AfroReggae were engaged to run workshops
– if you are young and wear a hoodie, in circus, DJing and mixing, theatre and
West told me that the local council provides you’re automatically bad. Things graffiti; some sessions were held in the new
only one youth worker (with an office-based are tougher for them. Even though centre itself, others at Hoxton Hall, a youth
manager) for the entire area, which is a there are opportunities, they’re not arts venue, and at the Lion Club. The hope
frankly untenable situation, given the social encouraged to take advantage of them. was to attract up to 60 local young people.
problems. The only money that comes in A facility like this is just what they need. Recruitment began in January 2006 and it
for work with young people is PAYP included daily outreach (by the YMCA and
(Positive Activities for Young People) It has taken six years for the developers, Blue Hut Committee) in the Wenlock Barn
funding, which is channelled through from Peabody Trust, in partnership with the and Murray Grove area to target some of
central government to the voluntary sector, Shoreditch Trust and local families, to create the hardest to reach young men. A £25
and that which is raised by voluntary sector the new centre, which - after consultation music voucher was offered to anyone who
groups. Furthermore, from what Dwight with young people in the area - includes a attended the whole programme. Even then,
told me, it appears that most of the facilities music studio, an IT suite, an outdoor multi- according to Roxie, only in the ten days
that were around for young people when sports pitch and a children’s play area, as leading up to the project did young people
the first Blue Hut opened (in a portakabin well as provision of a range of services, start to put their names down.
in Hoxton 30 years ago) have long since from young parent counselling to homework
been closed down or redeveloped. support and music business development. From what youth workers and young
people tell us, some young people are
reluctant to commit in case “something
better comes along”.
The workshops 43
A further incentive was offered for the Contact Theatre, Manchester of settings, including the streets. In terms
young person in each workshop who showed AfroReggae workshops of gun and drug culture and gangs, Ekua
the most commitment and development: 7-10 March 2006 believes that young people are doubly
Contact Theatre has a nationally recognised at risk – of victimisation as much as
We’re giving iPods to the four young involvement – and the theatre works with
reputation for delivering innovative arts
people who show the best citizenship – young people who have been served ASBOs
activities, performances and continuing
as well as certificates proving to their and who are tagged or excluded from
professional development for young people
families or whoever that they didn’t education.
aged 13-30, who come from a range of
nick them.
backgrounds and cultures. It is located in
The point of this work, Ekua explained to
the city centre, adjacent to but not within
me, was not about ‘rescuing’ young people
* distinct districts within Manchester: Moss
Side, Hulme, Russholme and Ardwick.
so much as empowering them to handle the
risks they face. Although some of the work
45 local young people signed up to the
Contact’s Creative Development Department has to happen where the young people
programme, half of whom (23) saw it
is the hub of the company’s participatory, are, getting them into the theatre itself
through to completion. The rest either
outreach and education work. Its work is is important for at least two reasons. It
dropped out completely or attended
aimed at helping the widest possible range provides a neutral space in what Ekua
only one or two workshops. Most (18)
of young people to participate in and enjoy calls “a ghettoised city”, so it is not part
participants were from black and minority
theatre-based arts. Having a background of fought-over territory. Secondly, with its
ethnic backgrounds; three of them came
herself in visual arts, Ekua Bayunu, Head of lively programme of events and its studio
from ‘border’ areas of Shoreditch.
Creative Development, believes that drama and screening facilities, it represents the
and theatre-based skills can support the wider creative world which young people
delivery of all artforms: “Even a DJ is a have a right to enjoy and be part of.
performer.”
The proposal was for AfroReggae to run
Contact uses a variety of outreach percussion, capoeira, graffiti and physical
approaches to to engage with people at theatre workshops at the theatre for four
risk, including collaboration with young days; on the evening of the last day and on
offender agencies and community groups, Saturday evening, the band would perform
and, periodically, off-site teams of artists a public concert for an audience of local
to work with young people in a variety young people, including the workshop
participants.

AfroReggae performs at Contact Theatre
The workshops 45
Visiting a workshop
AfroReggae’s team hits the ground running. Within When theory turns to practice and the table
is covered in pens and paper, various source
twenty-fours hours of arrival, the artists are beginning materials and photographs of other pieces,
torn out of Brazilian graffiti magazines,
to appear at the Arcola – among them Chico and Aira, Chico and his colleagues encourage the
the graffiti tutors. participants to experiment and to be bold
in drawing and sketching out ideas that
The space they are working in this afternoon Another says that she is interested in might be used to create a large piece for
is, Chico declares, very like the rooms that learning about capoeira; she herself the performance at the end of the week.
they themselves started life in. It is the practises Japanese ju-jitsu. Although not While addressing the group as a whole from
studio at the Arcola, reached down a narrow an especially lively group – this is the first time to time, explaining, for example, the
set of steps in the alley alongside the main time many have met each other – there is importance of ‘cleanness’ in the final piece,
theatre building. It is a cross between a a sense of anticipation in the air. Chico Chico and the others work closely with
theatrical ‘black box’, a large storeroom launches into an introduction, with Fábio individuals. One self-critical beginner is
and a basement club. Around 15 young Santos supplying the translation (he and a advised “not to be ashamed of anything you
people have arrived and after everyone has handful of other excellent UK-based do here”. Another’s drawing is held up with
settled down around a trestle table, we Brazilian speakers hired by People’s Palace the warm comment that, “This is not really
explain in turn who we are and why we are Projects proved crucial to this project). graffiti-like, but the idea behind it is
here. A few of the older ones seem to be To its quiet amazement, Chico tells the extraordinary.”
experienced writers, who are keen to learn group that graffiti is legal where he works,
more about Brazilian styles, the rest a that it is now widely accepted as an art form As the session draws to a close an hour
mixture of complete beginners and those in Brazil and that police officers are amongst or so later, with everyone having achieved
who have not gone much further than those that AfroReggae has taught to create something on paper, Chico turns to the
tagging (scrawling signatures or slogans graffiti. He also makes a careful distinction question of what they all, as a group, will
rather than drawing ‘pieces’ or murals). between taggers and artists, explaining that be aiming for by the end of the week. He
Several refer to the film they have seen the latter not only express themselves pins up on the wall three or four pictures
of AfroReggae – Favela Rising, one saying: through graffiti but can make money out that might provide the basis of the piece
of it as well. Unlike taggers, AfroReggae’s that they will spray-paint on a vast folding
I can relate to where AfroReggae are graffiti artists are not isolated from society frame, which has been specially constructed.
coming from – they have gone through but able to draw public attention to their This will form a backdrop for the
a struggle. talents and to their political and social views. performance by percussionists who are
being trained in the other workshop here.
We have to put our egos aside military-style and shouting out commands culture; the approach of showing rather
sometimes and now we have to decide AfroReggae-style, but in practice it could not than telling, and modelling rather than
which of these images is going to work feel more empowering to be drumming to teaching; the creation of personal and
best as a group painting. We also the same beat as Altair. group space through creative activity;
have to consider what is practically the encouragement of ideas from the
achievable in the time we have left. These workshops and those that followed young people and the subtle discipline
in Shoreditch, Manchester and elsewhere that structured their creative work; the
A choice is made and over the next few demonstrated the speed with which irrelevance of the ‘process vs. product’
days the piece takes shape, not without AfroReggae succeeded in engaging young debate; the role played by host organisations
debate and dissension but which, in the end, people at all levels of experience and of and youth workers.
provides a colourful and positive Hackney maturity. In the following chapters, this
backdrop for the drummers. talent is explored from a variety of angles Above all, in terms of the efficacy of
in an attempt to draw out which aspects artist interventions in non-arts settings,
The other workshop, led by Altair, feels – of AfroReggae’s approach might be most the project confirmed that artists can
and sounds - very different. Concentration useful to practitioners and policy makers earner greater respect and have more
on the rhythms that Altair and his two here. I suggest that there are four main impact through an equal engagement
colleagues demonstrate results not in quiet ingredients: authenticity (AfroReggae as with young people – through sharing rather
experimentation but on a pounding response role models); purposefulness (arts as a than making a fetish of their expertise.
that is practically deafening in this confined means of making a real difference, both
space. Percussion has been a difficult sell to oneself and to society at large); intimacy
here – a DJing or MC’ing workshop would (embracing the whole person); and
have been much easier to recruit for – but availability (a 24/7 commitment). Each
the group that has come, largely younger of these themes is explored in more detail
and with more young women than the in the following four sections.
graffiti workshop, proves a spectacular
success right from the start. Altair and the This is by no means the whole story,
others exude a discipline that is easier and of course; there is a range of factors
more pleasurable to respond to than resist, that contributed to the success of the
as I can personally verify from my own programme that could each take up a
involvement in several AfroReggae chapter here: the artists’ self-possession
percussion workshops. There may be a fine and generosity; the nature of the chosen
theoretical line between barking orders activity and its relation (or not) to youth
The workshops 47
Keeping it real
“Trainers like those we are wearing today are all that it

would take for a young person to become a drug dealer.
Young people need role models – role models that look
and act like them. In the small world of the favela,
the role model is the drug dealer because he’s got the
money, the respect, the power over who lives and who
dies – and a pair of trainers that cost 600 reais [£125].
So, when we think about making money, better food and housing. It’s slow work.”
we are trying to balance the attention
between the drug dealers and us. Now, As Altair’s analysis suggests, AfroReggae is,
we get even more attention than the truly, ‘keeping it real’, and this might go a
dealers. We are role models because we long way in trying to account for the way
invest in 600 reais trainers. We have two that AfroReggae artists gain the attention
costumes – the one we wear in concerts and trust of troubled young people in
and the one we wear when we go to the the workshops they run in the inner city
drug-selling points to recruit young everywhere from Hackney to Harlem. They
people. The first thing they’ll notice are are authentic role models – “… We lead,
my trainers. Now, you can make as or have led lives like yours.” One teacher
much money as you like but you’ll never wrote this about AfroReggae’s impact on
have these trainers because we travel her students:
abroad and by the time we get back to
Beyond the use of arts and creativity in
Brazil, they still haven’t appeared here.
schools, the very presence of talented
This is the kind of impact we want to
performers who have also fought hard
make. Then, we’ll work backwards from
to make their way in the arts world can
there. Tell them it’s better to buy 100
have a powerful effect on students.
reais trainers and spend the rest on Above: DJ workshop in Shoreditch
Left: Chico and Aira, graffiti tutors The analysis 49

young people in the UK, the professional in care. It is a tremendous challenge for any
focus is most often placed on the processes adult or any artist to gain their trust and
involved, on creating the right conditions their commitment to change. Once that
and on developing the most effective has happened, then the potential for that
workshop techniques. The workshops change to be sustained is enormous.
themselves must have clear aims and An obvious comparison is the common
objectives and, wherever possible, experience most of us have of learning
measurable outputs and outcomes that to love a subject at school purely because
can be measured and evaluated. one particular teacher has inspired us, not
through facts, but with we might call their
Artists are increasingly choosing to get charisma.
involved in this work, as part of their own
professional development and very often From Junior on down, AfroReggae is fully
out of a heartfelt commitment to social aware of how important to the success of
regeneration. Their personal origins and its work is its members setting their own
experience and their current circumstances examples of how to live.
may be very different from those of the
young people they will be working with. We are the role models for the young
Most likely, they will not live in the same people we are looking after and
neighbourhood. None of this is considered whatever we do, they’ll copy us.
As much as the students benefited from
particularly relevant, as it is generally
the actual activities, I had the sense that In the favela, there are too many negative
assumed that the right political and social
they were particularly engaged with the models for behaviour, as LG, AfroReggae’s
attitudes and the right kind of training can
individual tutors, as role-models and singer, vividly recalled:
prepare them for a successful workshop
as people with whom they could share
encounter. Today we are examples in our
similarities (disenfranchised upbringing,
gun crime, racially stratified societies) community but when I was a child,
Yet, arguably, the success of this work
as well as learn about differences growing up in Vigário Geral, my idols
depends ultimately on the strength of the
(cultural background, a foreign country, were the drug barons. My friends and
personal relationship between the workshop
musical and artistic traditions etc). I would find bits of wood for guns and
leader and the individual young person,
pretend talcum powder was cocaine.
especially when that young person has been
In using the arts to engage with troubled Now, when we play music, children find
failed by adult after adult, at home, in class,
tins in the street to bang on.
Many people who met AfroReggae on their

visit here commented on how ‘cool’ they all
were - another way, perhaps, of describing
their charisma – but it is important to note
that this kind of cool is no urban affectation.
Members of AfroReggae have a robust sense
of self, grounded in a self-discipline that is
foreign to most young people in the ghetto.
As Silvia Ramos points out, AfroReggae is
“a group full of rules”:
The ‘fundamentalists’ of AfroReggae

don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs.
The biggest challenge they face is taking
young people from a world where they
can do everything to one where they
can do nothing – but where they have
the most important thing: their liberty.
Several people noticed, like Sarah Sansom,

that the peculiar ability of AfroReggae to
engage with young people at risk comes
from their authenticity. They are not faking
it; they come from the favela, they have
overcome the odds and freed themselves. from an even more impossible situation This is not just an arts project but a
Little wonder, then, that so many young and doing something amazing with lifestyle choice.
people long to join them, who define and their lives. Their philosophy is about
identify themselves through having the not taking drugs, not smoking and
same kind of experiences. so on but it is also about being really
strong, talented and cool. We don’t
It was definitely worth bringing often get those sorts of role models in
AfroReggae over, people who’ve come this country.
The analysis 51
Keeping it positive
“We are bringing a message from the favela to the

whole of humanity. For 21 years Vigário Geral was
known as the most violent place in Brazil. If we can turn
our world around and do what we do, all these young
people can do anything they want in life.”
Chico made this announcement at the The message is that, if you believe in
launch of a new facility for local young yourselves and in each other, you’ll go
people in Shoreditch, the Blue Hut. Reading far. We are living proof of that. Fight
it cold, it could be the windy, unhelpful for this freedom, don’t fight each other.
rhetoric beloved of stars who have made
it from rags to riches - look at how AfroReggae seeks in its work not to direct
successful I am - you, too, could be like young people or, even less, to turn them into
me – but everything that had happened professional artists but to show them what
over the last few days of workshops had ‘empowerment’ might actually look like in
demonstrated how genuine the appeal the face of overwhelming odds. By their
might be to the young people who had continuing commitment to struggle in
gathered now to perform carnival, rap and their own communities, the members
dance and show their artwork to around of AfroReggae embody an alternative
150 people from their community. to despair in a way that an outsider to
deprivation could never achieve. This had
At the Amnesty International presentation been articulated very clearly two weeks
a week or so earlier, Altair had similarly earlier, when Chico was leading the graffiti
encouraged young people in Hackney with workshop at the Arcola Studios in Dalston:
this remark:
Two years ago, I was living in poverty
with a dressmaker mother and a father
who was a builder. My reality was the John Goodenough, youth worker in Shoreditch
The analysis 53
drug traffic and gun culture. I stepped they argued, was adversarial – to challenge
out of it but I have friends who are and provoke the authorities.
still connected. When my mother died,
I had to learn how to look after myself. Behind what was, on the face of it, a
I had no home, no money – not even reasonable position, Chico and the other
enough for a bus fare – so, if anyone AfroReggae artists seemed to have sensed
was going to become pessimistic or a deep-seated pessimism, both personal and
bitter, it would have been me. So don’t political; at one point, one of the young men
tell me you’re not able to think of referred to the way that one of the biggest
something positive, something you protests ever staged in this country had
dream about for your community. failed to dissuade the government from
entering the war against Iraq; if something
This impassioned appeal came at what Chico as momentous as this gesture could not
called “the most important moment so far in change things, then how powerless people
this project”: here, especially young people, must be.
We could be here now, painting the In relating this national event to a similar
most beautiful art, but that wouldn’t sense of helplessness over the culture of
be of any use if we weren’t consciously drugs and guns that was closer to home,
thinking and talking about our lives. a culture which, he argued, “controls us”
as much as the government does, the
The interruption of the process – in this young man articulated a profound sense
case, designing individual contributions to a of disempowerment – which is more
group ‘piece’ (or mural), sketching out ideas widespread than those outside the UK
and images – was necessary to clear the air might expect, and not just amongst the
of a simmering disagreement. A number of poorer classes. Paradoxically, it may be
the participants had questioned the brief, that what Richard Reeves has called the
which was to produce a ‘positive’ depiction “nationalisation of responsibility” in this
of life in Hackney. For them, the reality of country is partly to blame. In relying more
being in this part of London was not a cause and more on the state and its agents to
for celebration; furthermore, the whole take on the functions of the traditional
tradition and philosophy of graffiti here, community and the private citizen, in

everything from supporting our elders to and we became celebrated in the The debate in the graffiti workshop then
tackling anti-social behaviour, we may have neighbourhood and well beyond. turned to the artform itself and to a further
learned, in effect, to be individually helpless That doesn’t mean that we’re the – fruitful – misunderstanding. What some
in the face of social challenge and risk. ‘goodies’ or that we work within the participants heard Chico say was that
system, but it does mean that we can making graffiti gave him joy in his bleak
Coming from a society that could not be now engage society with our work existence in the favela; that, one participant
further from a ‘nanny state’, AfroReggae has instead of simply rejecting it. exclaimed, was exactly what he felt. But he
a different and, ironically, a more optimistic was swiftly corrected. Producer Sarah
perspective on the possibility of turning the We think we are the excluded but Sansom, facilitating the session, explained
‘worst’ people and situations around – and everyone’s watching us. We can be what Chico had actually meant:
of the possibility of political change itself. either the solution or the problem.
For Chico and his colleagues, you can I understand that different communities He is trying to find joy in everything
recognise just how much the odds are have different problems; that you have through graffiti and what he’s saying
stacked against you but still, he says, have different problems from us. But, coming with it, not just in making it.
the possibility of changing things: “We from outside, we can see something
have the power to say no.” positive about your community – and Altair Martin’s assessment of the participants
you are that community. In this mural in his percussion workshop at Contact
Instead of a disconnection between the we are making, people should see
excluded individual and a controlling something they are not expecting from
culture ‘out there’, Chico sees something you – something positive. You will
more integrated and hopeful: take your work further if you think of
yourselves as leaders in your community.
Where we come from, taggers are
considered vandals, the police arrest It is an attitude – doing the unexpected -
them and nothing comes of their that is carried through all of AfroReggae’s
work. We ourselves are from a tagging work. Silvia Ramos, for example, is struck by
background but, in order to carry on the way in which the group tackles the
painting in the streets, we had to work complex and emotive issue of racism in
with our community. Because of that Brazil – speaking of it “with a smile on its
shift of attitude, we had great support face”, by celebrating black culture rather
from them – materials, space to paint – than playing helpless victim.
The analysis 55
Keeping it personal
“These young people are quite cold.

They lack emotion and they are very distant.”
Theatre in Manchester pulled me up short. explicit permission before he can place a
It made me think again about all those hand on an arm to guide the pupil into the
workshops during other projects I have sat correct position, and so forth. More broadly,
in on, where the disaffection had been we all hesitate, especially if we are male, to
palpable in the body language and facial respond to the enthusiasm of a toddler who
expression (or lack of it) of young people charges into us at the playground with even
who had been written off by schools or a pat on the head.
labelled inadequate in some other way.
How to reach such people? One of the facilitators of workshops with
young people spoke of her admiration for
I also recalled an earlier conversation with AfroReggae’s sheer physicality and what
AfroReggae artists in the café at the Arcola benefits that had for young people like you can’t touch that person until they
Theatre, before workshops had started. these: are 16? If these people have been
They had joked about the contrast between working successfully in this area of
the way Brazilians and English handled The main thing I love about AfroReggae work and there are enough of us with
greeting each other – on the one hand a is that they put themselves on a level them in the room, we have to trust
warm embrace, on the other – well, just a with the young people – a lot of people that this is coming from the right place.
hand to shake. So, to some extent, it is a here don’t do that. Just the way they I believe it’s actually more beneficial
cultural difference but it is one that has walk into a workshop and greet people, for young people to have this kind of
been made even more distinct, at least as throwing their arms around you. They human relationship with adults.
far as children and young people here are are a lot more tactile and friendly.
concerned, thanks to a growing concern In watching AfroReggae artists break down
about child safety and the dangers posed It’s very human and emotional and it’s the distance between themselves and the
by paedophiles. One acquaintance of mine a challenge for us, with all our rules young people they are teaching with a
teaches ballet to young people; new around child protection. Who decides friendly hand resting on a shoulder or even
guidelines in schools now stipulate exactly how you communicate with young a hug, it is hard to ignore the possibility that
how and where he may touch pupils, seeking people? Someone outside saying that touch may have a pedagogy of its own.
The analysis 57
I saw one workshop leader (although and look out for each other, something
this seemed to be consistent we may have lost in our own fractured
throughout) from AfroReggae sharing communities. Like touch, we may need to
with one young man how handsome he regain this sense of ‘holding’ if we are to
was going to look when he performed. help young people recover from a sense of
This young man had been disruptive, isolation and detachment. Immediately after
aggressive, low concentration; his the project, Paul Heritage picked out one
teachers were clearly challenged moment as perhaps the most telling of the
with disciplining him. The way he project:
was embraced and spoken to with
absolute respect literally grew him I keep thinking of the young boy at a
on the spot; there was no frustration, workshop in Hackney who had been the
disappointment, or putting him into worst and most disruptive at the outset
a box of labels, just pure and simple of the programme in his school and who
belief. stood in tears as AfroReggae said their
Insight member goodbyes after the school’s performance
at Amnesty International’s centre in
Witnessing their work at Hackney Free Shoreditch. A refugee from an African
School, theatre worker Sylvan Baker had war-zone, in which a brother had been
noticed how the artists from AfroReggae killed and a sister lost a leg, he seemed
were able to turn around a very difficult inconsolable. The band members from
student. AfroReggae wrapped him in a collective
embrace, which spoke from the depths
This sounds so ‘let’s hug over a Coke’, of the authenticity that marked every
but AfroReggae were in a position to act, every move, every word of their
esteem him – “You are good at this, visit.
have a go. And if you fall over, I will
catch you”. Dwight, too, was struck by how effectively
artists from AfroReggae were able to reach
The notion of holding or catching people across the distances:
who fall comes from the way in which
people living in the favela tend to support

It was hard for me to see how

AfroReggae would connect with
young people here, in such a different
environment, but that’s been my biggest
surprise. They have a way of engaging
with young people, treating them with
respect and you can see the difference
it makes. Some of the people here are
quite shy and they’re being encouraged
do things where you really can’t be shy
– and yet they’re doing them. To me,
that’s amazing. Not everyone can do
that.
That respect for young people is central to

AfroReggae’s methodology – and, indeed,
to the best examples of youth arts work
here. As one arts worker noticed, AfroReggae
“stayed focused on seeing and talking to the
young people's potential, allowing them to
be the solution”. Altair summed it up:
You need to sit down with young people

and see what they want, not come with
something readymade and deliver it.
You have to make something based on
who and what they are.
And, for that matter, where they are.
Left and above: Theatre workshop in Hoxton Hall, Shoreditch
The analysis 59
Keeping it local
Although it has a youth theatre and is in the heart A cultural organisation that is, in effect, on
call 24/7 is able to carry out all the functions
of Dalston’s youth culture, the Arcola had too few that the participatory or community arts
sector in the UK is constantly arguing for:
resources to do the kind of digging around that was follow-up, sustainability, matching artistic
necessary to recruit young people who would benefit input with pastoral aftercare and so on.
most from this project. Being and staying local is crucial particularly
amongst poorer and ghettoised communities
Sarah Sansom, who had suggested the What is striking about AfroReggae is and their young populations. Sociological
venue to People’s Palace Projects, was that, unlike many bands and artists who research has demonstrated over and over
brought in to manage the process. One of have emerged from a poor and violent again that such people are trapped in spatial
the things that surprised her was how hard environment, its members and leaders are terms; for example, asked to draw a map of
even the statutory and voluntary agencies still genuinely committed to the favela, in their city, ghetto residents will usually
working for young people found it to reach terms of working and often still living there include a clear idea of the streets around
out beyond their own networks. and in continuing to draw their creative their immediate area but their notion of
inspiration from its challenging realities. what lies even a little way beyond them is
In the end, Sarah and the ambassadors took Without this attachment to the local, it hazy. Middle-class citizens are much more
an AfroReggae-style risk and walked around would be much harder for AfroReggae to likely to show their own neighbourhood in
the streets and estates nearest the theatre, be role models to favela youth or to relation to the city as a whole, as part of
approaching likely-looking young people persuade them that creativity is a tool a wider network that they feel part of.
directly, dropping flyers and carrying out for personal and socio-political change.
what Sarah calls “guerrilla marketing”. If anything – and against the assumption
Working from outside would also remove
She found that the usual ways of that they are eager to escape to a wider
AfroReggae and its artists physically from
communicating with people were not as world – poorer young people are often even
the community that, despite all the ravages
useful in this case as a personal encounter more limited in their movements around the
of the drug war, ‘holds’ and protects its
or a home visit or, at a pinch, a quick text city. As one ex-gang member told me, he
own members.
on the mobile, hoping that credit hadn’t could get everything he needed from within
run out at the other end. In the end, it is In practical terms, too, the social conditions his small estate – food from the shop, drugs
all about relationships and building trust. that shape people’s lives in the favela – or from the local dealer and relationships from
That is much easier when the activity is in our own versions of the ghetto – do not his mates that lived there. The postcode and
local. disappear once the workshop is finished. estate wars of the inner city can be traced
Left: A local audience watches the performance at the launch of the Blue Hut The analysis 61
back to this narrowness of options that are Its skill and that of People’s Palace Projects middle-class who want to come in to
as much physical and emotional as social and its partners was to draw convincing do this kind of work. Local artists and
or educational. parallels between the favela and the inner groups have been exhausted by getting
city that many young participants no external support whilst having to
Some projects, like Shoreditch Audiences, themselves were ultimately able to recognise fight the tendency among some people
attempt – in its case, with increasing success and articulate. The art forms the Brazilian to see the arts simply as a way of
– to enable local people to take advantage artists chose to work through were not alien getting out of their communities rather
of some of the rich cultural resources that or exotic and in some cases, especially in the than empowering them. One of my
a city can offer, but in general so-called graffiti and DJing workshops, AfroReggae remits is to train such artists so that
‘outreach’ programmes run by cultural achieved its desire for a genuine exchange local people can have access to the arts,
organisations based elsewhere (unlike the of skills between fellow practitioners rather which is their right.
Shoreditch Trust) struggle to bring people than a simple tutor-pupil dynamic.
to centres outside their immediate Interestingly, this tallies with Paul Heritage’s
environment. Again, this is even more true Stepping back to see the bigger picture, it own musings on the changing nature of
of young people. As John remarked to me is easy to see that this intense and dramatic artist interventions back in Rio.
during the workshops at the Blue Hut, this intervention by AfroReggae into the heart
means that provision for them has to be of the local poses a challenge to the cultural In the future, the cultural landscape
as local as possible: sector here: how are we to pursue and here will be about people coming
develop such a model for ourselves and out of the community, rather than
They are very territorial. There is our own favelas? animateurs going in.
nothing on their doorstep and they
need something close to home. Reflecting on the logistical challenges that The Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto
had faced the workshops in Manchester, Boal is, to many within the field of
Although a cultural organisation based Ekua is passionate about the implications participatory or applied arts here in the UK,
in Rio de Janeiro could hardly claim to of this visit: a virtual saint, on account of his dynamic
be ‘local’ to places like Shoreditch or model of empowering disenfranchised
Manchester thousands of miles away, the AfroReggae is a project that has come communities through his codification of
fact that it did go to those places, rather out of the need for local role models forum and legislative theatre practice, most
than remaining marooned in flagship venues and artists from the communities notably in his seminal treatise, The Theatre
like many touring companies from abroad, themselves. Here, there is a real of the Oppressed. Theatre students here are
was a declaration of its core commitment separation between those who come often shocked to discover that Boal is still
to going to where the need is most acute. from the estates, and those from the alive and well (and living in Rio), such is

Paul Heritage and Johayne Ildefonso
his iconic status. However, it is clear that,

in basing themselves in their place of origin,
groups like Afroreggae do not need outsiders
coming in to do their cultural work.
Although actively supportive of Afroreggae
and similar projects, like Nós do Morro, Boal
may, ironically, have become something of
an outsider himself.
Our own dominant model for intervening

in the local is equally challenged. Few
cultural organisations are embedded in
the community 24/7, as AfroReggae is.
The implications are fascinating.
Estelle at the Blue Hut
The analysis 63
Assessing delivery
Talking to the local co-ordinators, it is clear that this

project was a significant challenge in terms of timing,
preparation and delivery.
Dealing with the complexity and ambition many reasons for this, some of them
of From the favela to the world, coupled organisational, as director John McGrath
with practical issues around artists’ explained to me later.
availability and travel arrangements, not
to mention the language barrier, demanded Ekua returned from sabbatical just a few
a high level of initiative and commitment months before the visit, and Sarah, who
from those on the ground, as well as from had been filling her role, left Contact to
the modest complement of dedicated core work on the Arcola end of the project.
staff at People’s Palace Projects. There was While it was hoped that this would
also very little time between the plane from provide useful continuity, in effect it
Rio landing and the beginning of practical led to a lot of confusions, and to some
activity, which was hard both for the artists degree Ekua felt that she was starting
of AfroReggae and for those on the ground, the outreach on the project afresh –
who would have benefited from more and belatedly.
opportunity to discuss and prepare for
In one sense, however, the central problem
the workshops.
may have been related directly to the strong
In terms of numbers of young people emphasis that Contact puts on developing
participating, the least successful long-term strategy. For the AfroReggae visit
programme of workshops was at the to have had a direct impact on gang culture
Contact Theatre in Manchester, which in Manchester, there would have to have
was, on the face of it, surprising given the been a longer-term comprehensive outreach
deserved reputation this organisation has in strategy specifically aimed at young people
reaching out to young people across the city involved in gangs. This proved impossible in
and engaging those in trouble or at risk on the timeframe, given the handover problems.
the streets in creative activities. There were
Left: In performance at the Blue Hut
The implications 65
Although many young people from local leaders from the pool of their Sarah’s research into other, less obvious
neighbourhoods were interested in the visit, participants. Direct connection at channels has now been passed over to the
judging from the diverse audiences - this level could be very fruitful. Arcola and it remains to be seen whether
including many regular Contact participants the venue or its funders are willing or able
– who attended the shows, the focus on Although she had succeeded in recruiting to exploit it in future. Certainly, the theatre
reaching the most excluded groups for the a full complement of suitable young people was delighted with the project and with the
workshops meant that those sessions were for the Arcola programme, Sarah would popular success of the two performances by
not open to all, resulting in disappointing agree that, for this kind of project to have young people. The theatre had little direct
numbers. a long-term impact, it would need to take participation, beyond supplying the space
place within a more strategic context. for it all to happen and offering moral
Nevertheless, a small group of young people This was even truer for the Dalston venue support to Sarah. Ben traced this directly
at risk did attend percussion and other than for Manchester, where Contact is an back to the theatre’s modest share of the
workshops, which were as lively and established centre known to support these project budget, which he felt did not allow
inspiring as any others during the tour methods of reaching out to and working for hard-pressed staff to do more than
and, more significantly for the longer term, with young people. occasionally observe progress. The pressure
Ekua told me that Contact was already on a small organisation like the Arcola,
beginning to have conversations with The Arcola is now identified as a ‘West End’
which at this stage had not yet received
potential partners in Manchester about theatre in listings, despite its location in
core funding from the Arts Council, is far
developing this kind of work together in Hackney, and its central role, as Ben made
greater than on an established venue like the
future. This dialogue began with a seminar clear to me, is programming performance
Barbican, which has more leeway to explore
held during AfroReggae’s residency, which work that is relevant to the communities
areas outside its main priorities. The question
was attended by the Manchester Multi- in the area but that also draws in
of how those young people who benefited
Agency Gang Strategy team, Mothers theatregoers from out of the borough.
from AfroReggae’s visit can be served in
Against Violence and Connexions amongst It has a commitment to young people, as its
future remains, as Sarah concludes in her
others, as well as former employee Sarah youth theatre project clearly demonstrates,
evaluation:
Sansom and the two young ambassadors but as yet it has neither the resources nor,
from the Arcola. For director John McGrath, perhaps, the desire to develop a Contact- In terms of organisational development
the future possibilities for crossover between style approach to engage with ‘hard-to- of venues such as the Arcola Theatre,
Contact and AfroReggae are “huge”: reach’ young people. Its current contacts much has been achieved in terms of
with young people are largely via schools identifying and recruiting hard to reach
I am particularly interested in the way and other institutions with easy and direct young people and this knowledge
that both organisations develop young access to teenagers.

should not be lost but developed If the visit to Manchester demonstrated the
and shared, quite apart from the need for greater strategic preparation and
need to sustain those young people’s the Arcola workshops the need for greater
involvement in creative activity. resources, the experience in Shoreditch
showed how a short-term creative input
Sarah’s more off-the-cuff comment to me can not just complement existing activities
that “AfroReggae can’t develop this work on but point to new and innovative ways of
the ground – they are in Brazil, after all” is delivering and popularising them in the
a frank reminder that structures need to be longer term.
in place or be put in place here to support
such work with young people at risk and to There’s a lot of local talent. What
embed it. These structures are both virtual, AfroReggae does – very well – is to
in terms of building partnerships, and develop young people’s self-esteem and
material, in terms of actual buildings and confidence. The coolest thing would be
facilities. if that self-confidence developed, so
that young people themselves could
In this respect, perhaps the most hopeful do something like AfroReggae. It’s been
potential for taking the impetus of very difficult to engage a lot of local
AfroReggae’s visit forward is the Blue Hut young people. They all observe from
initiative in Shoreditch, which is both a a distance and won’t participate but
physical resource for creative work with if you got a core group from the area
young people and a manifestation of a to develop some of the skills AfroReggae
coherent strategy for such work based on has and the enthusiasm and the
partnerships, not just with the community commitment that AfroReggae shows, if
but with other agencies and even the it’s nurtured carefully it could carry on.
business sector. It’s been sweet to see how AfroReggae
brings the best out of these young
* people. If we could get young people
here to do the same - that would really
be a positive direction to go in.
John Goodenough Circus workshop in Shoreditch
The implications 67
The impact on participants
Having identified some of the most important themes

and issues that emerged from the workshops, I turn now
to decipher what was actually achieved for the
individual young people involved.
It is, of course, not at all easy to be definitive no impact on recruitment of participants.
about this, certainly if we are looking for Finding ways to build up an understanding
long-term impacts of some kind. Although of AfroReggae among potential participants
she felt that the participants showed would be crucial in future:
increasing commitment and enthusiasm
through the week’s workshops, Sarah If Afroreggae had been able to hang out
Sansom is sceptical of how much progress with us for a couple of months, it would
such a short project could make in have been completely different.
transforming young people:
Patrícia, talking to me in a break during her
We have only scratched the surface. last circus workshop here, agreed that the
What did we achieve in five days [at project had been too fleeting to expect
the Arcola workshops]? Are we talking substantial results:
about people making big changes in It isn’t possible to develop something
their lives? Frankly, I doubt it. substantial or lasting in three days.
These young people are suffering from
Even less sanguine was Ekua at Contact,
years of problems. It’s frustrating if we
who felt that there had been – for all sorts
see someone with talent and cannot
of reasons – too little time to generate
continue to work with them or if we
interest in the workshops among harder to
can’t develop those with less ability.
reach groups. Putting on a garage night
They’ll be frustrated, too, if they are
after the concerts had helped to bring a
enjoying it and then they find that
young audience to the show but, as this
there’s nobody there to help them once
took place after the workshops, it had had
we’ve gone. All we can do is inspire
Left: Circus skills at the Blue Hut performance The implications 69

them, help them find strength to go impressed them in concert and in the it brought about creativity in me that I
on to the next step by themselves. workshop – several felt that had got to never knew I had. I would love them to
know them and a bit about their culture. come back.
Patrícia felt that this was not just a matter
of providing opportunities to go, in this case, On the downside, some felt they had not AfroReggae are passionate about what
to Circus Space, a national centre for circus had enough time to get to know each other, they do. The experience was truly
skills based nearby. revealing perhaps some of their sense of wonderful. So many emotions were
isolation. On the other hand, there was some involved in the project. I was a fearless
Going straight there would be such friction between participants and, for one, warrior. I had no doubts whatsoever.
a waste, because of their behavioural “too much talking and not enough work”.
problems. More than getting a The language difference got in the way for a It may well be that the goals set for projects
scholarship or a government grant, few; AfroReggae did not have the language like these are often too ambitious, not
they need to be educated out of bad skills to deal with personal issues directly. least to reassure funding bodies that their
habits grown over years of social investment will pay dividends. This affects
deprivation. There’s some connection One or two echoed the project managers’ projects with young people at risk more
between social class, behaviour and feeling that the time had been too short than most. Given that there is no shortage
the ability to improve; kids here need and that more input was needed: of young people around who would leap
not only support for workshops but at the chance of a graffiti workshop or a
professional support to teach them I felt that this project did not recognise DJing session, there is a tendency for ‘at risk’
how to use their gifts. my true abilities – one week isn’t projects not to dig deep enough to find
enough for more than a first impression. those who could benefit most; the research
In the case of the Arcola programme, the But I did learn a lot of good things and process takes a lot longer and there is, at
young people themselves had a chance to met a lot of new people. I would like to the other end, a much greater risk of low
evaluate their experience; ten came to a do AfroReggae in the future. I will miss attendance, which all that implies in terms
session that Sarah held a fortnight after the the people from this project greatly. of measuring success and reporting
project had ended. They had clearly had fun numerical outputs to funding bodies.
and made friends, learned new skills and Others were more unequivocally positive:
had their confidence boosted; one wanted Certainly, most attempts to measure
to carry on drumming because of the I enjoyed the project and the vibes
precisely how far these targets have been
project while another had benefited from during the workshops – a lovely
met are doomed to failure. Trying to
“professional opinions about my art and euphoria and atmosphere of love and
calibrate the impact of an arts project is like
ways to strengthen it”. AfroReggae had kindness. It was a great experience and
trying to pin down the wind – who knows

what effect the positive experience some of

these young people have had may have
further down the line? If nothing else, the
event – like that staging of Shakespeare that
halted the drug war for 18 days – remains
as a symbol of what might be.
Even if AfroReggae is running the

workshops, it is very ambitious to think that
a few days or even a week may be enough
to turn even one cramped or curdled life
around. For Dwight, as for many actually
working face to face with troubled young
people, it is in the detail that you find the
epiphany:
I am not expecting big changes – if

I can change someone’s point of view
even slightly, that’s a success. When
you write up reports, you want lots
of statistics for government planning
purposes, but when you’re on the
ground level it’s the smallest changes
that are important. Just to know that
that person listened to you for ten
minutes, when last week they’d never
listened to you at all – that is massive
progress.
Above: Young performer at the Blue Hut
The implications 71
Developing practice
Hearing AfroReggae speak about their own insights, work. Almost immediately came a series of
contributions from around the large circle
their understanding and valuing of young people, we had formed, one observation triggering
another in a kind of collective argument.
their engagement. Experiencing the incredible energy It went like this:
of a group of like-minded individuals determined to This project had been all too short, like
allow the purpose of young people’s lives to flourish all too many arts projects in this country.
and create the solution to their own challenges. We work in a context that isn’t about
things taking time. It’s not “see what
Extract from an evaluation of the Insight programme, develops”; it’s “what are you going to
assessing the benefits of participation achieve and how soon?” For AfroReggae,
there is no imposition of a timescale.
At the end of AfroReggae’s stay in the UK, He smiled again and started us off with
a group of professionals working with young something a bit more manageable. As The way we structure funding in this
people at risk from around the country the morning passed we lost all sense of country does not give continuity to this
work.
gathered to drum and talk at Queen Mary, conventional time as we sought to keep
University of London, where People’s Palace the sticks beating our own measure. Our It’s a struggle to get three year funding.
Projects (PPP) is based. They had all joined rhythms jostled and interwove with each Perhaps too much is routinely expected
the Insight programme, directed for PPP by other’s – we were divided into subgroups from such modest interventions.
João André da Rocha and Sarah Sansom, according to the size of our drum – and There is no mention in what AfroReggae
which had run alongside the three weeks of occasionally we caught each other’s glance does in terms of a ‘cause and effect’
workshops and performances by AfroReggae. and smiled. By the end we discovered change in behaviour. Why do we
ourselves playing what Altair had asked us have to say what we expect to learn?
The drumming came first that Saturday. to, back at the start. We had been kindly
We adopted various sizes of drum and tricked into confidence. Altair grinned again. However, as a result of this intervention,
awaited instruction from the by now some young people might now be on the
familiar and jaunty figure of Altair Martins. We retired for lunch to the meeting room, brink of transformation.
Smiling broadly, he demonstrated a long and hands and ears buzzing – there is nothing I was profoundly moved by this week’s
complex rhythm that he wanted us to repeat as loud as an AfroReggae percussion class. work but it’s not going to change
after him. When his sticks finally ceased When we began the afternoon’s discussions, young people’s lives – what will is some
beating, there was a disconcerted silence. it was clear that the drumming had done its
The implications 73
continuity in the work. It’s as if – “now There is as yet no obvious forum or Does something really bad have to
I’ve got your attention, what happens professional body that might continue the happen before we get something good?
next?” conversation about AfroReggae or that We have a person who is haemorrhaging
could harvest more of the kind of stories and we are putting plasters on him, the
It has to be an experience of the kind and experiences and (yes) insights that we blood pressure is going down and he’s
provided by AfroReggae. shared that afternoon. As one veteran going into shock and – shit - he’s dead,
To follow this project, it’s not just a pointed out, there once had been an if only… I’m just hoping it doesn’t take
case of sending them down the road to informal network of community-based arts something cataclysmic to make the
someone or something local if it is not and cultural organisations but this, rather difference.
of similar quality. like the youth facilities in Shoreditch and
perhaps for the same reason, had been Like the Insight conversation, this report
We need to look outside our own can only go so far in coming to conclusions
organisations and find people in the swept away long ago by the authorities.
Thus, people like us, from all kinds of but it can, I hope, contribute to informing
community and resource them, because
organisations and none, find they have a and widening the debate about how central
they are too busy doing the work to go
out and raise funding. common passion yet are, more or less, cultural work could be to our social,
working in isolation. This needs to be economic and political health.
It’s good to have artist interventions but
better to have teachers and workshop addressed as a matter of some urgency.
There are enormous differences between
leaders skilled up to do the follow-up, Brazil and the UK, between the favelas of
We agreed that it was vital to disseminate
including embedding it in the system Rio and the inner cities here, and between
the larger implications of AfroReggae’s visit
they know and have some influence in. a cultural NGO that is operating to fill
and the much needed paradigm shift it
might provide for us in determining how an appalling civic vacuum and our own
The conversation broke off there, as it was
this area of work might be better supported, participatory arts sector which has to
time to go round the circle and reflect on
sustained and developed. The stakes are negotiate for space to survive, let alone
what the project had meant to each of us
high, as theatre worker Sylvan Baker pointed for support to intervene as effectively and
personally and professionally. Two hours or
out during our roundtable: flexibly as it might in our own social crisis.
so later, the last person to speak –
Ali Campbell – had one simple observation Even allowing for such difference,
AfroReggae came out of a police
to make: AfroReggae’s visit highlighted some key
massacre. The Every Child Matters agenda
came out of the Victoria Climbié weaknesses in our structures and our
It’s so clear to me how much this group
murder. The Ousley report on race and practices: the lack of sustainable or
needs to talk - twice as much as they
diversity came out of the Bradford riots. sustained cultural or creative interventions
need to drum.
in the lives of young people at risk; the
lack of significant commitment to such so that artists and arts organisations will
interventions by much of the criminal justice naturally think of social benefit as an artistic
system; the virtual absence of cultural
organisations or NGOs generated in or by
achievement; and – best of all outcomes
perhaps - so that arts organisations will
*
marginalized communities; the relative emerge from the communities that they AfroReggae are a paradigm. Why?
under-investment in social programmes by then continue to serve and with whom Because they evolved at a very difficult
arts funders; the weakness of networking they continue to create art. time in Rio’s history, in the aftermath
amongst service providers for young people; of a police-sponsored massacre.
the failure (deliberate or not) of many arts What is missing in this country is the Because they don’t limit themselves
organisations to engage effectively in the political will to recognise, as Brazil seems to complaining. Because they are
money economy; and so on. to, that culture is central to the health and concerned not just about fighting the
development of the country, not simply police but about bringing real change
AfroReggae’s remarkable success in Rio’s a middle-class pastime and that artists to the lives of people. Because they are
favelas lies partly in the fact that it draws can provide lasting social benefits whilst not just a movement of volunteers but
strength from its roots in the community, continuing to pursue excellence. As a permanent presence. Because they are
where it is still based, and in the fact that AfroReggae has shown, the two goals are not part of the academic or cultural
it operates 24/7. It is hard to think of an not mutually exclusive. We can learn from elite. Because… they create spaces which
equivalent cultural organisation in this the favela, too. generate self-esteem for favela people
country with as high a profile, yet in our who can then demand respect, both as
community and youth workers we do have human beings and as citizens.
dedicated people working 24/7 for young
people and, in terms of creative resources, Paulo Baia, Under-secretary for
we have a wealth of artistic talent and Human Rights, Rio state government.
artists and organisations with a great deal
of collective experience in education and
outreach work. We need to move to a
situation where these resources are brought
together effectively, so that local authorities,
for example, will naturally think of turning
to their creative sector to help them address
crime or engage disaffected young people;
The implications 75
Afterword
AfroReggae was not the only cultural organisation Despite the very real tragedy endemic in
Rio’s favela communities, there are projects
based in the favelas that I visited. Nós do Morro is a there that can teach us a new way of
looking at our own cultural failings: our
remarkable drama school based within Vidigal, one of snobberies and our assumptions written
Rio’s oldest favelas, and perhaps most celebrated for up as arts policy, our failure to put real
flesh on the bones of social inclusion
its role in providing most of the youthful cast for the policy, our lack of flair in developing
multi-award-winning film Cidade de Deus (City of God). cultural organisations that wholeheartedly
embrace their social role – or in supporting
That film depicted the raw nature of life in a tired debate we keep having about them when they do emerge.
favela in richly coloured and visceral detail, ‘excellence’ versus ‘access’ in the arts, and
revealing the violent dominance of the drug from the way we tend to separate good AfroReggae has set us a dramatic challenge,
factions over all aspects of residents’ lives. art from anything that get its hands dirty which I have tried, in this report, to do
For the students at Nós do Morro, there was among the ‘excluded’. It is hard to imagine justice to. I hope that those who read it hear
no real need for research – they had lived a poster up in the offices of any English and pass on this message from the favela
that reality their whole lives. theatre company making a simple to the world.
declaration that England is made by
In the administration offices of Nós do its culture. To reach a hundred young people, you
Morro hangs a poster that declares “A start by working with two and they will
cultura faz o Brasil” – “Culture makes Brazil”. Nós do Morro’s name means ‘We from the carry on the work for you. I didn’t know
Most of the NGOs active in Rio use arts and hills’ – Vidigal is one of the older favelas any of you before I got here but I tried
creative approaches in their work and, like that climb vertiginously above the rich to bring you the energy that I have. And
AfroReggae, make no distinction between resorts of the Zona Sul – and there is a pride the energy I gave you, you multiplied it
their ‘art’ and their social purpose. Most also in choosing that name and that location. and passed it back to me. Each of us can
have emerged from the communities they The margins are, after all, the source of pass these ideas on to two other people;
continue to serve. This is very different much of what is considered Brazilian those two people to four others; those
from the situation in England, where arts culture, from samba to football genius, and four to eight more – and it will never
organisations might go into communities perhaps we should begin to think of our stop. This energy has to be multiplied.
to do their work but rarely come from those own marginalized communities – ‘the street’,
Altair Martins
communities. It is very different from the if you like – in the same way, in their impact
on our mainstream culture, from fashion to
music to language and beyond.
Left: Altair on drums From the favela to our manor 77
Further reading
The following articles and books provide a wider context for understanding the work
of AfroReggae:
Leslie Hill and Helen Paris (eds), Performance Silvia Ramos, ‘Youth and the Police’
& Place (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006) (Rio de Janeiro: Centre for Studies on Public
This includes a chapter by Paul Heritage on Security and Citizenship, Research Bulletin
AfroReggae and People's Palace Projects' Nº12, 2006) Available in English from
production of Antony and Cleopatra in People’s Palace Projects.
Vigário Geral.
Silvia Ramos and Julita Lemgruber,
José Júnior, Da favela para o mundo: a ‘Urban Violence, Public Safety Policies and
história do Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae Responses from Civil Society’, Social Watch
(Rio de Janeiro: Aeroplano, 2003) Report, 2004 (Montevideo: Instituto del
The founder and director of AfroReggae Tercer Mundo, 2004)
recounts the organisation’s history ‘from
the favela to the world’. George Yúdice, The Expediency of Culture:
Uses of Culture in the Global Era
Luke Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade: (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003)
A Case Study of Children in Organised This includes a chapter on the significance
Armed Violence in Rio de Janeiro of AfroReggae.
(Rio de Janeiro: 7Letras, 2003)
Patrick Neate and Damian Platt, Culture

is Our Weapon: AfroReggae in the Favelas
of Rio (Latin American Bureau, 2006)
As well as covering the history and activities
of the organisation, the authors set
AfroReggae within the wider political, social
and economic context of modern Brazil.

Partners
This project was made possible by the generous support and partnership between the
following organisations:
Afroreggae Ogilvy & Mather, London The AfroReggae UK Partnership

www.afroreggae.org.br www.ogilvy.co.uk currently includes:
Amnesty International People’s Palace Projects AfroReggae
www.amnesty.org www.peoplespalace.org.uk Asian Dub Foundation Education
Barbican: bite
Amnesty UK Queen Mary, University of London Barbican Education
www.amnesty.org.uk www.qmul.ac.uk Metropolitan Black Police Association
Arcola Theatre The Learning Trust, Hackney Contact Theatre
www.arcolatheatre.com www.learningtrust.co.uk The Learning Trust, Hackney
Arts Council England The Shoreditch Trust People's Palace Projects
www.artscouncil.org.uk www.shoreditchtrust.org.uk Queen Mary, University of London
Barbican: bite The Westfield Trust Rich Mix
www.barbican.org.uk www.qmul.ac.uk/alumni/qmandw/westfield/ The Shoreditch Trust
Black Police Association For further information, visit:

www.nationalbpa.com www.favelatotheworld.org
Contact Theatre, Manchester
www.contact-theatre.org
Dragon School, Oxford
www.dragonschool.org

Acknowledgements
From the favela to the world

People's Palace Projects
Production team Funders AfroReggae in the UK
Paul Heritage - Artistic Director PPP would also like to thank the following Altair Martins Da Silva (Altair) –
Lyndsey Housden - Producer for funding From the favela to the world: Percussionist
Paula D’Arienzo - Associate Producer Arts Council England Anderson Elias Dos Santos (Dada) –
João André da Rocha - Associate Producer Barbican:Bite Percussionist
Yassmin Foster - Administrator Brazilian Embassy
Anderson Francisco Dos Santos Sa (Ando) –
Sarah Sansom - Young People's Producer Amnesty International and Amnesty UK
Vocalist
Sylvan Baker – Workshop Consultant Shoreditch Trust
Ogilvy & Mather Cosme Augusto De Anchieta (Cosme) –
Translators London Centre for Arts and Cultural Drummer
Franko Figuereido Enterprises Edson Luiz Vicente Da Silva (Dinho) –
Christina Fonaciari Queen Mary, University of London Vocalist
Leo Kay
Steve Moffat Eduardo Junior Santos De Souza (Juninho) –
PPP would also like to thank the
Eduardo Padilha Percussionist
Brazilian Embassy for their support
Katia Prete and encouragement as the project Jairo Ferreira De Oliveira (Jairo) –
Fábio Santos developed over two years. Bass Guitar
Joel Dias Ribeiro (Joel) – Guitarist
PPP would like to thank the following for Special thanks to all the staff at VARIG
Júlio César Pereira Junior (DJ Magic Julio) –
their constant advice and guidance during airlines for their dedicated service and many
DJ
the production: kindnesses during the journeys that made
Raj Bhari this production possible. In particular, we Luiz Gustavo Ferreira (LG) – Vocalist
Nikki Crane would like to thank Tetê Andrade for her Mailson Teixeira (Mailson) – Keyboard Player
Jen Harvie constant good humour, her endless patience Mariana De Souza Rangel (Mariana) –
Catrin John and her infectious enthusiasm, which got Backing Vocals
Caoimhe McAvinchey us through so many trials and tribulations
Wallace Rocha Da Conceição (Wallace) –
Nigel Relph at airports in Rio and London.
Percussionist
Karen Taylor
Greg Turbyne Alex Machado Da Silva (Alex) – Roadie
Lois Weaver André Alves Da Costa (André) – Producer
Publications and Web Team André Nascimento (André) –
at Queen Mary, University of London Sound Technician
AfroReggae in the UK
Antônio Carlos Dos Santos (Carlão) – Roadie
Eve Bélanger (Eve) – Assistant Producer
Christophe Croysez (Christophe (Frenchie)) –
Monitor Operator/ Stage Mix
José Celso Rocha (Celso) –
Lighting Technician
Eduardo Rosa Olegário (Hermano) –
Percussionist
Luciano Da Silva Dos Santos (Luciano) –
Percussion Instructor
Airá-Ilu-Aiê Ferraz D'Almeida (Airá-Ilu-Aiê) –
Graffiti Instructor
Edson Pereira Da Silva (Silva) –
Circus Instructor
Francisco Sérgio Da Silva (Chico) –
Graffiti Instructor
Johayne De Oliveira Ildefonso (Johayne) –
Theatre Instructor
Patrícia Pereira Martins (Patricia) –
Circus Instructor
Renata Carmo Alves (Renata) –
Theatre Instructor
Roberto Monteiro Guimarães (Bebel) –
Circus Instructor
Jose Roberto Pacheco (Roberto) – Theatre
Ierê Ferreira (Ierê) – Photographer

We are in urgent need of a new paradigm for our cultural work with people and, most
importantly, with young people who are excluded from education or at risk of offending
or reoffending. This report is a contribution to the debate we need to make that happen.
It explores the impact and implications of a visit by the artists of AfroReggae, who travelled
from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro to the UK inner city – to our manor.
“We are bringing a message from the favela to the whole of humanity. For 21 years Vigário Geral was
known as the most violent place in Brazil. If we can turn our world around and do what we do, all these
young people can do anything they want in life.”
Chico, Grupo Cultural Afroreggae
£5.00
ISBN 978-0-9551179-3-0

From The Favela To Our Manor

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Pub0686 Favelav5:Layout 1 20/01/2010 09:54 Page 1

From the favela to our manor

A People's Palace Projects Publication

Written by Richard Ings This publication has been made possible

From the favela to our manor

A People's Palace Projects Publication

Foreword: Raising the stakes 4 The workshops Keeping it local 60

From the favela to our manor 3

Foreword: Raising the stakes

Paul Heritage, Director, People’s Palace Projects

Although I had entered various favelas or shantytowns

Raising the stakes 75

86 From the favela to our manor

Raising the stakes 7

The favela to the world:

I am up at the back of the main auditorium of London’s Barbican Centre, on my feet

108 From the favela to our manor

Banda Afroreggae in action

10 From the favela to our manor

AfroReggae’s approach to creative workshops here was close if not

Another Rio: the favela and

Later on my visit, a director of the

The main goal here is not to make

14 From the favela to our manor

16 From the favela to our manor

Trafficking and consumption of drugs is

The favelas are outside civil society. There

Given these conditions, drug trafficking

As we walk around Vigário, Paul Heritage

The economy here revolves around

Vitor walks ahead of us, keeping his eyes

Ironically, given its reputation and the fact

18 From the favela to our manor

“AfroReggae is changing – symbolically – ideas and

Left: Workshop in AfroReggae’s base in Vigário Geral The rationale 21

22 From the favela to our manor

AfroReggae prefers to encourage and inspire

They value their local territory but

Junior and his staff proudly boast that

24 From the favela to our manor

26 From the favela to our manor

On my own visit to Vigário Geral I

Poking a flower into the barrel of a

Our own favela?

30 From the favela to our manor

32 From the favela to our manor

in order to demonstrate to government that

Working with the ‘worst’

“The first thing we saw in Hackney Free was a fight,

Left: Graffitti workshop at the Blue Hut, Shoreditch The workshops 35

36 From the favela to our manor

Three workshop programmes

40 From the favela to our manor

In one case, we have bought an old

42 From the favela to our manor

44 From the favela to our manor

AfroReggae performs at Contact Theatre

“Trainers like those we are wearing today are all that it

Left: Chico and Aira, graffiti tutors The analysis 49

Many people who met AfroReggae on their

The ‘fundamentalists’ of AfroReggae

Several people noticed, like Sarah Sansom,