Episode 16: Negra Bossa Nova (Black Bossa Nova)
Bossa nova is Blacker than you might think. At the premiere of the new season, Alaíde Costa tells her story: from the first steps of bossa nova to the partnership with Emicida, carrying feeling in each recording. An intimate way of singing that also guided the career of Vanessa da Mata, who since she was a child already knew that she would sing for thousands.
Episode 17: Brasileirões (Big Brazilians)
The greatest gymnast in the history of Brazil literally sambou (to the sound of “Brasileirinhos”) in the face of those who until today defend the racist myth that Black people are only good at sports of strength and speed. The victorious trajectory of Daiane dos Santos inspired the talented Angelo Assumpção, today a symbol of the fight against racism in sport.
Episode 18: O maior escritor brasileiro (Brazil’s greatest writer)
How old were you when you discovered that Machado de Assis was Black? In the third episode, the history of the most brilliant Brazilian intellectual of the 19th century. And also Cidinha da Silva, the award-winning writer who, as a child, used the entire vocabulary of Machado’s works to write “taciturn” as easily as she wrote “sad”.
Episode 19: O mar como palco de luta (The sea as a stage fight)
It was by sea that our ancestors were brought. But it was also over the waters that Chico da Matilde (the Dragão do Mar/Sea Dragon) and João Cândido (the Almirante Negro/Black Admiral) built their fight and made revolutions. In the fourth episode, two men who led movements for the liberation of the Black people: the abolition of slavery in Ceará state and the Revolta da Chibata.
Episode 20: Terra de cientistas (Land of scientists)
He entered medical school at the age of 14, graduated with a thesis of worldwide repercussion and fought scientific racism. In this episode, the story of Juliano Moreira, the brilliant doctor who revolutionized psychiatry in Brazil. Black and from Bahia, like the scientist Jaqueline Goes, a biomedical scientist who led the genome sequencing of the new coronavirus in Brazil.
Episode 21: A educação liberta (Education frees)
Daughter of a former slave, Antonieta de Barros became a teacher, school owner and then the first deputy elected woman in Santa Catarina, and the first Black woman elected deputy in Brazil. And she fought for education to be everyone’s right. Mission that also guided Paulo Paim, the first Black man elected senator by direct vote.
Episode 22: Do outro lado do túnel (Across the tunnel)
The Big House x Quarters dynamic remains rooted in Brazil: for example, in the formation of our cities. A logic against which fights the architect and urban planner Gabriela de Matos, and an inequality that could have been avoided if had been put into practice the ideas of André Rebouças, the engineer and abolitionist.
Episode 23: O mito do goleiro negro (The Black goalkeeper’s myth)
Moacyr Barbosa was a revolutionary goalkeeper, considered the greatest of the 1940s and one of Vasco’s icons. But it had its trajectory reduced to the supposed failure of the 1950 World Cup. A persecution that started the racist “Black goalkeeper’s myth”, which has impacted generations of goalkeepers since then, such as the victorious Aranha.
Episode 24: Contadoras de histórias (Story tellers)
In the 19th century, Auta de Souza, a Black woman from the state of Rio Grande do Norte, was able to practice her art and launch a book in her lifetime. Poems that “spoke to the heart” of people, but that were also a way of survival. A fight and a gift that also mark Dona Jacira’s life: forbidden to write as a child, now a griot.
Episode 25: Fundo do nosso quintal (Backyard)
In this episode, a trip to the origins of samba and the legendary rodas in the backyard of Tia Ciata‘s house: an Afro-entrepreneur before the term existed. Matriarchy that finds an echo in the life and work of Leci Brandão, the great sambista and — just as important — the daughter of Dona Lecy.
Episode 26: Bahia de todos os santos (Bahia of All Saints)
In 1959, a young Antonio Pitanga heard from Glauber Rocha that “everything starts in the theater“. And so it was, until becoming the main actor of Cinema Novo in Brazil. A trajectory similar to that of Lázaro Ramos, today an actor, director, producer, writer and presenter; but forever Lazinho from Garcia.
Episode 27: Imprensa negra (Black Press)
Now a reference for Black girls, Maju Coutinho found in the magazine “Raça” the image she needed to build her self-esteem as a Black woman. In this episode, the story of the journalist (who, as a child, played host at her parents’ house) and the “Black Brazilian’s magazine”.
Episode 28: Oportunidade olímpica (Olympic opportunity)
In Brazil, those with black skin cannot make mistakes — nor miss an opportunity. It was by seizing every chance that Janeth Arcain won two Olympic medals in basketball. With the same determination, judoka Ketleyn Quadros became the first Brazilian woman to win a medal in individual sports.
Episode 29: Axé Music
After all, what is Axé Music? A rhythm? A musical movement? Understand and get to know the stories of two icons of our culture: Margareth Menezes and Carlinhos Brown, artists who bring the sound of Bahia and our ancestry to the world.
Episode 30: Dentro de casa (Inside home)
Against everything that Brazil has always reserved (and continues to reserve) for Black people, our ancestors resisted, existed and formed a family. In the last episode of Vidas Negras, the journey of historian Flávio dos Santos Gomes in search of his origins. A quest that belongs to all of us.
Tiago Rogero 