Global Voices

English

The world is talking, are you listening?

The Project 5X Favela (5 Times Slum), which aims to give a voice to young filmmakers living in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, is now addressing the pacification process in Rio's slums. Their new documentary, 5X Pacification, intends to portray the impact of police units presence in the daily lives of dwellers.

American Rapper Curren$y is being criticized by Brazilian bloggers [pt] for using Cartola’s classic cover “Verde Que Te Quero Verde” for his new work without mentioning or giving credit to one of the most important figures of Samba and Brazilian Music.

Arte Fora do Museu [Art outside the museum, pt] intends to map online art from the streets of São Paulo, Brazil. The project so far has mapped 100 “pieces” from grafittis, sculptures, walls and architectural works.

Gambiologia is a collective of artists from Belo Horizonte inspired by the “Science of Gambiarra” – a Brazilian “trend” of adapting, improvising and finding simple and creative solutions to all kinds of everyday problems – in the context of electronic art.

A musical love “prayer” was one of the hottest topics of the week on the Web in Brazil. A Banda Mais Bonita da Cidade‘s video, (the name means “The City's Most Beautiful Band”) released on May 17 and recorded in a long take, has already thrilled more than 700,000 people [pt] and keeps being widely shared on Facebook.

David Rocha, a talented young man from São Paulo outskirts, has been building instruments from any kind of used wood, as the video in this post illustrates. Some of his accomplishments so far are a cavaquinho, a Brazilian rebec and an acoustic guitar made with wood from a cod box, all with amazing sound.

Rabeca.org is an online project that aims to gather and present information about the Brazilian rabeca and Guanari rawé in a map with audio recordings, photos, texts and videos. The platform offers an opportunity to explore this fascinating instrument similar to a violin, but with a regional focus and tradition.

Baragül, a Brazilian blogger, investigates the lusophone influence in Malacca (Malaysia). In this post he argues about some gastronomy traditions shared between Brazil, Portugal and East Timor that are also present in the former Portuguese Colony.