By Beatriz Miranda, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – This Wednesday, July 26th, the FLIP Literature Festival opens in Paraty, the small town just four hours from the city of Rio de Janeiro. Paying homage to Lima Barreto, a Brazilian black novelist from the nineteenth century, the 15th edition of FLIP will promote cultural activities that address race and gender issues.
Considered the most diverse FLIP of to date, this is the first edition with more female than male guest writers. Also, approximately one third of the 43 participant authors are black.
“This FLIP will present a gender and race agenda, but all of the debates go way beyond that: it would be a prejudice if black authors could only discuss racial issues and female writers could only debate feminism”, says Josélia Aguiar, FLIP’s curator.
Opening the festival, at 7:15 PM, will be the round table “Lima Barreto: triste visionário” (Lima Barreto: sad visionary), where anthropologist Lilia Schwarcz, actor Lázaro Ramos and theater director Felipe Hirsch discuss and compare the Brazil from Lima Barreto’s time to the present day’s Brazil.
On Thursday, July 27th, FLIP promotes five different literary encounters, which will approach themes like the Greek-Latin tradition in literature, Lima Barreto’s work legacy, the auto-fictional writing and the emerging female voices in Brazil’s literature.
One of Thursday’s highlights is the round table “Em nome da mãe” (In the name of mother), at 9:30 PM, which gathers Noemi Jaffe, Brazilian writer whose mother was an Auschwitz survivor, and Scholastique Mukasonga, a Rwandese tutsi writer who lost her family in the 1994 genocide. The two authors aim to debate narratives of survival, reinvention and artistic reconstruction under the female perspective.
Friday’s line-up includes debates on the activist profile of Lima Barreto’s work, at 12PM, and on his novels’ portrayal of Rio’s popular culture, at 3PM. Following, Pilar Del Río, the Spanish president of José Saramago Foundation, and the Brazilian archeologist Niede Guidon talk about the female resistance in predominantly male fields of culture and science, at 5:15 PM.
A dialogue on artistic resistance between Brazilian filmmaker Carlos Nader and Chilean writer Diamela Eltit happens at 7:15 PM, while American foreign correspondent William Finnegan and South African writer Deborah Levy debate their writing motivations at 9:30 PM.
Amongst Saturday’s highlights are the round table “Kanguei no maiki – Peguei no microfone” (Got the microphone), at 3PM, where an Angolan former political prisoner who became a rapper discusses resistance and freedom with a Brazilian writer who dedicated her life to popular education during the dictatorship.
A dialogue on the feminist voices from Africa and its diaspora, like Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Carolina de Jesus and Nina Simone, at 12PM, followed by a session where guest writers read stretches of their favorite books, at 3PM, close the event on Sunday, July 30th.
The Festa Literária de Paraty (FLIP) happens since 2003, gathering authors and readers from all over Brazil and abroad to exchange ideas on arts, sciences, literature and social issues. Salman Rushdie, Don DeLillo, Isabel Allende, Neil Gailman, Toni Morrison and Chico Buarque are some of the names who have already participated in the festival.
What: Festa Literária de Paraty – FLIP Literary Festival
When: this Wednesday, July 26th – this Sunday, July 30th – 12PM to 11PM
Where: Paraty, RJ – click here to check venue details
Entrance: R$27,50 per round table (click here to buy the tickets).