Invitation to Mano Réu – artist, producer, writer and musician; resident of quebrada in the north area of São Paulo, Brasilândia – elaborate a setlist of songs about São Paulo and its resistances and write a text about these song for the 13th BIA
São Paulo, the largest city in the southern hemisphere, has the natural destiny of being a cosmopolitan city, a haven of dreams, aspirations for a better life and access to knowledge and opportunities. It is not by chance that the city received, at the end of the 19th century, immigrants from all over Europe and regions of Asia, in many cases with state funding and incentives in the access to employment and land. But what about the ex-slaves officially freed in 1888? What about the Northeastern migrants? What about African and American immigrants? Those who arrived here without any incentive from the State and resist day after day to reaffirm their influence in this triumphal city.
These populations dispute such narratives for resistances spaces, such as the resurgence and appreciation Tebas’ contribution to the city’s buildings, whether in the resistance of African immigrants in downtown São Paulo, or in the occupation of buildings abandoned to real estate speculation and gentrification project. This project took black communities out of the center – one example is the Liberdade neighborhood, which today is an east asian space, but which at other times was black territory. These new black territories shaped the city, creating neighborhoods like Casa Verde, Limão, Brasilândia, in the north. The south zone and part of the east zone received the northeastern children of this country. And the west side, then, was kept as a place for the middle and upper class.
This scenario of tensions, erasure, contributions, and resistance is brought up by me in this humble and eclectic playlist or set… A trip through songs, artists and territories that are intertwined with these songs… The sounds we hear at black parties that took the center of the city, east and north side during the tough dictatorship period in the end of the 1970s, the hip hop and its occupation in Rua 24 de Maio with Praça Dom José de Barros at São Bento station, the songs from Haiti, Nigeria and those by our South American hermanos, songs that introduce the city’s neighborhoods such as Jaçanã, and the Cohabs. We also bring the classics from the 1990s and its pagode, axé that rocks each small party in the city up to nowadays, the MPB swing, the cancioneiro brought by the northeastern migrants that shaped our accent and our vocabulary, the escolas de samba that are historical and immaterial patrimony to all the people from São Paulo, the contemporary funk and its freedom, and, of course, some tougher reflections on the sacred concrete we walk on each day to go to work, to love, to dream, to study, to survive! Have a great listening!
Israel Neto (ou Mano Réu) – musician and writer. Brasilândia resident. Text written for the 13th BIA.
PLAYLIST LINKS
Spotify: Bienal Inter. Arquitetura
Youtube: Playlist Bienal Internacional de Arquitetura (Não Listada)
OS ORIGINAIS DO SAMBA – A subida do morro
DEMÔNIOS DA GAROA – Trem das onze
NEGRITUDE JUNIOR – Cohab City
THIG – Jaçanã Picadilha
CAJU E CASTANHA – O pobre e o rico
JAMES BROWN – Cold sweat
MICHAEL JACKSON – Rock with you
KURTIS BLOW – The breaks
SHAGGY – Boombastic
DJAVAN – Lilás
BEBETO – A beleza é você menina
SAMPA CREW – Eterno amor
KATINGUELÊ – Lua vai
ART POPULAR – Sem abuso
AS MENINAS – Xibom bombom
É O TCHAN – Dança da cordinha
RACIONAIS MC’S – Diário de um detento
MARIA RITA – Minha alma (A paz que eu não quero)
CÁSSIA ELLER – De esquina
DESALENTADOS – São Paulo não é pra pobre
CRIOLO – Não existe amor em SP
MC DA LESTE – São Paulo
MC BRUXO – Brasilândia mil grau 2.0
ANDRÉ MORAES – Lugares invisíveis
NNEKA – Heartbeat
VOX SAMBOU – Lakay
CALLE 13 – Latinoamérica
ZÉ RAMALHO – Admirável gado novo
ROSAS DE OURO – Non Dvcor Dvco (Qual a minha cara) – Samba Enredo 1992
GAVIÕES DA FIEL – O príncipe encoberto ou A busca de Dom Sebastião na Ilha de São Luís do Maranhão – Samba Enredo 1999
VAI VAI – Simplesmente Elis. A Fábula de uma Voz na Transversal do Tempo – Samba Enredo 2015
ADRIANO NASCIMENTO – Quartas de Cinzas