Discover all the Occupations Soundscape
The soundtrack composed especially for Ocupação Abdias Nascimento is available here on the website. The composer, Renato Gama, speaks about the creative process and the importance of Abdias in his life as well:
Working on the development of the Soundscape for Ocupação Abdias Nascimento raised a couple of questions to me. How much progress have we made with the fight against racism and prejudice? How much are the black people’s rights safeguarded? Does the black woman have her representativeness respected? When black men and women make their artworks, do they gain the same recognition as non-black men and women do? And these issues cannot be limited to the debate about black men and women only.
We have to open up discussions throughout the society. Those were the issues that guided me when I was creating the Soundscape. The process began roughly in August 2016. While developing it, however, I realized that it would not end. I had, in fact, to stop working on it at some point to hand it over, because inside of me it resonates and goes on strengthening me; every word of every poem serves to tell how urgent the propositions put by Abdias are.
We have to strive to keep alive the output of the black creators. Abdias Nascimento, Zózimo Bulbul, Carolina de Jesus, and Conceição Evaristo, among others. Because they serve as reference points and are of great importance to strengthen the black identity.
Abdias’s struggle is very current. We need to fight! We must strengthen ourselves intellectually, know that much of the knowledge produced by mankind originated in Africa. Our education follows the one of Europe, erases Africa’s history of knowledge and shows this continent only as a map of hunger and misery. “No race has a monopoly on beauty, intelligence, strength and there is a place for everyone at the moment of victory,” said Aimé Césaire, poet and intellectual from Martinique. We do not have to submit to Eurocentrism!
Renato Gama is a composer, actor, singer, art educator and producer, and music director. He appeared as singer, producer, and music director in the records Banzo (2012) and Samba Rap Periférico (2003), of the Nhocuné Soul band. Currently, he studies music therapy at Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas (FMU).