The Brooklyn Bridge to the Brazilian Beats of Rio Mate
New York City is one of those cities of myth and grander where capitalist enterprises mix with people from all over the world and an incredibly educated populace takes a keen interest in art from around the world. In fact many people state that New York is the capital of the world!!
While this might be an overly bold statement, one thing is for sure, New York is a little bit cooler these days because people everywhere can now find Rio Máte ice tea at select locations! And in honor of this I thought I’d do a little run down on the cool Brazilian happenings in New York.
Ok first off some of the lesser known underground stuff that I have had direct contact with. My buddy Gustavo lives in NY and he took me around to a bunch of the cool stuff: the Brooklyn neighbourhoods, from Park Slope to Williamsburg, navigating across the bridge and on through the East village and then back to some underground parties with some Brazilian expats.
One cool thing for the capoeira-inclined is Mestre João Grande’s academy. He is one of the world’s most famous capoeira angola masters and he lives in NYC. His rodas (capoeira circles) are very famous and attract capoeiristas from around the world. His home base is on 14th street. More info here.
There is a New York based maracatu group as well. Maracatu New York holds weekly workshops in the tradition of maracatu de baque virado as espoused by the Recife based percussionist Jorge Martins and his school, Corpos Percussivos. The gang there is pretty cool.
Coolest of cool in terms of New Yorkers that have a Brazil ‘fetish’ (cultural fetish that is!) is David Byrne. The artist, curator, filmmaker, and musician from Talking Heads works on many projects related to Brazilian culture and will undoubtedly get his own blog post very soon! He is known to sometimes walk over to an ‘anti-club,’ ‘anti-bar, (or jazz house ‘party place’) in Manhattan, called the Nublu. The Nublu is home to the Wednesday night performance of Forró in the Dark, a forro band with a lot of New York flavour and definitely one of the most ‘gostoso‘ (roughly: delicious) Brazilophile experiences anywhere. Below is a video of David Byrne singing with Forro in the Dark.
On a more mainstream tip there are of course tons of Brazilian businesses, churches, community centers, car dealerships, remittance houses, and events around town. A whole list is available at the web-portal New York Brasil. Lots of info!
Two popular Brazilian events that happen every year in NY.
The Annual New York Brazilian Film Festival took place in June at the Tribeca Cinemas. Feature films were screened and immediately followed by a Q&A sessions with the representatives of each film. In all, 15 titles were screened. Films this year included Straight to the Point, a documentary film about the life of sambista Bezerra Da Silva, and Time for Peace, which tells the story of immediate post-world war II Brazil. The film, directed by Daniel Filho, portrays a critical period of Brazilian history and speaks of Manichaeism and of fighting for life. Check the full film schedule here.
26th Annual Brasil Day!
Of course the legendary NY Brasil Day boasts that it is the “biggest Brazilian event in the world” and takes place this year on Saturday September 4th and Sunday September 5th. The party goes down on 46th Street (Little Brazil) between 6th Avenue and Times Square plus 6th Avenue (bet. 42nd and 56th Street). The streets will be closed to all traffic and “open to a fabulous Brazilian street party!” This year’s talent will feature Carlinhos Brown and Globo TV personality Luciano Huck, among many others.
Carlinhos Brown performing in Toronto last year.
Stay tuned for more information about Brazilian cultural manifestations in the great urban metropolis of New York City! All sorts of goodness and beautiful happenings from Queens to Brooklyn, through to Manhattan and Central Park! Long Live Brazil in NYC.
Alex Bordokas
