All week, the ICBIE has been churning with activity, with Marlene’s Italian courses back in session, the graffiti meeting on Thursday, and the cineform rolling along. Saturday and Sunday promise to be the busiest of all, with several highly visible events that will form new and important ties with our local community.
On both days, the ICBIE will be hosting workshops that are presented by a state-run institution, the Cultural Foundation of the State of Bahia. These workshops, now in their fourth edition, encourage the development of cultural initiatives, and, best of all, they explain the procedure to request financial support, describing how a cultural project should be structured, in order to be accepted.
No doubt, Pietro will be taking notes while he makes our guests feel comfortable.
For Sunday, the ICBIE has organized a big free public performance in cooperation with the Filhos do Sol Nascente, Mestre Pedro’s venerable association. It will take place in the large square in front of his capoeira center at the edge of Uruguai, just inland from the Alagados, and it will feature music, street theater and handicrafts, to compliment the central attraction: the maculelê and capoeira shows of our great master. The ICBIE assisted in both organizing and publicizing the show. The major local papers ran articles, and for the first time, they had to present a cultural event taking place “at the end of the Uruguay (bus) line.” This is an important landmark, as we strive to improve the cultural offerings of the cidade baixa: for the first time, quality entertainment (that will attract spectators from all around the city) is offered free of charge to the poor men, women and children of the Alagados, in their own neighborhood. For them, such inclusion into the mainstream of the city’s cultural life was unthinkable, until now.
Finally, today is the last day of Paranaguá’s photography exhibition of graffiti art at the Lapa Shopping Center in Salvador. He sent this great picture of the event:
Despite all this frenetic activity during the weekend, there will be no break, because this coming week marks the beginning of the new semester for all our new computer courses!
