RioOnWatch – reporting by and from Rio favelas

‘We’re Working at the Micro Level Because There Are People Destroying Things on a Macro Scale’: In Rio de Janeiro, ‘Green Roof Favela’ Engages Popular Culture on World Environment Day

By Amanda Baroni Lopes • Translation by Staff • June 21, 2025

Clique aqui para Português Each year, on June 21, growing numbers of people from around the world celebrate World Localization Day. In 2020, the NGO Local Futures organized the first World Localization Day. Countless citizens, […]

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Get to Know ‘Gaia Space’, A Network of Women Fighting for Environmental Justice and Obstetric Dignity in Greater Rio de Janeiro

Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on environmental justice in the favelas […]

Groundbreaking Oral History Project—‘Favela Climate Memory’—Launches Final Exhibition, Fostering Emotional Connection Between Climate, Nature and Community [Video]

By Sustainable Favela Network • Translation by Yasmin Quaife • June 10, 2025

Clique aqui para Português The complete ‘Favela Climate Memory’ exhibition—the result of a collective oral history project that spanned over three years—was launched on Saturday, May 3, at the Maré Museum. Organized by Rio […]

‘Being a Black Woman Running a Museum Means Facing the Past, Eye to Eye… It’s Reparation in Motion’: Sinara Rúbia’s Full Speech at Brazil’s 1st Seminar on Anti-Racist Museums

By Sinara Rúbia • Translation by Staff • June 7, 2025

Clique aqui para Português On Friday, May 30, Rio de Janeiro’s Museum of Tomorrow, located in the city’s Port Region, hosted the 1st Seminar of the Anti-Racist Museums Program. Co-organized by the New Blacks Institute […]

‘A Museology That Doesn’t Serve Life Serves No Purpose’: ‘Unconventional’ Favela Museums Lead First Seminar of Rio de Janeiro’s Social Museology Network

By Barbara Nascimento • Translation by Ujwala Murthy • June 5, 2025

Clique aqui para Português On Saturday, May 16, Rio de Janeiro’s renowned Banco do Brasil Cultural Center (CCBB) hosted several institutions involved with museology—including community museums, memory collectives, and projects focused on social memory—alongside researchers, […]

A Product of the 2016 Olympics, in Rio de Janeiro the ‘Evictions Museum’ Unveils New Walking Tour, Reigniting Vila Autódromo’s History and Resistance [IMAGES]

By Lia Fernandes Peixinho • Translation by Marina Devine Guzmán • June 2, 2025

Clique aqui para Português On May 18, International Museum Day, the Evictions Museum, in Vila Autódromo, in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone, marked nine years of (re)existence. The date was celebrated with the relaunch of […]

Brazilian Government Formally Recognizes ‘Favelas and Urban Communities’ As the Official Term for Informal Settlements Nationwide

By Carmen Nery, IBGE press release, Vinícius Britto, IBGE press release • Translation by Hannah McKenzie • January 31, 2024

Clique aqui para Português For the original press release in Portuguese, published by Brazil’s census bureau, the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), click here. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) is […]

RIP ‘Subnormal Agglomerations,’ Part 3: Peripheral Epistemology in the Design of the Census and Presentation of a New Nomenclature

By Julio Santos Filho • Translation by Nathan Bergrin • November 10, 2023

Clique aqui para Português This is the final article in a series of three about how Brazil’s census bureau, IBGE, held an unprecedented week-long workshop to debate how to change the term “subnormal agglomeration” used […]

RIP ‘Subnormal Agglomerations,’ Part 2: Housing Rights and Favela Stigma in the Official Nomenclature

By Julio Santos Filho • Translation by Nathan Bergrin • November 9, 2023

Clique aqui para Português This is the second article in a series of three about how Brazil’s census bureau, IBGE, held an unprecedented week-long workshop to debate how to change the term “subnormal agglomeration” used […]

‘Temporary’ Housing in Santa Cruz Turns 60: Reflecting on Cesarão, the First Housing Complex, and Favela do Aço

By Moanan Costa do Couto • Translation by Kay Alvito • April 7, 2025

Clique aqui para Português The history of the city of Rio de Janeiro is marked by experiments in segregationist housing policies, which intensified during the Military Dictatorship (1964–1985). Over the course of those decades, the […]

Without Dialogue or Compensation, Rio de Janeiro City Hall Gives 10 Days Notice to Forcibly Evict the Santa Luzia Community, Which Over Decades Has Fought—And Won—Housing Rights Battles

By Fernanda Delatorre • Translation by Staff • January 15, 2025

Clique aqui para Português On January 8, 2025, residents of the Santa Luzia favela, located between the neighborhoods of Vargem Pequena and Vargem Grande in Rio de Janeiro’s West Zone, were blindsided by a ten-day […]

Get to Know Candidates from Favelas for Rio de Janeiro’s City Council

By Bárbara Dias • Translation by Kincaid Cummings • October 3, 2024

Clique aqui para Português The city of Rio de Janeiro has 5,009,373 registered voters, according to data from the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), out of an estimated 6,211,223 people, based on the 2022 national census. […]

‘Being a Black Woman Running a Museum Means Facing the Past, Eye to Eye… It’s Reparation in Motion’: Sinara Rúbia’s Full Speech at Brazil’s 1st Seminar on Anti-Racist Museums

By Sinara Rúbia • Translation by Staff • June 7, 2025

Samba Abstrato Exposes the Whitening of Samba Schools [OPINION]

By Paulo Mileno • Translation by Staff • March 10, 2025

Clique aqui para Português Launched in 2016, the Samba Abstrato (Abstract Samba) Facebook page was created to document the appropriation and whitening of Brazilian carnival samba schools, as well as to confront the invasion of […]

Queen Diambi Kabatusuila of Congo Visits Rio de Janeiro’s Camorim Quilombo Offering Reconnection Across the Diaspora

By Rhuan Gonçalves • Translation by Kay Alvito • November 30, 2024

Clique aqui para Português During Brazilian Black Awareness Month in 2024, some of Rio de Janeiro’s most important spaces for Black culture were graced with a visit from Her Royal Majesty Queen Diambi Kabatusuila, known […]

2024 Retrospective of Top International Reporting on Rio’s Favelas

By Kincaid Cummings • December 26, 2024

Clique aqui para Português From 2013 to 2023, RioOnWatch ran the Best and Worst International Reporting on Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas series. It began, quite symptomatically, with the Worst International Reporting on Rio’s Favelas: 2013, […]

Violence Is Literally Sickening: A Mother’s Testimony Corroborates Research Showing That Police Violence and the Denial of the Right to Grieve Cause Physical and Mental Illness in Brazil

By Ramon Vellasco • Translation by Fred Hanson • October 15, 2024

Clique aqui para Português “There are days when we just want to cry, to stay in bed, and not speak to anyone because we don’t have our children to hug anymore.” — Gilsara Mendes, mother […]

Get to Know Candidates from Favelas for Rio de Janeiro’s City Council

By Bárbara Dias • Translation by Kincaid Cummings • October 3, 2024

Understanding Energy Justice and Efficiency in Rio’s Favelas [VIDEO]

By Jaqueline Suarez • Translation by Pilar Boyero • December 13, 2021

Watch the video that summarizes the Energy Justice and Efficiency Series with English subtitles here: Clique aqui para Português This article and the video above offer a summary and conclusion to the series ‘Energy […]

Pedra Branca and the Energy Dilemmas of Rio’s Urbanization: From Charcoal to Electricity

By Antonio Alonso, Iamni Torres Jager • Translation by Trisha Ponti • November 1, 2021

Clique aqui para Português This article is part of a series on energy justice and efficiency in Rio’s favelas. It is also the latest contribution to our year-long reporting project, “Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas: Deconstructing […]

Energy That Comes From Waste: Biodigester Turns Sewage into Biogas in Vale Encantado Favela [VIDEO]

By Jaqueline Suarez • Translation by Saskia Wright • August 1, 2021

Clique aqui para Português This English subtitled documentary is the latest contribution to our series on energy justice and efficiency in Rio’s favelas. It is also part of a series created in partnership with […]

‘We’re Working at the Micro Level Because There Are People Destroying Things on a Macro Scale’: In Rio de Janeiro, ‘Green Roof Favela’ Engages Popular Culture on World Environment Day

By Amanda Baroni Lopes • Translation by Staff • June 21, 2025

*Highlight

Get to Know ‘Gaia Space’, A Network of Women Fighting for Environmental Justice and Obstetric Dignity in Greater Rio de Janeiro

By Igor Soares • Translation by Marina Devine Guzmán • June 20, 2025

Groundbreaking Oral History Project—‘Favela Climate Memory’—Launches Final Exhibition, Fostering Emotional Connection Between Climate, Nature and Community [Video]

By Sustainable Favela Network • Translation by Yasmin Quaife • June 10, 2025

Between the Political Right and Left, I Choose the Quilombo! [OPINION]

By Jeferson Rodrigues • Translation by Sharonya Vadakattu • March 3, 2022

Clique aqui para Português This article is the latest contribution to our award-winning reporting project, Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro. We hear about “right” and “left” all the time. […]

A Deeply Personal In-Depth Account of the Typical Racism of Domestic Work in Brazil

By Neuza Nascimento • Translation by Fred Hanson • February 28, 2022

Clique aqui para Português This article is the latest contribution to our award-winning reporting project, Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro. This story, told by writer and former domestic worker […]

I Want To Read Black Authors: When Will We See Proper Representation in Brazilian Schools and Universities? [OPINION]

By Cynthia Rachel Pereira Lima • Translation by Carolyn Oliveira • February 25, 2022

Clique aqui para Português This is our latest article in a series created in partnership with the Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the Digital Brazil Project on climate impacts and affirmative action in […]