{"id":26829,"date":"2016-03-02T10:26:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-02T13:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=26829"},"modified":"2018-06-21T09:57:26","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T12:57:26","slug":"a-park-to-call-our-own-parque-madureira-becomes-a-center-for-organizing-in-north-zone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=26829","title":{"rendered":"‘A Park to Call Our Own’ Parque Madureira Becomes a Center for Organizing in the North Zone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

For the original article by Priscila Rodrigues\u00a0in Portuguese published by Observat\u00f3rio de Favelas<\/a><\/em>\u00a0click<\/em> here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI have to go into the city.\u201d It might sound strange to those who have always lived on the other side of the Rebou\u00e7as Tunnel<\/a>, but anyone born and raised on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro knows that the word \u201ccity\u201d was once commonly used to refer to Rio\u2019s Central Station. As if living far from downtown<\/a> was enough to feel, or be treated, as an outsider. Excluded! But this relationship to the city space has recently changed. There have been signs of gradual progress since 1975 when the city of Rio was incorporated into the state of Rio de Janeiro. Parque\u00a0Madureira<\/a>\u00a0(Madureira Park) is a good example of this change. Since its opening in 2012, it has hosted a variety of projects, including Black Cultural Movement\u2013My Curls and My Afro<\/a>,\u00a0Youth Marked\u00a0to Live<\/a>; and Against the Genocide of Black Youth<\/a>. Built to provide opportunities for leisure, it has emerged as a place of powerful mobilization in the city\u2019s North Zone<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Black empowerment is the focus of Barbara Lage\u2019s monthly project, Black Cultural Movement\u2013My Curls and My Afro, now in its 12th<\/sup> edition. She and a network of volunteers offer workshops, book exchanges and debates on black identity, using physical appearance as a starting point. \u201cOur battle cry, as black people, begins with aesthetics. It\u2019s through the hair, the clothes, the acceptance of our phenotype…. And from there we tackle other mountains. We needed a base, a place where people could feel at home. I found that at Parque Madureira. You\u2019ll see a black woman braiding hair there. You\u2019ll see a black man dancing. You\u2019ll see a black doctor. You\u2019ll see a black housekeeper. You’ll see black flesh. Madureira is a little piece of Africa,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It was no accident that Youth Marked\u00a0to Live<\/a>\u2013which sought to raise awareness about the high murder rate affecting black youth<\/a>\u2013chose to kick off its 2013 event at Parque Madureira. \u201cThe idea was to circulate throughout the city. We did two flash mobs downtown. We filmed\u00a0on Morro da Baiana in Complexo do Alem\u00e3o<\/a>. In Urca, we collected signatures for a petition at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s School of Communication. But the campaign launch\u00a0had to be in Parque Madureira,\u201d said Valnei Succo<\/a>, one of the creators\u00a0and faces\u00a0of the project which involved students from the\u00a0Favela Observatory’s<\/a>\u00a0Popular\u00a0School of Critical Communication (Espocc)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the process of choosing the park, Succo explained that everything about the project was done collaboratively, and that a few people disagreed about the location. \u201cBut finally, everyone agreed that Madureira<\/a> is the center of the North Zone, which is where most of our students are from. Also, that\u2019s where you\u2019ll find the young people directly affected by the high rate of deadly violence in Rio. We had to go to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Youth<\/a><\/p>\n

Bruno Ricco, organizer of Against the Genocide of Black Youth<\/a>, was also motivated by the need to talk to those most affected. He created the\u00a0event on Facebook<\/a>, mobilizing more than a thousand people to march through the streets of Madureira\u2013starting at the Negr\u00e3o de Lima Viaduct and continuing to Parque Madureira\u2013to protest the Military Police\u2019s killing of five young black men<\/a> in Costa Barros<\/a>. The five youth\u00a0had spent the day at Parque Madureira, celebrating one of the young men\u2019s first paycheck. The police riddled\u00a0their car with 111 bullets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I created the event there was some disagreement about where it should take place. A lot of people were against the idea of doing it in Madureira. They were afraid it would be ineffective, that the cause called for something bigger with greater visibility. They thought this would only be possible downtown or in the South Zone<\/a>\u00a0since those are the parts of the city that get the most attention. But that’s the opposite of what I wanted! I wanted the city to see the places where most people die. That\u2019s why Madureira was my first choice. We were holding an event by the people, for the people, and maybe that felt a little strange. They weren\u2019t used to it. But it turned out to be a very powerful event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruno went on to say that the existence of Parque Madureira has empowered the community to build on its strengths. \u201cI\u2019m 30 years old and have always lived in Madureira. I\u2019ve seen up close the positive effects this march has had on the community. Madureira has a history of social activism, but this has been lost over the years. I think it\u2019s starting to come back. Madureira is already a center, mainly culturally, and the park has made it even stronger. But let\u2019s remember that the park is not a favor to us. The right to culture and leisure is written in the Constitution, and the North Zone has long been neglected in this respect<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Protest<\/p>\n

Launched\u00a0in 2012, Parque Madureira is\u00a0more than 90,000m2\u00a0in size. It\u2019s equipped with soccer fields, basketball courts, ping-pong tables, a bike path, Brazil\u2019s largest skate park, an arena, a public square for samba, a public information technology center, an artificial beach, and an open-air gym. An expansion is planned that would take it through eight neighborhoods, ending at the Avenida Brasil. Additions would include an artificial ski run, climbing walls, and a half pipe for skaters. Aside from the official numbers, the structure of the park is truly impressive, says Eduardo Alves, director of Favela Observatory<\/a>: \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to see people from all over the city wanting to go to Madureira, not only to the South Zone and downtown. This is the kind of city I want\u2013one that has the conditions, facilities, and public gathering places that create a desire to visit every part of the city. I want much more of this, much more.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas For the original article by Priscila Rodrigues\u00a0in Portuguese published by Observat\u00f3rio de Favelas\u00a0click here. \u201cI have to go into the city.\u201d It might sound strange to those who have always lived […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":12233,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1668,1288,1328,1290,329,452],"tags":[750,662,1261,168,756,32,718,504,1042,35,2756,37,523,1292,725,18,171,124,156,458,196,30,1385],"writer":[1942],"translator":[508],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-participationwatch","8":"category-highlight","9":"category-by-community-contributors","10":"category-civilsociety","11":"category-solutions","12":"category-rio20","13":"tag-access","14":"tag-afro-brazilian-culture","15":"tag-central-rio","16":"tag-centro","17":"tag-community-organizing","18":"tag-complexo-do-alemao","19":"tag-costa-barros","20":"tag-culture","21":"tag-espocc","22":"tag-madureira","23":"tag-madureira-park","24":"tag-north-zone","25":"tag-observatorio-de-favelas","26":"tag-organizing","27":"tag-policy-recommendation","28":"tag-protest","29":"tag-public-space","30":"tag-race","31":"tag-south-zone","32":"tag-street-culture","33":"tag-planning","34":"tag-urban-violence","35":"tag-violence","36":"writer-priscila-rodrigues","37":"translator-rachel-fox"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26829"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=26829"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=26829"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=26829"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=26829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}