{"id":31347,"date":"2016-09-09T10:26:01","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T13:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=31347"},"modified":"2018-01-15T13:07:39","modified_gmt":"2018-01-15T16:07:39","slug":"community-media-profile-girasol-comunicacoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=31347","title":{"rendered":"Community Media Profile: Girasol Comunica\u00e7\u00f5es"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Marlon Gangazumba and his Chilean partner Natalia Urbina are videographers, photographers, activists, and\u00a0capoeira<\/a> instructors. Girasol Comunica\u00e7\u00f5es<\/a>\u00a0was born in 2012 when they organized a center for popular communication after frequently being asked to film community events. They started blogging<\/a>\u2014in both Portuguese and Spanish\u2014<\/span>about debates and events happening in Marlon’s home\u00a0favela of Jorge Turco in the North Zone<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro, with topics including\u00a0capoeira<\/a>, the\u00a0World Cup<\/a>, poetry<\/a>, reparations for slavery<\/a>, and most recently, community media and local activism<\/a> in the context of the Olympics<\/a>. Along with their three children, the pair have now published more than 50 videos on their YouTube channel<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>and have facilitated many community debates. They also\u00a0maintained a radio channel throughout the World Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cGirasol Comunica\u00e7\u00f5es arose as a family initiative of autonomous popular communication<\/a> addressing the need to disseminate what happens in favelas, such as different cultural and political activities,” Urbina explained. It also emerged out of a “need to strengthen\u00a0our local culture<\/a>, which bit by bit strengthens our racial outlook, our Latin American outlook, our Afro-American outlook.”<\/p>\n