{"id":55059,"date":"2019-08-07T23:40:20","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T02:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=55059"},"modified":"2019-09-10T10:50:17","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T13:50:17","slug":"the-pacstao-hip-hop-circle-in-manguinhos-for-the-love-of-culture-reframing-the-pac-program-and-resisting-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=55059","title":{"rendered":"The Pac\u2019St\u00e3o Hip Hop Circle in Manguinhos Favela: \u2018For the Love of Culture,\u2019 Reframing the PAC Program and Resisting Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique Aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/a>\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m going to call on two MCs to get up here and battle it out. What does Pac\u2019St\u00e3o want?\u201d \u201cBlood.\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Thus begin the hip hop battles at the Roda Cultural do Pac’St\u00e3o<\/a> in the favela of Manguinhos<\/a>, in the North Zone<\/a> of Rio de Janeiro. The opening battle cry refers to the “blood battles<\/a>” of the\u00a0roda<\/em> (circle) wherein rappers attack and ridicule their opponents with words, as opposed to “knowledge battles,” in which the rapper with the best rhymes on a given subject wins.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf kindness begets kindness, what does killing generate?\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The above verse, shouted out in one of the battles, recalls that war is not just a metaphor built into the battle cry that opens each battle, or in the very choice of the term “battle,” common to other rodas<\/em> as well. \u201cIt’s called Pac’St\u00e3o because we’re here on the Gaza Strip,\u201d explains Xandy MC, a resident of the nearby Jacarezinho<\/a> favela and one of the circle’s organizers. In Rio, “the Gaza Strip” is the name given to Rua Leopoldo Bulh\u00f5es, the street that runs alongside the train line between Manguinhos and Jacarezinho. Though this Gaza Strip is much closer to the Pac’St\u00e3o Roda than the original Gaza Strip<\/a> is to Pakistan\u2014some 3,000 kilometers separate the South Asian country from the Palestinian territory constantly under attack from Israel\u2014the two Rio territories connect to their namesakes, construed in the popular imagination as belonging to a \u201cFar East,\u201d through the narrative of conflict<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\nThe choice of the name Pac’St\u00e3o, then, while alluding to the historically embattled country<\/a>, uses the war narrative to subvert the logic of real violence affecting the region. \u201cWhat motivated us to organize the roda<\/em> was oppression, specifically police oppression. We wanted to give a voice to the many people who have been verbally and physically assaulted,\u201d explains MC 2D, another of the organizers. \u201cI have experienced it myself, that\u2019s why I want to keep doing this. The cops grabbed my pregnant wife by the arms. I tried to exercise my right to accompany my wife and the police hit me twice in the face.\u201d Xandy adds: “The role of the police is to maintain the peace, but we never live in peace.”<\/p>\n

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\nPac’St\u00e3o is also a play on the acronym \u201cPAC,\u201d Brazil’s\u00a0Growth Acceleration Program<\/a> (Programa de Acelera\u00e7\u00e3o do Crescimento), and the suffix \u201c-stan,” meaning \u201cplace of\u201d or \u201cland of\u201d<\/a> \u2014so, the land of the PAC. The roda<\/em> takes place in an area which was named \u201cCitizenship Plaza<\/a>\u201d by then-governor S\u00e9rgio Cabral<\/a>. It once housed the Army Supply Depot (DSUP by its Portuguese acronym, an inscription that can still be seen on the remaining tower, as shown in the photo below), but nowadays is better known as simply “PAC.” The reference to the program comes from the infrastructure built around it, which includes a housing development, a state college, a skate park, a Park Library<\/a>, a Women’s House (Casa da Mulher<\/a>), and a Youth Center.<\/p>\n

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\nJust as building houses is not the same as building a city, providing a space with urban installations but little maintenance is not the same as promoting citizenship, the former governor’s purported intention. The Women\u2019s House has been closed since 2016; the youth center, which was supposed to be a benchmark for other initiatives, has experienced extensive looting and vandalism<\/a>; the Library (now renamed the Marielle Franco<\/a> Library), after having been shut for two years, reopened in 2018, thanks to resident organizing<\/a>, but with significantly reduced hours. The task of occupying the plaza and promoting citizenship\u2014when the facilities that should have been there to support the population have been scrapped\u2014has been taken up by the Pac’St\u00e3o roda<\/em> for the last two years.<\/p>\n

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\nThe PAC program was also responsible for the train line elevation project<\/a>, which led to hundreds of evictions<\/a>. The stated objectives of the elevation project included creating play areas and offering residents more safety by allowing them to cross under the train line, rather than crossing over the tracks, and also integrating both sides of a divided community. On the contrary, it can be argued that the elevation of the train line has actually increased the sense of insecurity in the area: the newly created space is not occupied by traders or urban facilities; there are now dark and empty spaces, and trains are more vulnerable to gunfire. It is not uncommon to see train windows riddled with bullet holes, and line interruptions<\/a> have become commonplace.<\/p>\n

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\nIn addition, the PAC did not heed residents’ demands, which prioritized investments in sanitation<\/a>. \u201cWe are in the middle of a flat favela where there are two rivers that flood. This has happened time and time again for 40, 50 years,\u201d explains Franciele Campos, from the Women of the Wind<\/a> (Mulheres do Vento) collective, which brings together audiovisual producers and also organizes the Manguinhos Slam<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\nFor the roda<\/em> organizers, key to Pac’St\u00e3o’s mission is the slogan \u201cFor the Love of Culture\u201d reflected in the roda\u2019s<\/em> Instagram handle<\/a>. This love of culture manifests itself in multiple expressions, and, here, literally and metaphorically, books are never far away. The circle’s hip hop battleground is framed by the Manguinhos Park Library sign, in a redefinition of the use of the space. \u201cIt’s a cria pra cria<\/em> [“by those born of the favelas for those born of the favelas”] circle, to free ourselves from guns, because books are so much better,\u201d says 2D. Despite his casual tone, the poetic vein is clear in his wordplay between \u201cto free,\u201d livrar<\/em>, and “book,” livro<\/em>. Some say these rappers encourage reading more than a library does. \u201cPeople who don’t read with words will read with images, sounds, movements,\u201d added Xandy.<\/p>\n

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\nXandy believes that it is necessary to “teach [young people] something more interesting than math.” To this end, the group visits schools and units of Rio’s Department of General Socio-Educational Action (DEGASE<\/a>, the juvenile detention center). In one of their workshops, at the CRIIAD<\/a> (Integrated Resource Center for Adolescent Care, a semi-confinement unit) in Caxias<\/a>, besides screening a film on the history of hip hop, they ran a poetry workshop. \u201cWhen I asked who liked poetry, nobody raised their hand. Then I distributed a piece of poetry and asked the question again. The poetry piece was actually song lyrics by Racionais MC’s<\/a>,\u201d recounts 2D.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYour son is not a military officer, he’s a militant.\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a quote from Xandy. \u201cWe write because it’s either that or be depressed. This is real democracy, this is a true exchange of ideas. This is power! Outside the favela, they don’t want this exchange of ideas happening. They don’t want to hear me talk,\u201d states the MC. \u201cWe already have culture here, we don’t need to bring it in. People are not interested in bourgeois culture, but we see so many incentives promoting this version of culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xandy also discusses the lack of space that rodas<\/em> have dealt with since the 1990s. \u201cPeople set up a roda<\/em> in the City of God<\/a>, at the Interactive Circus Center (Centro Interativo de Circo, or CIC) in Lapa, which had a fire in 2009<\/a>. Today we have the same problem\u2014in Cidade Alta<\/a> the roda<\/em> runs in a space that was previously a rubbish dump.\u201d In 2018, a law was established that recognizes hip hop as part of the state’s cultural heritage and also stipulates that rodas<\/em> no longer need police authorization, as long as they do not use stages or bleachers.<\/p>\n

In addition to resisting police oppression, \u201cwe also rhyme to put food on our plates,\u201d as 2D says. \u201cWhen we apply for jobs, we get asked where we come from. ‘From Manguinhos? How are you going to get here?\u2019 I don\u2019t even have bus fare. It’s expensive.\u201d Rhyming has gotten Xandy a trip to Portugal<\/a>, an award for winning the Terra do Rap Festival<\/a>, where he beat out 97 other MCs.<\/p>\n

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\nFor Franciele Campos, the importance of rhyming is that it allows MCs to be protagonists of their own narratives: \u201cMore than talking about ourselves, we need to talk about each other, our work. Show what people are doing, who is on the frontline, dealing with genocide every day. The coolest authors I know are here around me. Tag the artists, get the new 2D clip out. We need to show that we are alive. We must not be isolated, we want dialogue, we want to show that we are alive.\u201d 2D agrees: \u201cThe rhyming roda<\/em> is born from a need for us to have a space to express ourselves. Rap and hip hop are not African culture. They are an expression of resistance to racism outside Africa.\u201d Check out their new clip below:<\/p>\n