{"id":62840,"date":"2020-12-14T09:20:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-14T12:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=62840"},"modified":"2025-09-13T14:10:03","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T17:10:03","slug":"a-tribute-to-vila-kennedys-prolific-grassroots-horticulturalist-and-inventor-ravengard-veloso-and-his-green-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=62840","title":{"rendered":"A Tribute to Vila Kennedy’s Prolific Grassroots Horticulturalist and Inventor, Ravengard Veloso"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

\"\"<\/a>This is our most recent article in a <\/span><\/i>series<\/span><\/i><\/a> created in partnership with the <\/span><\/i>Behner Stiefel Center for Brazilian Studies<\/span><\/i><\/a> at San Diego State University, to produce articles for the <\/span><\/i>Digital Brazil Project<\/span><\/i><\/a> on human rights and socio-environmental justice in the favelas for RioOnWatch.<\/span><\/i>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

The voices of Vila Kennedy<\/a> favela, in Rio’s West Zone<\/a>, and of many other communities from across the city, came together to mourn the loss of Fabiano Veloso, better known as Ravengard or Raven. He was a deep and always accessible fountain of knowledge as a horticultural activist and member of the Urban Food Movement in Vila Kennedy\u2014known by its acronym in Portuguese MUDA VK<\/a>, which in Portuguese also means “Change Vila Kennedy” or “Vila Kennedy Seedling” as the word “muda” means both change and seedling.<\/p>\n

Ravengard invented a highly productive “Instant Substrate” and taught widely on its application to urban gardening. He was part of Rio’s Sustainable Favela Network (SFN)<\/a>, active in both its Solid Waste Working Group and Gardens and Reforestation Working Group. And for many years he was affiliated with the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), undertaking green initiatives connecting academia to grassroots change. Educator, actor, teacher, director, producer, environmentalist, and activist, Fabiano “Ravengard” Veloso passed away on October 22, 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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

MUDA VK emerged in 2005 from two Vila Kennedy theater groups, Potemgy and Mario Lago, which started organizing plays and shows together about sustainability, environmental education<\/a> and solid waste management. From 2005 on, they gathered organic residues at the local Sunday open-air market and composted them. At the same time, they collected recyclable materials and electronic waste, transforming them into art. Theater has always been Raven’s passion, and sustainability, his calling.<\/p>\n

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

Earlier this year, two months before his passing, in an interview<\/a>\u00a0for\u00a0Voz das Comunidades<\/em><\/a>, he justified the need for green grassroots favela activism and an urban composting movement: \u201cOver 50% of all organic material ends up in the wrong place, when it should become resources. This is just wrong. We use public funds, our tax money, to gather material that we don’t know how much it’s worth and bury it. It is a wrongful, wasteful culture,” he said.<\/p>\n

Raven has left a legacy of green practices, activism, sustainable development, culture, love, and dedication to the environment, urban agriculture and food sovereignty<\/a>.