Before taking over the stages and bringing together artists from different territories, the 8th edition of Festival Quebramar begins inside schools and has master sponsorship from Petrobras, through the Petrobras Cultural programme, made possible by the Rouanet Law.
The first stage, titled Preamar, takes place from September 2 with Quebramar na Escola, travelling through the municipalities of Macapá, Santana, Mazagão and Oiapoque and bringing students experiences of Storytelling, Music, Handmade Book workshops and Media Activism.
The aim is to encourage children and teenagers to realise that they too are authors of their own stories. Whether through words, music, the handmade book or communication tools, the project creates spaces for students to learn different forms of expression and understand that their experiences, their territories and their communities also deserve to be told.
The Escola Municipal Esforço Popular, in the south of Macapá, will be the first to host the project, on September 2, with morning activities. In the afternoon, the programme moves on to the Escola Estadual Professora Raimunda dos Passos Santos.
On the 9th, the circuit reaches Santana and, on September 15, it will be Mazagão's turn. The Quebramar na Escola project ends on September 23, in Oiapoque, extending its presence and taking its activities to different regions of the state.
Telling your own story
In the municipal schools, the programme relies on storytelling and music as gateways to the imagination and to valuing local narratives. The writer and artist Laura do Marabaixo takes part in the activities with Storytelling and musical performances. In Oiapoque, the Storytelling activities will be led by the artist and workshop facilitator Bell Brandão.
In the state schools, the project broadens the dialogue between culture and communication. The activities include Media Activism, led by Bell Brandão; Handmade Book and Discussion Circle, with the writer Pat Andrade; as well as musical performances by Bell Brandão, Luxuosos Corações and the group Dois.
The idea is to show students different ways of turning experiences into narratives. An event lived in the community can become a story; a memory can fill the pages of a handmade book; a reality can be recorded and communicated through media activism; and an identity can find in music a form of expression.
For Heluana Quintas, production coordinator of Festival Quebramar, taking the festival into schools is also a way of strengthening the bond between culture, territory and youth.
"Quebramar na Escola is born from the understanding that telling your own story is a way of occupying spaces and asserting identities. We want to show students that they don't have to wait for someone to tell their stories for them. They can write, sing, produce a book, create content, record what happens around them and turn their experiences into narrative. When we do this inside schools, we are also fostering new perspectives and new voices for the culture of Amapá."
Culture that circulates through the territory
In its 8th edition, Festival Quebramar returns to Macapá with the theme "Integrating the Guianas", proposing a programme focused on original and independent music, cultural exchange and the circulation of artists and professionals of the cultural chain.
The festival will have programming in several stages until November. After Quebramar na Escola come the Batalha de Bandas, with applications from September 20 to October 5, and the Maré Lançante, on September 26, at Parque Residência. The main programme takes place from October 27 to November 1, facing the Amazon River, in Macapá.
