Last week in São Paulo

Yesterday I went on the "unofficial" CIEE trip to the Museum of Afro Brazilian Art with my Brazilian Culture professor Wilson Honoria da Silva.
Wilson is a self identified Queer, Black, Marxist and brings the race, class and gender critique that I'm used to on the daily.Formally, he's an art theorist focusing predominately on film. I appreciate Wilson because not only is he brilliant but he also cares so deeply about what he studies that he doesn't care who is makes uncomfortable (and he makes a lot of people uncomfortable). Intellectually, being here has been quite the change from Macalester--Wilson is like a little slice of home on tough days.
The Museum of Afro-Brazilian Art is in Ibiraquera Park, a huge park near Avenida Paulista full of people working on their fitness. The Museum is hidden in some trees and mostly unlabeled, which says a lot about the role of the museum in the city.

The museum is wonderful.

It's full of art, photography and artifacts capturing the history of Black and Indigenous people in the country. There's also a huge exhibit called "From King to Obama," which features a ton of Obama gear. There is another exhibit of pieces from the United States which was brought to São Paulo by Donna Wells who was a curator at Howard University. I believe Wilson said the goal was to create a space to explore the differences and similarities between North American and Brazilian Black art without mixing them all up. For some reason seeing the pieces from the United States in that context was very comforting for me. And the two bodies of work co-existed so perfectly that I was reminded of how universal art really is.
Also, while in that particular exhibit I literally stumbled upon a Kara Walker installation created just for the museum. It was surreal to actually get to see something of Kara Walker's but in Brazil...and on accident. The piece was smaller and not as graphic as the ones I had seen in books. It was still exciting to finally see one in person and maybe better that it wasn't hyped up and super controversial. In fact, people seemed to hardly know who Kara Walker was.

Last night I went out with Olivia and some of her friends (very cool people). Her boyfriend Raul's band, Liberta and a another band, The Forgotten Boys were playing at a club named Inferno on Rua August. Rua Augusta is an extremely hip street.There,I saw the densest population of hipsters that I've probably ever seen in my life.It was a nice change from the "orange county chic" style that seems to be what is considered hot here.
I danced all night, resisting an incredible urge to mosh(don't know where that came from). We ended the night at 5am.

I have three more days here in São Paulo and I feel like it's coming at a good time. I'm feeling good about São Paulo but ready for the beach and a slower pace.I'd like to return before I leave Brazil but maybe that fact will change once I get to Salvador: )

This was a long one. Thanks for hanging in there.
Beijos.

Bimbola