The 20th edition of the traditional International Literary Festival of Paraty (Flip) starts today (23), in person, after two years. The party will open at 8 pm, with a Pátrios lars table, whose theme is the life and work of the writer and educator Maria Firmino dos Reis, who is honored in this edition. 
The opening panel will feature the participation of historian Ana Flávia Magalhães Pinto, researcher of black authors Fernanda Miranda, social scientist Midria and the collective Slam das Minas. The panel, with scholars of the author’s work and the period in which she produced, according to the organization of the event, intends to provoke a productive debate on literary genres, abolitionism and the history of Brazil.
Charm of colorful houses and cobbled streets in Paraty. ?? TV Brazil
Although there is no certainty about the date, the most likely is that Maria Firmina dos Reis was born in 1822. In 1859, she published Úrsula, a novel that inaugurated, in Brazil, the lineage of abolitionist literature. After years of erasure, the work has been gaining attention, inside and outside the country.
Maria Firmino was a teacher of first letters in Guimarães, Maranhão. Her work was built practically in parallel with the mostly male and white literature in Brazilian literary circles. According to Flip’s organizers, the homage to her comes at a good time, both for the quality of her production in different genres, and for the fact that for a long time she was on the margins of the canonical history of Brazilian literature.
The author died in 1917, unrecognized. This, according to the organization, makes it even more urgent to celebrate her legacy, which is also that of an insistent vigilance over human values, capable of placing education and imagination, but also education for the imagination, at the center of the contemporary debate.
face-to-face event
In 2020 and 2021, the event, held in the south of the state of Rio, had only virtual editions, due to the restrictions imposed by the covid-19 pandemic. Now, the event is back to being in person.
There will be five days of activities that include round tables, musical presentations, workshops, film sessions, soirées and games. There are also parallel programs, with stands by publishers and authors, book sales and an event called Flipinha (aimed at children).
The participation of authors such as Brazilians Cida Pedrosa, Cidinha da Silva, Lenora de Barros, Lázaro Ramos, Geovani Martins, Cristhiano Aguiar, Ricardo Aleixo, Bernardo Carvalho and Luiz Maurício Azevedo is also expected.
Among the international presences are the Argentinians Camila Sosa Villada and Cecilia Pavón; Cuban Teresa Cárdenas; the French Nastassja Martin and Annie Ernaux; the North Americans Saidiya Hartman and Ladee Hubbard; the Portuguese Alice Neto and the Chilean Benjamin Labatut.
Flip will end on Sunday (27). The Festival has been held since 2003 in the historic center of Paraty, a world heritage site on the southern coast of the state.
