The president and one of the founders of the Afro block Olodum, João Jorge Rodrigues, was announced this Thursday (22) as the next president of the Palmares Cultural Foundation, in the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT). The invitation came from the singer Margareth Menezes, future Minister of Culture of the new administration 
“I invited, and he has already accepted, João Jorge, president of the Olodum block, one of the founders of the Olodum block, to rescue the Palmares Foundation,” Menezes told journalists at the headquarters of the transitional government, at the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center. (CCBB), in Brasilia. The future minister criticized the management of the federal autarchy over the last few years. “The Palmares Foundation was completely depredated, physically and also in its internal structure”, she added.
Founded in 1988, inspired by the Federal Constitution itself, the Palmares Cultural Foundation was the first federal body created to promote, preserve and disseminate Afro-Brazilian culture. For more than three decades, it was linked to the Ministry of Culture, but with the extinction of the folder, in 2019, it became subordinate to the Ministry of Tourism. With the recreation of the Ministry of Culture, Palmares returns to its original institutional link.
In addition to being a cultural producer, João Jorge is a lawyer and holds a Master’s Degree in Law from the University of Brasília (UnB). He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of Brazil Communication Company (EBC)until 2016, when the collegiate was extinguished.
In recent years, the Palmares Foundation has been the target of controversy because its then president, journalist Sérgio Camargo, who was in charge until the beginning of this year, was critical of Zumbi dos Palmares himself, the national hero who gives the institution its name, in addition to having made statements against the black movement and against Black Consciousness Day.
