Writer Conceição Evaristo will be honored at the Festa Literária das Periferias (Flup) 2025, which will take place between November 20th and 29th next year. It will be the first time that the festival will honor a living author. According to the organizers, this reinforces Flup’s commitment “to valuing and strengthening active and transformative voices”.
The writer – considered a “central reference in Brazilian and international literature” – was thrilled when she received the invitation from the organizers, when she participated in the debate with her English colleague Bernardine Evaristo, at Flup, which ended last Sunday (17).
Flup’s programming in 2024 was at Circo Voador, a traditional space in Rio’s cultural scene, and brought together literature, music, performances and a lot of critical reflection. During the seven days of the event, 31,997 people attended literary tables with names such as Mame-Fatou Niang, Ana Paula Lisboa, Cidinha da Silva, Jurema Werneck, Neon Cunha, Nilma Bentes, Oyèrónke Oyěwùmí, Sueli Carneiro, Marie NDiaye, Audrey Pulvar, Bela Gil , Creuza Oliveira, Christiane Taubira, Elisa Lincon, Rokhaya Diallo, Flávia Oliveira and many other black women. “Together, they highlighted essential themes about black literature, ancestry, feminism and social transformation,” said the event organizers, adding that, considering the Flup and Futura channels on the social network, Flup had 13,324 views on Youtube.
Performances by artists such as Lia de Itamaracá, Dona Onete, Ilê Aiyê, Fabiana Cozza, Pérolas Negras (Alaíde Costa, Eliana Pittman and Zezé Motta), several DJs and several samba circles, as well as vogue and passinho battles, slam and poetry, livened up the audience.
“In total, there were 18 shows that connected art and resistance in seven days of a program praised by the public and critics. On November 15th alone, the date of Flup24’s most extensive programming, 9,300 people attended Circo Voador”, he said.
Historical turn
Conceição Evaristo and Jeferson Tenório at Flup 2024. Photo: FLUP/Disclosure
For the creator of the literary festival and general curator of the event, Julio Ludemir, this edition marked a historic turn for Flup, consolidating the festival as a transformative space, essential in the global calendar.
This year, the festival paid tribute to the intellectual Beatriz Nascimento, “celebrating her legacy as one of the most important figures for Afro-diasporic studies in Brazil”. Writer Conceição Evaristo said, at the event, that “writing is an act of ancestral resistance”.
French-Senegalese professor and researcher Mame-Fatou Niang was responsible for the international curation of Flup. She specializes in French and Francophone studies, with research focused on contemporary blackness in France.
Flup also highlighted, this year, the survey carried out in Rio’s favelas on the reading habits of residents of Morro dos Prazeres, Vigário Geral, Mangueira, Babilônia, Vidigal, Cidade de Deus, Maré and Providence.
In previous years, Flup held editions in these territories. For Julio Ludemir, “research related to the book in Brazil generally looks at the numbers, talking about sales and purchases of the book. In this case, we look at whoever reads.”
