The Mozambican writer Mia Couto, awarded worldwide, opens this Wednesday (12), at 5:30 pm, the international series of the 2023 Reading Club of the Banco do Brasil Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro (CCBB RJ), dedicated to Portuguese-speaking authors. Due to public demand, the event will be held at Teatro 1 of CCBB RJ, and not at the Library, which is located on the 5th floor of the building. There will be a screen, installed in the entrance hall of the equipment, for those who cannot enter. Free tickets can be picked up from 9 am today at the CCBB box office or at the site of the institution.
The event will be recorded and, the following week, will be made available to those interested on the Banco do Brasil page on YouTube. The information was given by the curator and presenter of the Club, Suzana Vargas. “He goes beyond Brazil. Borders break down,” she said.
Universality
“When I thought of calling Mia it was because he is a popular author, who has a very strong connection with Brazil. His literature has a great universality. He is, today, one of the great names of African literature and is so translated throughout the world that it is universal. Here, in Brazil, it is very publicized and loved”, said Suzana. Mia Couto is also an activist for social and environmental causes.
At CCBB RJ, he will read and comment on excerpts from his work Before the world was born, with which he won the 2013 Camões Award as author of the year. The book was chosen by the public on CCBB RJ’s Twitter, among two other works by the author – Every man is a race It is blessed stories. “The public knew how to choose”, highlighted the curator. The virtual guest of the event is the writer Stella Maris Rezende, who will ask Mia Couto questions on a big screen. The author was brought by the Club, to participate exclusively in the meeting.
Series
The international series of the Reading Club will last until the end of the year, bringing together four guests. In addition to Mia Couto, the participation of José Eduardo Agualusa, in July; Gonçalo Tavares, in October; and a writer whose name is still being defined, in December.
Interspersing with Portuguese-speaking writers, CCBB RJ will bring great names in Brazilian literature, involving poetry and prose, such as Milton Hatoum; Gregorio Duvivier; Conceição Evaristo; the poet Eliakin Rufino, from Goiás; the writer Cida Pedrosa, from Pernambuco, among others. “We take a tour of Brazil in literary terms. This is what we intend in the national series, in addition to bringing contemporary classic authors, such as Raduan Nassar”.
The Club’s first national meeting this year was held on March 8, in honor of the writer Nélida Piñon, who died on December 17, 2022, in Lisbon, Portugal.
This is the third year of the Clube da Leitura project at CCBB RJ and the first time that writers from outside Brazil are brought in. Suzana Vargas said that the idea, in the future, is to take a tour of Pan-American and world literature. “Authors from around the world who can also attend”.
