Oralitura and Escrevivência in the Performance of Black Women at the Brazilian Poetry Slam

Abstract

This paper aims to relate the concepts of “escrevivência”, developed by Conceição Evaristo, and “oralitura”, developed by Leda Maria Martins, to think about the performance practice carried out by black women in the Brazilian poetry slam. Based on the poem “Nóis é clitóris” (2020), by the São Paulo slammer Midria, we argue that at the time of the slam performance, oralitures of the female body of black women are gestated today, moving from poetic writing and narratives of personal experiences traversed by the coloniality of gender to the performative representation of black feminist discourse. Through the poem “Nóis é clitóris”, Midria establishes connections between sexual pleasure and creation, showing trajectories of personal and social transformation of the black body. The author records these narratives through poetic writing, where she resignifies them through orality, to be disseminated in front of the community during the presentation. To understand the situation of subjugation and oppression experienced by women in Latin America since colonization, and also to make visible the mechanisms of subversion to the current patriarchal system that are born from groups of feminist women, we will resort to the theoretical contributions of decolonial feminist philosopher María Lugones, in tune with thinkers such as Lélia Gonzalez, Patricia Hill Collins, Catherine Malabou, among others.