The Madureira and Flop festival come together under the bridge, with names like Sandra Sa, Manu Brown and Martinalia

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Madureira is a mixture of Afro-Carioca culture. Holding the festival during this period is to reaffirm our struggle against racism and to appreciate the contribution of black people to Brazil’s cultural identity, says musician and junguero Marcos Andre Carvalho, one of the organizers of the event.

The program combines music, jongo, dance and creative economy, with performances by Awure, Companhia de Aruanda da Serrinha and drumming from Império Serrano, Agbara Dudu and traditional Baile Charme do Viaduto. The event also celebrates the 15th anniversary of Companhia de Aruanda, a reference in Serrinha Jongo, and promises to transform the area into a fascinating meeting point for Afro-Brazilian culture.

But the party that will be held under the bridge will not only be musical. This year, the Madureira Festival joins Flop – Festa Literária das Periferias, which takes over the neighborhood for the first time with a program that mixes literature, performance, music and memory.

From Wednesday to Sunday, and again between the 27th and 30th, Flop 2025 honors writer Conceição Evaristo, the first living author to receive the accolade of the event. Recognizing the intangible cultural heritage of the state of Rio, Flop arrives in its new edition under the slogan “Ideas to re-enchant the world” and proposes to delve into the connections between word, body and earth.

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The literary festival will bring together names from Brazil, Africa, the Caribbean, North America and Europe – including Michele Alexandre, Ana María Gonçalves, Merry Fanon Mendes France, Ileana Alves Cruz and Steve McQueen – to discuss art, lineage and social justice.

In addition to discussions and workshops, the program will include performances by Sandra Saa, Manu Brown, Luigi Luna, Jonathan Fair, Martinaglia and Major, strengthening the connection between black literature and music. The agenda will also include attractions at Central Única das Favelas (Cufa) and Zê êne Bar, both in Madureira.

For Julio Ludimir, bringing Flop to the neighborhood is a symbolic gesture back to the origins of Rio’s popular culture.

– Madureira is the cultural heart of Rio, the birthplace of samba, gonggo and magic. It’s a place where you see people on the street, where you can still hear the street vendor screaming. It is a living area that resists the logic of isolation and online commerce. Anyone interested in people is interested in Madureira. Flop has always believed in this dialogue between arts and people. Being here, he says, means acknowledging this force, this energy that keeps the culture alive.

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The union between the two events appeared naturally.

— When we realized the Flop event would be held on the same dates, we saw it as an opportunity to join forces and scale the impact. It is important to get to Madurera with Michelle Alexander, Ananda Devi and Manu Brown, artists who are marginal but already integrated into the mainstream. When we show the power of these global or transatlantic parties, we risk forgetting local production, and not having dialogue with local production. The partnership with the Madureira Festival allows us to be there with the Portela drums, with Jongo, with Imperio Serrano, and with Quiteria, the Queen of Drums. There’s a very strong local expression there, and that’s key.

Ludimir recalls that the double act began when Markus Andre, a “long-time partner,” sought out DJ Michel, of Baile Charme, and Michel presented his Madureira festival proposal to the Flop organizers.

We smiled and welcomed and realized that our festival would be better. It would fill a gap in the dialogue with local expressions, something that I hope will be culminated in our exhibition from now on – he says.

For him, Flop is also an instrument of resistance and reconstruction of black memory in Brazilian literature. Although the country’s literary tradition was inaugurated by authors such as Paola Brito, Machado de Assis, Lima Barreto, and María Fermina dos Reis, black writers historically became invisible after the abolition of slavery, Ludimir argues.

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The book industry was as exclusionary and racist as other Brazilian cultural industries. He says this begins to change with positive policies, which have transformed the publishing market.

According to the museum curator, works such as “In My Skin” by Lázaro Ramos helped pave the way for a new generation of authors, including Djamila Ribeiro, Giovanni Martinez, Jefferson Tenorio, Itamar Vieira Jr., and Ana María Gonçalves.

No black author is alone. There’s a whole network of Black readers, editors, critics, and festivals who support this ecosystem. He concludes that literature, like samba and poetry, is also a form of resistance.

The Crispa Fair and the large Jeonju Circle bring life to the festival

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The Madureira Festival was created in 2018, as a result of collaboration between cultural groups in the neighborhood that sought to strengthen the local scene and open new opportunities for artists and producers. From this consortium, Rede Madureira was created, which in the first year implemented an incubator for local projects. Since then, it has established itself as one of the premier events dedicated to appreciating black culture in Rio.

– The creation of the festival was an offshoot of the cultural movement already here, a showcase to showcase the power of the madureira and open a market for our collections – explains musician and junguero Marcos André Carvalho. — Here, gonggo and samba coexist with magic, street dancing and hip-hop. It is a region that reflects what is most diverse in Brazil.

In addition to music and dance performances, the event promotes the Crispa Fair, which focuses on the creative economy and black entrepreneurship, with models in fashion, gastronomy, art and beauty. The exhibition enhances the festival’s role as a space for disseminating knowledge and strengthening community networks in the suburbs.

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Carvalho highlights the economic and symbolic impact of the project:

— The festival generates work, income and self-esteem. About 300 artists and producers are employed, all from the local cultural chain. It’s a movement that shows the power of suburban culture as a driver of development.

This year, the festival will be held outdoors for the first time, under the Madureira Bridge, in a format that makes it, according to Carvalho, more democratic:

— Holding the event under the bridge, this sacred ground, makes everything more powerful. The experience will be unique, especially with Flop happening alongside it.

Rodrigo Nunes, coordinator of Companhia de Aruanda, highlights the symbolism of performance in the neighborhood:

Madureira is a sacred land, an urban area of ​​Quilombo. I was born in Sirinha, a fan of Jongo and a student of Master Darcy. Our company was born to spread the black tradition and celebrate this coexistence of old and new. In Madureira, Jongo dialogues with magic, and samba with hip-hop. The strongest innovations are those that build on tradition.

According to him, the opening of the festival will be marked by a large jungo circle celebrating the company’s 15th anniversary.

– It’s a symbolic coincidence: the circle’s anniversary falls precisely on Zombie Day, during the flop, and at the opening of the festival. We’ll be bringing eight Jungo groups together for a big celebration – expect it.