Tropical Diaspora Music from Brazil and Jamaica Two Afro Diasporas separated by geography united by resistance and struggle.
You may have heard about it. Since 2012 Frevo has been recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Frevo of Pernambuco has then got the acknowledgment it deserved, and it came from important international institutions. Thus, it can be celebrated as the incredible legacy that it is. But sorry to disappoint you. Frevo has been recognized for a long time by the people who have contributed to its creation and practice. The UNESCO seal only means the monetization by the elites of Paris, London, Berlin, New York… of a cultural practice that belongs to no one but to the people who nurture it.
Originating in the carnival parades by military bands, the name Frevo means to boil as the frenzied dance makes you boil. But the dance takes from Capoeira the movement as weapon and disguise, because the ones who were boiling in the streets of Pernambuco’s carnival were the unruly masses that come and go without any recognizable direction. There is virtually no popular dance in the world that is not an expression of struggle, a way of carrying out the struggle.
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