Afropunk: expression
is inherently resistant.

I was once one of them and if you are black too, so were you. It took me a while, but now I cheer every curly hair, wide nostrils and full lips that reside in me. To experience blackness is awesome and it is really sad that most of us have been experiencing pain to reach our maximum power. But today I don’t wanna talk about bad experiences caused by whiteness. Today I wanna talk about a positive blackness experience.

My generation had only a few black references in the media. On TV, I had fun with The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, My Wife and Kids, That’s So Raven and Everybody Hates Chris. Later in youth I’ve come to discover my favorite type of movie: blaxploitation. As I watched Shaft, Superfly and Coffy, I cheered with every black character, music and narrative, as well as the genius inversion of the status quo when white people were shown as villains and the cause of every bad thing in society and the blacks were the heroes. This genre started in the US during the 70s and it consisted of black cinema for black people. It broke me because it was the new millennium and in Brazil we still hadn’t managed significant material to be in front of cameras — could you just imagine behind them?

Well… a few weeks ago I was in a movie set. The entire cast was black, the director was black, the makeup artist, the costume designer, the hairdresser: all of them were black! Another breakdown. An advertisement for a bank to present in Brazil the biggest festival of black culture in the world. All of that directed by a black woman, all of that directed by me. Wow! The feeling of knowing there are so many people in the same place getting mutually inspired is just indescribable. On one side, I would cheer the hell out of these people's work; by the other, they would say with their eyes and their words that such experience was just unique. Then the movie came out and it was beautiful, so beautiful it was complemented by everyone: the client, the agency, friends, strangers… And damn do we know it was good! Hell yeah! And I’m sure that back then our predecessors also knew. In the end, all we need is a chance to perform. The rest is lots of work and some magic. 

so, and for that reason I leave here the challenge to all of you: create opportunities for black people. Always. And whenever it’s not possible, work towards possibility. Here we are (r)existing across oh so many plurals and complex stories, ready to come to life through writing and filmmaking. 

I hope there's still time to love that kid we were once.To love present and future kids. For that reason, I choose a different tone for the initial question: how many black children are looking in the mirror and loving themselves at this very moment?