Friend,

It is difficult to recount all that happened during this meeting… but I will try. The participants were all invited personally, one by one, without any public announcement being made. About fifty people registered, but there were already 62 of us in the Polis rooms the first day, and by the time we reached the public part of the meeting – which was led by Pedro Garcia – there were between 150 and 200 of us in the gymnasium. With us were participants and artists from the states of São Paulo, Paraña, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. I opened the meeting by presenting the objectives, and speaking of the Alliance and of the importance of creating a workshop on "Art in the Alliance." Next, there was a very interesting discussion on art and social change with Maria Lucia Montes, a professor at the University of São Paulo. In the afternoon, various people shared some very rich experiences with us. A doll called Benedito – animated by a very famous São Paulo ventriloquist – was our amusing lecturer. The next day, we left things completely open to our creativity to deal with the theme of "Art and Human Development / The Voice of Collective Intelligence". The rooms of Polis were about as full as they could be. We were a bit tense because we didn’t know what kind of dynamics to create, so we decided to offer the opportunity to those who hadn’t been able to share their experiences to do so. Everyone wanted to speak.

Oh yes! I almost forgot to tell you that we had opened an earlier session with music. Polis became an auditorium where art and reflection blended together. We had said that the seminar should be a "space of sensitivity", and people who were upstairs for other meetings couldn’t resist coming to see what was going on. That afternoon, there were more presentations on people’s experiences, and friendly debates on popular art, the expropriation of culture, the need to value the "authenticity" of art, and so on. It was all quite powerful. Bene Fontelles, an artist and composer, created a collective work with us. Poetic expression invaded everyone and we sang black music praising Zumbi, from black Brazilian myths. In the evening we went to the cultural centre, where we again discussed the Alliance, and Pedro responded in detail to the questions of the young people who were there. We finished the meeting with a poetry recital with several well-known people from São Paulo. At this point, we blended music and poetry together. It was really very beautiful. A very unique meeting. We will create a strong group next year. We will be creating a publication on the meeting, with recordings, photos, everything you can think of!

So there you are my brother. Things are moving forward. Até.

Hamilton Faria (Brazil)

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