Fim de uma longe semana (work & play)

I get the impression that of you guys may think that my work is all play well, this week has been nothing but updates and organization as you can see from this snapshot of my working space

Antoine plans for days but its cool, Ibra like me has a million and one ideas for the project and the opportunities keep showing up i serve to remember write down and organize the stuff into a comprehesible format and work with the administrator karu to divide stuff into tarefas (tache in french) for the staff..we just had a huge meeting this friday and i had to lead it…it went pretty well considering my portuguese…some stuff written on the plan made people laugh while this supposedly corrected of the plan also eased the process of the meeting at the same time

well my weekend represented a mix of both work and play…

Saturday i get up and my man daniel and I leave the house to eat sine there was no water in the building as they were fixing the faucets

Lets go eat some meat at the Mercado Central (market) he says…alright…

We get to Bomb-Bar and order uma cerveja and a meat plate…

the jam-packed market meat/beer experience is one to be savoured

We get a call from Leo who is at the market shopping for goods for tonights samba show at cvasa africa..he asks me if I want to work a shift since they are missing staff and expecting a big crowd..alright so i meet him there and help set up at casa africa

The samba night was incredible..those of you who know me know me to be not this type of man but seriously, strictly from a bar perspective, there was about5 guys in total for the clientele of about 80 in total…this lack of men may ironically become a problem

the scene at 7pm (early shift means i am not too tired the next day)

Samba de Luiz feature members/friends from Black Sonora and they are damn good

They get the party going….

and the drinks flowing

It was really cool to work the shift..friendly customers and a cool ambiance

Plus great music

This guy can attest to that

It was hilarious “Give me a mojito, its for the guy”

A good time was had by all and i got friendly with BlackSonoras cuban rapper frontman..really cool guy talking about early orishas concerts and such

The next day was a big double laptop in the hamac meeting with Ibra that just ended now i am in fact typing out the tarefa messages to the staff as we speak

This upcoming week we need to perform…we also went through looking at a lot of stuff for the FESMAN poject in june to get casa africa over to senegal once again destiny is helping as this year invited country of honor is none other than Brazil

anyways good night folks..i got a big week ahead of me

Segundafera…double your pleasure

The day started with a rush to get to the perfeitura office to attend the Encontro França-Brasil 2007

I am not talking about

More like

I had to meet Ibra there (he called me from the bus to ask for the adress) i met him there running through downtown in my shirt-tie combo under the blaring heat

When I got there I was kind of intimidated by the giant marble steps and huge doors…security guard style…”i have a meeting” and they let me in…hilarious

At the table were the minister of culture for MinasGerais…french ambassade figurehead and secretary, the BeloHorizonte perfeitura dude we had a meeting with last friday and a state representative as well as other civil society members (universities,NGOs,etc…)

When it was time to present each other it was kinda funny…”Antoine Alavo I am an intern with CasaAfrica” the BH dude : “Call him Toninho so he feels right at home”

And then the meeting began… man a million and one ideas raced through my head…this event is going down from the 12-14 of november (right before FAN yeah! ) and is basically an area where CasaAfrica can both make contacts as well as scure its relevance as a go-to organisation for intl relations especialy with african countries….

Our whole objective is to secure our links to the BH perfeitura and the French Embassy (both of which already support a lot of our activities) in view of the promotion of our pilot project to link the FAN with FANSEM festival in Dakar,Senegal….

There is a whole day devoted to Sul-Sul-Norte relations between France-Africa-Brazil and they have asked Ibra to be one of the speakers…this Encontro is ripe with opportunity because it is full of legitimacy (state level) but is reatively void of content a Gap we can fill and both political entities we are trying to secure are looking for new partners

Furthermore me and Ibra are the sole representatives of Africa and almost the only two “brazilians” who speak french

We used our duality to hit up every one resent for business cards or a quick conversation and it worked out great

 Big plans like I said people…big plans

After such a big meeting/day of idea pitching, handshaking, contactmaking and plan planning it was time to chill…

FAN had its lancement and the whole Casa Africa staff was invited..great event/evening

The germany guy in the pic is a sick local breakdancer…many familiar faces in the crowd tonight…african culture united so to speak..belo horizonte has a realy good artistic scene and i am blessed to have been introduced to such good peeps…

African food and a photo exposition were on the menu and did i mention…

OPEN BAR!

But it was all about the Black Sonora concert

Afro-Cuban Brazilian band….with 2 percussionists, a DJ, bass, guitar, drums, vocals an a bunch of other instruments (melodia, cuici) all interchangeable played by different members. Half-sung, half-rapped hiphop-samba-rock that had the people dancing!!

A break circle even formed 

The show ended with a host of rappers, musicians and friends on stage (including my man Emerson)

What a great night…FAN is officially launched!

Domingo dia de descanso

Hey peeps and peepettes,

Sunday was another Ibra crib affair that started off with a meeting with Ibra in preparation for the França-Brasil Encontro 2007 (more will be posted on this)

But today we were not BBQing we were preparing a traditional senegalese dish Tieb-Ou-Yap (lamb like what!)

Also Kuter was busy painting stages for the FAN festival, the kids are going to travel through 12 different african homefronts placed in a circular fashion to give it a village type feel

As you can see the storgae space that was built on my sweat and blood is real useful..especially now that rain season is on

Its a lways a lovely relaxing time at Ibra’s

We decided that since a lot of work is on its way with the FAN, the France-Bresil thing and the AfroBrazil Festival the whole staff will meet every 2 weeks for a potluck at Ibra’s…i have already received Poutine requests…

Daniella from the office was there with her husband Emerson…it was super interesting meeting him…he is a musician that does a lot of community work with the favela community..he also has a band and oganizes Kalmunity type events in BH…muito interesante

As you can see Kuter recruited some extra help…I even painted a turtle shell (wow!):)

Anyways…we were supose to have lunch but it ended up being supper… check the food yo…

Mad exotic salads…fruits in the house..crazy star carambole action!

Tieb action with raisins mang

The table was set..were my dogz at?

I hope you guys know i am kidding with the gangsta steez…although my portuguese expression game is stepping up a notch..watch out after my patented Spanfrenglish© the days of Françugais are upon us..brace yourselves…

I left Ibras early and ended the night in the office mixing some sounds for the FAN…the next day would prove to be huge…once more in a good way

Segunda Semana

Hey guys,

This week was hectic in a good way…we are getting ready for the FAN here at Casa Africa as well as preparing our end of year Afro-Brazil festival and preparing the move to a bigger and better space to consolidate/create the ”real” Centro Cultural Casa Africa

My pics are not as good as I would like, but I have cool videos so well…yeah!

I basically spent the whole week working in the office by day 8am-8pm editing audio

And working in Casa Africa by night compiling the music library

I got some good work done the radio programs are set to go and 10 hours of mixes have been made (coming your way soon..)

On tuesday I did my thing at Casa Africa but then my man Leo invited me to watch the game (Brasil-Ecuador)..Minas style

as ive said earlier minas gerais has a million local bars..we went to a chill and cheap spot and he showed me some customs such as ..cachaça with torresmo

you drink a shot and bite this oreille de criss style meat thingy (much more meaty and deliciousness, than are old traditional pork grind…think fried pork chop!)

A great night, brazil won big time and we celebrated…

Brazil 5-0…..ridiculous Robinho moves…um pra la, dos pra ca

Back at the office the next day I see a package adressed to me with a familiar size…

Could it be?

My vinyl dealing friend in SaoPaolo edson sent this along with 2 DVDs full of african albums… Nossa Senhora! i was ready to mix…such good timing…

Meanwhile Ibra was all dressed up

He had an important meeting with the city of belo horizonte counsellor and he brought me along..super interesting developments (my next post will be more in fo on casa africas accomplishments/future plans)

We are talking to him to get funding for our new centre and he has a lot he wants to ask from us but we are up for the task…

At night we went out to the food fair where i tried out some more local delicacies…

Finally it was friday, i had a fejoada (typical meal for that day of the week) and worked as always…

However my friend/co-worker Karu (who is one of the kindest souls i have met) took me to her social work groups weekly night shift

Seriously an incredible experience…i was out walking around the city, conversing with Belo’s homeless community as while distributing hot milk and bread…

It has been heavily raining as of late in Belo (rain season) so it was an especially needy time, as Karu told me ”just watch”..destiny at work… it stopped raining when we got out the car and hit the streets at 9pm than at 11:30 distributing our last bread in the hospital parking lot…the rain started again..

I got to casa africa late at night to witness my first real bar night there…

I got the opportunity to spin some tunes and it was just great

Ive been seriously getting more and more involved with Casa Africa and have a big meeting with Ibra tommorow at his house to organize the rest of my mandate

big thangs!

I leave you guys with an uglyfaced pic of myself and another mix to enjoy on a sunday afternoon…breezy bossa nova…

ciao gente!

ENJOY!

Trabalho

Ok so it was Segundafera (Monday) so Ibra informed me of my work mandate for the month

It is both extremely cool and extremely long…but i cant wait

The FAN (Festival de Arte Negra) is starting soon and Casa Africa is playing a big role

The 5 day festival (19nov) is a quite important here in Belo (20 000 pers) and the city of Belo have contracted Casa Africa to take care of almost everything

They will be hosting cultural workshops (dance,music,art), organizing daily concerts, hosting african cultural workshops for Belo school children (I luv da kidz!) and maintaining a HUGE bar and restaurant (20000 peeps..yeah!)..celebrating senegal independence day, etc…

Anyways they put me in charge of the ExpressoAfrica Radio part

so this is what I have to do

1- Prepare 5 different 5 hour african music sets to be played throughout the festival

2- Edit their 20 radio programs to cut out commercials and extract the most relevant info in order to assemble daily 2 hour radio programs both musical and educational…basically remix and boil down 20 hours of radio into 10

3- Prepare Bio/Info sheets on artists from this year´s featured African countries (above the equator…only those….

4- During all this I will be basically assembling/organizing the GIGANTIC Casa Africa musical library…since the CentroCultural will be moving soon to a bigger and better place

Thus, as you guys know this is exactly my cup of tea and I have already started working hard as fug on contacts with record labels, getting my African vinyl dealing friends to lace me with some MP3s and just filtering up all this music! I got less than a month…vamos!

So after a long day of work at the office I left for the CasaAfrica bar

They just received this ill collection of comics

But it was all about the CDs

I organized them into sections/countries and will be going everynight to listen and choose…

Those who know me know that I always listen/organize/mix at least 2 hours per day well now its more useful than ever

and in such a great space

Well thats it so i will be keeping you up to date and posting up some music over the course of the week…

for now enjoy a mix I always enjoy late at night….

Its mainly dark brazilian psychrock, very good for the late hours of the night

JorgeBen, Seu Jorge, Evinha, MarcosValle and a crazy piano track at the end

But most tracks are from Arthur Verocai

Unknown but supremely talented brazilian producer…his album changed my life as far as late nights are concerned.

So listen…

As I am writing this its 8am (got up real early today)

Got to go to work…

Ciao gente!!!

One love to all

Voltando

Hey garrotos e meninhas

Last time I left you I was writing from the office on a hot ass day

Well i worked for a long moment then took the bus to go to yet another BBQ at Ibra´s; we had to finish all that cerveja you know

I got off at the wrong stop meaning i had to walk a Km on the highway but i took a couple of pics of the scenery so you guys understand what i meant about the nature right outside of Belo

Kuter the Angolan painter was there as well as the usual crew

We stayed extra late to watch the Brazil-Colombia match..great food and beer..not so great match 0-0

I had to grill on through the night

And we sung along the guitar on the busride back…

Boa noite

Sabado

I was kind of tired Saturday…

But I got up and walked around the city to the very nice municipal park where my man Ibra was waiting to take me to his Capoeira classes

He practises Capoeira Angola (the more spiritual,less-flashy and in my opinao essentially more beautiful artform)

It was a wondeful experience (it did not take pics out of respect) Mestre João the master has a long tradition and his students are both respectful and friendly

Its a very small local but the berimbau sounds and percussion fill the room accompanying the chants, furthermore you can practice on the ouside veranda filled with plants and sounds…

I was blessed to get a privileged access to this community…that do great work with afro-dancing and youths in Belo…

It was hard on the knees, but i needed some exercise and this 3 hour session opened my mind and soul…

Needless to say i was drained thats when Ibra brought me to the central market where we had a giant bowl of Açai

Oh snap! Deliciously semi frozen sorbet of enrgy and berryness with sweet banana/cereal combo…best breakfast/snack/energizer ever

I went back home watched Training Day in portuguese and some soaps while brushing up on my portuguese activity book…(do your homework young man)

Another great day and my night was filled with grand antoineprojects for the future of casa africa (more on that later)

Well as I am writing now I am in the office listening to some sweet sounds via my

Brazil Mix

and am going to Ibra for an afternoon cookout

Ate logo gente

Beijos

Toninho

A dia feria

Another day, another incredible chain of events

It was the end of Ramadan for Ibrahima and he decided to inaugurate his house as well as celebrate my birthday by throwing a Churascao (BBQ!) at his house in NovaLima (a city outside of Belo..think Laval..but… you know…nice)

Daniel lifted us after we stocked up on some cevejas and we were off…i love the outside of Belo because it has incredible pitoresque nature…apparently apart from possesing the largest concentration of bars per citizen/km2 (think nice lounges/local spots..but more friendly/communal and more cheap!) MinasGerais also has the most waterfalls and Daniel has promised to take me camping

Lord have mercy! this BBQ party was popping…all the co-workers and friends were there

as well as the meat…

and the beers!

a wonderful sunny day..spent with good food and friends..life is good

But wait there is more…

We went out to a bar called Opçao….I had heard good things….local place…crazy grimy decor…condensed basement type place…but more importantly

Verdadeira Samba (aka Realness)

and man did it not dissapoint

Classics coming out of the sick combo

We stayed the whole night dancing!

Belleza!

Mas coisas

Stuff just keep on getting better

So after a big day of work i was directly off to the festival again to help out with the kicthen and bar

Caru my co-worker was nice enough to help me around the city (getting to know it better and better)…wonderful person this Caru..we met some of the street dwellers she does social work with and it was an incredible experience to day the least…i will be accompanying her next friday…

Yeah so we were preparing Mafe…a typical senegalese dish (peanut sauce based)

I love cooking over big ass flames as such

Seconds away from the bar were things were getting busy…

Leo the man responsible for the CasaAfrica bar/concert hall has a couple of invented drinks that i am sure to bring back home…including Africando a 3 colored drink that looks like the senegalese flag

After learning how to make caiperinhas and mojitos i went to see a fellow senegales percussionist perform…

Full percussion band killing it…

With his son being the hardest…

Really good people and music…african rythms like samba have a crazy rejuvenating and non-stopping effect on minha pessoa

At midnightI got a happy birthday from my peeps and a couple of hard drinks as well (eating olives at the end of a gigantic shooter of cachaça actually works

Anyway we eneded the night over at casa africa with great beats, some herb and some guitar

Here is an example of the breezy sounds at the end of the night

As luck (destiny) would have it..the next day was a national holiday and my birthday..and…

Day 2

Nossa!

I am here in Belo and this City is great it is the 3rd largest in Brazil…but it is much calmer than Rio or SaoPaolo… crazy weather, people, sounds I could not be more pleased

Oh wait…yes I can…when I saw where I will be working I could not believe the beautiful synchronicity of my life path

Casa Africa is a Cultural NGO that works on the promotion of African Culture in the Afro-Brazilian community in a way to both promote education & cultural heritage while subsequently fighting the omnipresent racism in the Brazilian society.

They operate out of the Casa Africa cultural space/bar/restaurant where they hold cultural events (concerts, African cultural nights, Noite do Griot) and host conferences and a library for school children.

Imagine my reaction when I stepped into this place…

What!

DJ booth with a full African music library (one to which i hope to contribute)

Just an incredibly beautiful place

We then visited the offices of Casa Africa where I will be doing most of my work

Casa Africa has a 1hour radio show made to both educate and entertain..they started it with local community radio RadioFavela and are now expanding to a broader network of national stations

My first job will be to build a website for the radio archives…

I returned to my youth when i learned that Casa Africa was collaborating with the local Festival of Choirs (Petit Chanteurs!) and fundraising by holding down the bar there

But first Ibrahima invited me to his house where the CasaAfrica storage unit was being built..he needed some help!

Ibrahima

Sua casa

CasaAfrica tours the country with an activity they call Africando…a sort of travelling band of musicians and mobile-bar to bring the awareness of African culture in other cities.

They paint scenes and backgrounds with the help of an Angolan painter and this storage unit will serve to both create and store these materials

After a hard day of heavy lifting it was time to relax and enjoy the bar/music

I am overtly ecstatic about this project and cant wait to work super hard for its expansion

ate logo gente!