Mandingueira

Calling All Capoeiristas!  Who Do You Know is Working for Change?

Is your grupo building a school in Brazil?  Has your mestra/e organized a panel on women in capoeira?  Does a capoeirista you know inspire change wherever s/he goes, through their love of capoeira and passion for the art?

If so, I want to hear about it!

Readers/fellow capoeiristas! This is your chance to contribute, and moreover your chance to turn the spotlight on that deserving someone or worthwhile project that you feel the world needs to know about.  Here’s how it works:

1. You send me an email describing who or what you want to spotlight, and why you think I should write about them.  The only criteria is that it has to have something directly to do with how capoeira is helping to make a difference in the world.  I won’t put a word count limit on it, but please keep in mind time constraints and that your submission will not necessarily be chosen.  Send the email to axejoaninha[at]gmail[dot]com, with subject line: Spotlight Capoeira and Change.  (Alternatively, you can leave a comment on this page below, but I will still respond to you through email.)

2. If your email is chosen, I will send a reply asking for more information about the person/project/story, including contacts and possibly photos.  The article I write will then be featured on Blue Snake Books Blog, as part of their/my ongoing Capoeira and Change series (and of course publicized here on Mandingueira).

What’s in it for you?

Well, first of all, those warm fuzzies that we all love so much!  But in more tangible terms:

• You will receive the very cool custom-made Mandingueira spiral-bound capoeira notebook featured in the picture below.  (Perfect for keeping track of all those sequences and song lyrics!)
• Your spotlightee(s) will receive a donation ($20 CDN), if a current project and accepting, or also a notebook, if an individual person.

So, what are you waiting for?  If there’s a time for you to speak up, it’s now!  And don’t just tell me—tell your sister about this, your partner, your best friend, your contra-mestra, and every capoeirista you know!  This will be an ongoing project, which means unless I indicate otherwise before then, I’ll still be accepting emails for this six days, three weeks, two months, etc., from now.  Please keep in mind, though, that it doesn’t count if you tell me about something already mentioned on this blog or that is obvious/easy to find (e.g. ABADA Capoeira San Francisco, Grupo Nzinga), unless you are writing about a specific project or movement that may or may not be widely known yet.  Finally, also please know that if you email me about something and I don’t write about it right away, that does not mean I won’t write about it some time in the future!

To find out more about the thoughts and ideas behind this, or what exactly I mean by “capoeira and change”, please read these posts (if you haven’t already):

Can Capoeira Change the World?
Can Capoeira Change the World? Part 2
Capoeira as a Force of Change

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To: axejoaninha[at]gmail[dot]com
Subject: Spotlight Capoeira and Change

Body:

Over to you!