When poetry rhymes with work: professional perspectives from a literary events

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, writers coming from low-income background identified mostly as black, and associated with different forms of expression (such as marginal and peripheral literature), have been gaining visibility in the Brazilian cultural scene. Many of them are also engaged in literary collectives organizing literary events in slums and peripheral areas, among other activities, intended to reclaim and resignify the cultural practices associated with economic and cultural elites. Drawing from this context and several cultural policies intended to address the needs of these artists and activists, this article focuses on the career trajectories of Raquel Almeida and Michel Yakini – co-founders of the literary collective Elo da Corrente – to discuss the writers' chances of professionalization in the cultural sector. The data and reflections presented here are based on in-depth interviews carried out at different times in the public performance of these writers, as well as on a series of research projects on the cultural production arising from the peripheries of São Paulo (NASCIMENTO, 2006; 2011 e 2017). In conversation with theories exploring social trajectories (BOURDIEU, 1986), life projects (DAYRELL, 2005a), transition into adulthood (SPOSITO, 2007) and policies addressing the democratization of culture (such as VILUTIS, 2009, ABREU, 2010 and MAIA, 2014), this article explores literary events not only as important spaces for the production and distribution of peripheral literature but, above all, as spaces through which its regular participants build their subjectivities. These events allow participants to explore different ways of being in the world, facilitating emotional ties to the peripheral areas and giving access to new opportunities for political participation, community life and professional experience.