Urban Maroon Ateliê Multicultural Elioenai Gomes: Afrocentricity, Black Poetics, and Black Scenic Pedagogy in the performance Auto dos Orixás.
Afrocentricity, Black Scenic Pedagogy, Black Poetics, Black Theatre.
This is an Afro-referenced autoethnographic research study on the procedures for assembling and performing the public act/spectacle Auto dos Orixás. An initiative of the urban quilombo Ateliê Multicultural Elioenai Gomes, conceived and maintained by the multi-visual artist Nai Gomes in João Pessoa, Paraíba. We are interested in reflecting on the different artistic and cultural actions undertaken in this space, constituted by collaborative practices in the performing arts, bringing to the audience and cast a relevant and unique educational dimension of Black poetics. The analysis focuses on the guiding principles and procedures of the pedagogical and creative practices of the aforementioned performance, the object of our study, and which, articulated with my artistic and social trajectory at the Multicultural Atelier – as a territory of formation and quilombos (maroon communities) – situates my experiences to formulate the concept of Corporvivência (a term coined by the author), deepening studies on Afrocentricity in art education, theater teaching, and the poetic production of Black dramaturgy. In this sense, the aforementioned public act/spectacle is understood as a mobilizing initiative that constitutes a Pretagógica (PETIT, 2015) experience in theatre that is quite powerful and in need of further study.