Terra e Teto: The Movement for Land and Roof

Terra e Teto: The Movement for Land and Roof
"Under our feet and above our heads"
November/December 2002

Terra e Teto: The Movement for Land and Roof in Brazil and Beyond will perform on Friday, November 22 at the NE First Street Music Hall, 619 NE First Street. The project is the collaboration of two activists, one an artist from Philadelphia and the other an organizer from Sao Paulo, touring the Eastern U.S. in November.

Terra E Teto employs art and theater techniques from the international "puppetista" movement and influenced by Brazil's "m°stica" used by the MST (Landless Workers Movement) to illustrate the parallel histories of the United States and Brazil. From colonization and slavery, independence and abolition, through tenuous military regimes, to the current trend of neoliberalism and the impending Free Trade Area of the Americas agreement, Terra E Teto employs illustrated Portuguese lessons, toy theater, physical interaction and bunraku-style puppetry to create a landscape of ideas that engage audiences in finding answers: Why is one nation building a military space launching station in the rainforest causing an outcry of resistance from thousands of indigenous families in the other nation? How can the general public of one nation be barely aware of the free trade agreement that their president is aggressively trying to pass, while twelve million people in the other nation turn out to the polls to vote it down? Why does one nation boast the biggest population of incarcerated citizens on earth, while the other lays claim to the largest successful contemporary social movement, with more than one million people living on seized farmlands, or in abandoned buildings, taking direct action to demand agrarian and urban reform?

The performance will start at 8 p.m. There is a $3-5 sliding scale admission. The event is co-sponsored by the Ciivic Media Center in Gainesville, and the tour is sponsored by the Industrial Workers of the World International Solidarity Commission. Call 373-0010 for more information locally, or for information about the tour contact the IWW at 215-222-1905 or email tet@critpath.org.