Cultural warriors

By Andy Marks

Rainforest, deforestation, sublime football, samba, carnival, bikini waxes, flip flops. We’re talking Brazil. Specifically we’re talking favelas, the name for shanty towns or slums. 

In Rio, favelas are home to around 2 million people. Mostly located on the city’s various hillsides, they are characterised by grinding poverty, drugs and gang violence. Between 1987 and 2001, 3,937 of Rio’s young were murdered there. After a particularly brutal episode in 1993 when a police massacre in the Vigário Geral favela left 21 people dead, a cultural phenomenon emerged, Afro Reggae. 

It could all have been so different. Fighting fire with fire was the instinct the founders had to battle with. But instead they fought with music.

 “Amidst the turbulence, the massacre, my connection to the cartel, I started to think of a better life.” Anderson Sa co-founder Afro Reggae.

Having just seen friends and family murdered, Anderson Sa a minor drug dealer turned to Jose Junior publisher of newspaper Afro Reggae Notícias. Together they created a different response. Using music and Afro-Brazilian culture as an instrument of social change, they began drawing favela youth away from the violence of the drugs trade. 

Making music with a reggae / latin / hip hop cross-over and highly political lyrics, Afro Reggae started running school benefit concerts and music workshops for kids. Banda Afro Reggae emerged, not so much a band but a musical collective with core members, they penetrated the hearts of favela youth and made it cooler to do culture than do drug dealing.  

Now an NGO with an objective to divert young people from drug trafficking and unemployment, Grupo Cultural Afro Reggae has harnessed the power of music and related art forms to spectacular effect. They run over 70 projects across a range of disciplines including music, dance, theatre, martial arts, recycling and percussion with over 3,000 Rio youth. They even provide social support guiding many into mainstream employment.

With two albums to their name following an international record deal, Banda Afro Reggae supported the Rolling Stones on Copacabana beach in 2006. And with Favela Rising www.favelarising.com, a feature length documentary telling a vivid account of their story, their message continued to reach out further and further. They now have ‘SubGrupos’ and collaborations with community and youth groups around the world.

Afro Reggae is an extraordinary story. From destruction came transformation. From culture came self-worth. From the favelas came Afro Reggae. 

why vivacity

This is the century of the city.

Over half the world’s population now live in cities. This is projected to rise to three-quarters of all people in 2050. With population increases, this means 6.75 billion of us will be city dwellers, an increase of 3.75 billion from today. As the future success or failure of mankind lies in cities, new ways of using them are needed.

The city represents an incredible paradox. We have never been closer together physically, but we have never been further away from each other emotionally. At vivacity we celebrate city movements around the world that change and re-define the way we interact with and use cities. Whilst cities cannot cope with the numbers now and the resultant strain on the world’s natural resources and eco-systems are already painfully evident, we believe that human spirit and endeavor will overcome, as it has done before.

vivacity promotes city movements that are connecting people & creating new types of communities. They are typically low impact, highly sociable, enabled by technology, using public and private spaces in new ways and empowering people to act locally.

vivacity promotes new ways of feeling alive, new ways of being invigorated, and new things to be a part of. We call it grassroots stuff in the city. We hope you get involved and share your experiences with us.

who we are

Andy Marks vivacity founder and editor

Social entrepreneur, lecturer, writer and curator, Andy Marks is an agent of positive social change practicing at the intersection or fault-line of business, society and culture. Andy is the founder of research and consultancy network Salad Worldwide, an advisor to some of the world’s leading companies on Corporate Responsibility and an advisor to a number of non-profit organizations. Andy is an expert on grass roots city movements, and a founding partner of an upcycling enterprise launching in 2010.

Julian Broadhead contributor

With a background in advertising, branding and corporate responsibility, Julian works with blue-chip companies from a wide range of industries and sectors, advising on strategy and new ways of connecting with people. He is currently developing a number of new opportunities in the environmental sector, with a particular emphasis on making environmental action more accessible.

Shane Solanki – contributor/distributor/carburettor/carbon-ara

Artist, writer, performer, producer and director, Shane’s first short film was commissioned by the BBC and directed by Peter Cattaneo. His first record was produced by Mercury Prize Winner Talvin Singh. He worked for years to forge the unique identity of independent record label Ninja Tune. We at Vivacity like to think of him as a grass roots detective, covertly operating under the pseudonym of the Last Mango in Paris; imagine him skulking around the world in a beige macintosh, recording and documenting our shift into a society where social responsibility and public creativity are norms.

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become a vivacity scout

As more and more of us live in urban areas, individuals and communities can feel overwhelmed and isolated by the sheer intense-city of it all.

However we at vivacity believe that human spirit and endeavor will overcome as it has done so many times before. That is why we are celebrating movements around the world that are changing and re-defining the way we interact with the city. We would like to hear from you about grassroots movements or activities that bring people together face to face and use cities in new ways. The more original and imaginative the better.

Please email us describing a movement you would like to see on vivacity using a maximum of 300 words. info@vivacity.me