Join us on October 15 as we celebrate Carolina Maria de Jesus’s work with a panel featuring Vera Eunice, Tom Farias, Susane Sena, and Luana Reis.
This event is organized by João Nemi Neto, Senior Lecturer in Portuguese in the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures.
Carolina Maria de Jesus is arguably one of the most important Brazilian writers from the 20th century. Her 1960 book, Quarto de Despejo (translated as Child of the Dark, The Diary of Carolina Maria de Jesus) has generated a myriad of adaptations from TV series to music. As Newsweek, at the time of the first English translation, described it, her book is “one of the most astonishing documents of the lower depths ever printed.” In 2021, scholars proposed a grammatical revision of Jesus’ work. The ensuing debate brought to light questions of language, racism, gender, and authorship in present-day Brazil.
Participants
- Tom Farias has recently published de Jesus’ biography, Carolina, uma biografia (Prêmio Jabuti, 2019 finalist, and Prêmio FLUP).
- Susane Sena has developed a career in visual media working with different artists focusing on the Afro-Brazilian and Black experiences. She is a community organizer and cultural producer based in New York. She has carried out projects such S.O.S. Earth– Agenda in New York. She has also produced performances and exhibitions at NYU and Columbia (2019). Most recently, she was involved in the production of a play based on Marielle Franco’s life.
- Vera Eunice is an educator and activist. She is Carolina Maria de Jesus’s daughter. She has worked tirelessly in order to keep her mother’s memory alive. She has organized public readings in Brazil and abroad. She provides a first-person account that reveals realities through her storytelling.
- Luana Reis (Princeton University) is a poet, educator, translator, and Black feminist scholar.
