Activism, Culture and Education for Citizenship in Brazil and the U.S. (2024-2025)
Building on the work of previous teams, this project brought together scholars, artists and students from Duke University, North Carolina Central University (NCCU), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), the Instituto Enraizados, and the Federal Rural University in Rio de Janeiro to investigate key forms of activism and cultural organizing ranging from Black, women’s and LGBTQ+ movements to the memorialization of slavery and local religious and musical expression. The team also examined elections and urban and labor struggles, especially in the context of the emergence and dissemination of evangelical churches in the Morro Agudo neighborhood of Nova Iguaçu.
To answer these questions, the team engaged in qualitative research including gathering, transcribing and summarizing oral histories from movement activists and participants and using semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Undertaking parallel work in Durham, the team also carried out ethnographic, participant observation and action research, precisely the liberatory pedagogical practices the team wishes to understand more deeply. The team organized two research trips to Brazil in 2024, with a third scheduled for June 2025, and hosted three reciprocal visits by Brazilian partners to Durham. In March 2025, the team held an international conference in Durham that included academic presentations and cultural events such as a rap concert and DJ performance by Brazilian and American artists.
A second conference, scheduled for June 2025 in Morro Agudo, will include both in-person and virtual participation. The team plans to publish research findings following this final event. These activities reflect the project’s central commitment to equitable, collaborative scholarship and the co-production of knowledge across borders.
Timing
Summer 2024 – Spring 2025
Team Outputs
Announcement on the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro's website about the visit of the Bass Connections team during the June 2024 field trip
Public class offered by Professor John French as part of the June 2024 field trip to the Baixada
Event at the Enraizados Institute that featured a Chilean rapper and a musical producer, and a Brazilian cultural producer, besides the Bass Connections team, August 2024
Visit to a public school in the Morro Agudo neighborhood, August 2024
News story in the Brazilian media about Dudu de Morro Agudo's new song, which was submitted as a final project for one of the courses that he took as part of his PhD program and received the highest grade (the news story mentions Duke and the upcoming visit of members of the Enraizados Institute to Duke in March 2025 as part of the Bass Connections project), October 2024
“Brazil: Hip Hop, Faith, and Citizenship” Conference at Duke University, March 2025
Documentary about the Batalha de Morreba Rap Battle by Akshay Gokul ((Interactive display presented at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, Duke University, April 16, 2025)
Dossier of translated materials written by and about the work of Dudu de Morro Agudo and the Enraizados Institute
See earlier related team, Hip Hop Pedagogies: Education for Citizenship in Brazil and the United States (2023-2024).
Image: Team members meet for dinner in Durham, courtesy of Courtney Crumpler