Love Forever, Fear Never: Brazilian Musical Responses to a Political Coup

Abstract

On May 12, 2016, the Brazilian Senate initiated impeachment proceedings of President Dilma Rousseff, installing Michel Temer as interim president. Temer’s agenda included Provsisional Measure No. 726, which shuttered Brazil’s Ministry of Culture, calamatious news for Brazilian culture makers, who relied on the ministry as a source of advocacy and financial support. In response, activists occupied state offices across the country in protest. At Palácio Gustavo Capanema, the Rio de Janeiro headquarters of the ministry, the occupation lasted more than 100 days. Culture makers from myriad disciplines and backgrounds showed support for the activists, with music and musicians playing a particularly important role in raising the profile and spirits of the occupation. The present article examines this moment through an analysis of a May 22 performance by composer Jards Macalé. Drawing on ethnographic work at the occupation and in-depth interviews with participants, it argues that musical performance, articulated through a politicized notion of love, served an important community-building function at these protests. It also contributes to debates by theorists such as Lauren Berlant and Sara Ahmed on the use of love to motivate political action. This language, while key to creating the possibility for identification, can be undercut by the lived exclusions of events like these when they do not include the presence of the people most affected by the policies being protested.