Rio de Janiero

Kaê is an indigenous singer, songwriter, actress and writer who is originally from Maranhão (Northeast Brazil) and now lives in Rio de Janeiro. Kaê has been breaking the silence and the chains imposed by racism and colonisation; raising up cries of resistance that span and echo from since Brazil was a Portuguese Colony.

"My singing tries to present melodies in new formats, drawing attention to decolonisation and antiracist lyrics, so this way I can establish through the arts a relationship with non-indigenous society and oppose to structural racism, social invisibility and violence that affect all of us indigenous people."

Camila Alves is a clinical psychologist and Arts-educator and describes herself as a white, middle-class, blind woman who relies on her guide dog for most of her day to day activities. She has been working for over 12 years in Education programmes of Cultural Centres and Museums in Brazil, advocating for accessibility and education programmes in cultural and arts centres.

"We, people with disabilities, are daily informed of our non-rights to access numerous spaces, contents, relationships and platforms. I’d like to dedicate my participation in this exhibition to all the people who have their lives crossed by exclusion and who fight for the  
transformation of the world in a more just and dignified place for all of us."

Bruna is a transgender rights activist, and the first transgender women to serve in the military army in Brazil. After coming out as a transgender women, she fought a long legal battle to guarantee her rights to continuing working in the army, which was granted in 2018, a historical result in the country.

"There is power in the diversity of this voices and the commitment between women - cis and trans, of all races, religion and social backgrounds - we represent the struggles faced daily in our society against sexism, transphobia and structural oppression."

 Nina Silva is an IT expert and a black woman who was born and raised in a peripheral community in Brazil. After a burnout, she turned her career around with a purpose driven action and started investing in Business and Activism. She is the founder of the Black Money Movement in Brazil, a network that empowers black people, foster education and entrepreneurship, and create business opportunities for the Brazilian black community.

"The Black Money Movement is a hub for innovation and fostering entrepreneurship with a focus on the black communities. The intention is to make the money circulate and stay longer among black people before going into the hands of other ethnic groups, bringing more economic strength to our people."

Ana is a Black female educator, culinarian and urban farming enthusiast and agroecology activist. She is Co-founder of social environmental NGOs, which trains vulnerable communities to create urban green spaces and farming. It is in this land marked by structural inequality that she lays her belief in the healing power of plants and healthy food sovereignty for peripheral communities.

"Our aim is to empower people to take sustainability and food sovereignty in their own hands: for centuries agroecology and urban farming was a common part of family's daily lives, it was so common, it is part of us, and we need to realise that it's part of our future. We can make it happen again. "

Irone is a human rights activist and resident of Favela da Maré - the biggest favela in Rio de Janeiro, home of 140.000 people. She is part of the civil society collective Mothers of Maré, a group that supports mothers that had their sons killed by the State during police operations in peripheral communities. The group advocates for justice and the creation of public policies that prevent systematic crimes against black youths from favelas to keep going unnoticed by the government and the media.

"It is difficult to talk about peace and justice in a country where the laws do not work for a large part of our society...Justice in Brazil is not for the poor, but we’ll fight until the end for this to be a reality."

Berenice Piana is a Brazilian activist, co-author of the constitutional right number 12.764, enacted on December 28, 2012, which bears her name: the Berenice Piana act. It is the first law in Brazil which instituted the National Policy for the Protection of the Rights of People with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

"When a child is born with autism, the impact of it on a family depends on the family context and how these people were educated about differences between human beings and disabilities. I chose to fight and bring a minimum of dignity to these families, when they didn't even have an institutionalized law to guarantee their rights."