Brazilian popular music in a peripheral neighbourhood, where isolation is not a reality

Apr 09, 2020, 03:25 PM

Sao Paulo lockdown sound by Vinicius Santos Almeida.

"In the Jardim Belém neighborhood, in the Ermelino Matarazzo district, east of the city of São Paulo, Brazil, the population is not exactly confined inside their home. 

"Traffic has not decreased so much. The supermarkets are full, perhaps even more than usual; many elderly people buying bread and cleaning products in the morning. 

"And on the streets, music. It is common for people to party in the streets all night (from Thursday to Sunday without stopping). In the first week of isolation, there was a decrease in the occurrence of these parties, but after that, they returned. Very loud music, barbecue on the street, people walking around, young men having fun with motorcycles - certainly less than usual, but you can't call that isolation. 

"Is there another way to consume art and have fun in neighbourhoods without sufficient cultural facilities, where access to the internet depends on the low income of residents, where houses are extremely small, full of people and insalubrious?"

Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds