05/11/2012 Dialogo

2012-05-11 | Panmela Castro: Social activism with graffiti

Panmela Castro (light green T-shirt) with students who participated in a workshop about gender issues at Bronx International (#) High School (#), in New York. (Courtesy of Anarkia Boladona)

By Daniela Oliveira for Inforsurhoy.com – 11/05/2012 RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil – What do President Dilma Rousseff, 65, and the graffiti artist and social activist Panmela Castro, 30, have in common?

Besides being prominent figures in fields dominated by men, the two were the only Brazilians included in the list of the 150 women who shake the world (http://www.thedailybeast.com/features/150-women-who-shake-the-world.html%20%20), published in March

by Newsweek magazine and the website The Daily Beast.

Rousseff and Castro, who signs her work using the pseudonym Anarkia, are featured in the list alongside women such as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Angelina Jolie.

The artist has gained attention through her feminist graffiti, as well as the work she does with the NGO Nami Rede Feminista de Arte Urbana (http://www.redenami.com%20%20), known simply as Rede Nami, which she created.

Rede Nami uses urban art to promote women’s rights.

Castro and her partners provide graffiti workshops in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas and low-income neighborhoods to raise the awareness of women about their roles in society.

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“Since it’s a street art, graffiti is able to reach everyone and can provoke positive social change.

We use it to go into communities and talk to other women about gender issues, domestic violence, psychological violence and so much more,” says Castro, who recently returned from Istanbul, where she participated in a forum on women’s rights and female empowerment. “If we were to just invite an attorney (#) to come talk about the Maria da Penha Law (http://dialogoamericas.com//en_GB/articles/saii/features/main/2011/10/12/feature-01) [which seeks to curb domestic violence (#) against women], it wouldn’t have the same appeal and a lot of women wouldn’t even show up.”

Castro married when she was 21. Two years later, she became involved with graffiti on the streets of the Penha neighborhood, on the north side of Rio de Janeiro.

“I used graffiti to release some of my anxieties,” she says.

Castro says she was very shy but through graffiti was able to develop her voice, little by little.

Her marriage ended when she turned 24.

“I realized that something else had changed,” she says. “I was becoming more politicized with respect to women’s rights and I tried to include it in my work.”

Eves, witches and dragonflies Castro’s graffiti always features Eves, witches and other mythical feminine figures, drawn with warm colors. Strong words and phrases often cover parts of her work, which commonly expresses some form of pain – in one piece, for example, a character cries tears of blood.

More recently, the dragonfly has appeared frequently in her work.

“It represents a woman’s freedom to be what she wants and not what society wants her to be,” Castro says.

The workshops Castro and other artists from Rede Nami offer in Rio de Janeiro’s communities begin with skits. Then, they focus (#) on a topic. Finally, they encourage the participants to turn what was discussed into a collective graffiti mural on one of the community’s walls.

“When we hold a graffiti workshop on domestic violence, I always talk about the experiences close to me, what happened to aunts, cousins and friends. They’re not unlike the stories we hear in the communities,” Castro says. “Often, the victims are embarrassed to come forward. They think they should keep quiet or they did something to deserve it.”

In 2011 alone, more than 1,000 women from communities in Rio de Janeiro participated in the Rede Nami workshops.

Many women are quietly suffering before they find out about Panmela Castro and her group, says Daniele Kitty, Rede Nami’s 19-year-old vice president.

“A woman from Morro do Borel [on the north side of Rio de Janeiro] filed a complaint against her husband at a Women’s Protection Precinct after one of our graffiti workshops,” Kitty says. “Rede Nami helps these women reexamine their lives. Our work in the field is incredible and Panmela sets a positive example. In an area dominated by men, she is one of few females known for her graffiti.”

Rede Nami’s mentors also participate in workshops. Recently, they took part in a series of workshops and lectures that equipped them with more materials to address domestic violence and gender issues in Rio’s favelas.

Among the women who spoke to the group was Martha Rocha, who is the chief of the Rio de Janeiro Civil Police, and activist Schuma Schumaher, one of the founders of the first precinct dedicated to domestic violence victims in Brazil.

In addition to the workshops, Castro is often invited to paint on walls in cities such as New York, Paris, Istanbul, Berlin, Washington, Toronto, Prague and Johannesburg. Earlier this year, she took part in graffiti workshops offered at U.S. schools.

In Brazil, however, Castro is still relatively unknown.

“Our work is just starting. I have a lot to show and say about women’s rights, particularly in Brazil,” says Castro, who has a degree in fine arts from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) and is pursuing a Master’s in the same field at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ).

Rio: 137 victims of violence against women per day

A study (http://urutau.proderj.rj.gov.br/isp_imagens/Uploads/DossieMulher2011.pdf%20%20) released by the Rio de Janeiro Department of Public Safety in January 2011 showed violence against women in the state has reached alarming levels. In 2010, which was the year examined by the study, there were 49,950 threats against women in Rio – about 137 victims per day.

The study showed women are most often the victims of rape (81.2%), threats (65.4%) and aggravated assault (62.9%), with most of the crimes occurring at home and by family members.

A house in Complexo da Maré Days after the Newsweek list was published, Castro was among the five recipients of a DFV Award (http://www.dvf.com/inside/Article/inside-dvf-acticles/dvf-awards-3%20%20), presented by the foundation of stylist Diane von Furstenberg.

The award honor efforts to improve the social economic and political situation of women throughout the world and comes with a cash prize of US$ 50,000.

“With this money, Rede Nami is going to buy a house in Complexo da Maré. We’re going to work with women in the region, which is one of the poorest in the city,” says Castro, who received a Global Leadership Award from Vital Voices in 2010 for her work promoting the rights of women and was recognized as one of the graffiti artists of the decade with a Hutúz Award in Brazil. “All I have is courage and a will to change the reality around us.”

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