Escrevivências and [R]Existências - A bilingual English-Portuguese poetry collection featuring the works of Black Brazilian women and students of the University of Georgia

Think carefully: when was the last time you read something—poetry, a short story, a novel, an essay—written by a Black woman?

Then, ask yourself again: when was the last time you read something written by a Black woman from beyond the borders of the United States?

Escrevivências and [R]Existências, a bilingual poetry collection orchestrated under the direction of Professor Cris Lira, is a contemporary call for and answer to these questions.

Featuring 10 Black, Brazilian female writers and 10 UGA students and 1 translation editor from the University of Iowa across the 142 pages of the manuscript, the collection was composed over the spring semester of 2023 and released April 27th, 2023.

Available and free for download to the public, the project seeks to spread the contemporary voices of Black Brazilian women and promote a transnational discourse concerning the experiences and echoes of the African Diaspora.

What can we learn from these voices entangled with the past, present, and future?

What can we change—within ourselves and within the systems that govern us—to confront the history of our roots and determine how to grow moving forward, together?

Read a poem by Alessandra Sampaio, Ana Dos Santos, Cristiane Sobral, Érica Azevedo, Fátima Soares, Jeovânia P., Juliana Sankofa, Karine Bassi, Lilian Rocha, or Lindevania Martins that awaits behind the bold gazing Black woman on the collection’s cover, and you may discover something new, something bold, something beautiful—revelations await.