_{© Paulo Spranger /Global Imagens}

On the Reduction of the Other as a reflection of inculture

"Slavery, Colonialism, Neo-colonialism, Violence, Prejudice (Racism, Xenophobia, Homophobia....) are actions aimed at reducing the Other. The reduction of the Other provides compensation, fills deep and inexhaustible needs. The cause of these manifestations is a perverse lack of culture, culture in its spiritual sense, which spreads from love, religions, knowledge, teaching, to the arts. Understanding through these various disciplines and practices that the Other is us, can change the heart that changes the mind".

"I will make a 20-minute presentation from the novel «O Diabo Foi Meu Padeiro», which recounts the experience of the Tarrafal Concentration Camp detainees, followed by a 30-minute Q&A. Finally, a music recital on love".

Free entrance

Bio note

Mário Lúcio Matias de Sousa Mendes - Singer, composer, author, thinker, born on October 21, 1964 in Tarrafal, Santiago Island, Cape Verde. He is one of the most acknowledge figures of the Cape Verdean cultural scene, both locally and internationally. Mario Lucio is a musician, singer-songwriter, the country’s most internationally awarded author, the poet who marked the turning point in the new Cape Verdean poetry with the book Nascimento de Um Mundo, one of the renowned thinkers of his generation, author of the Cryoulization Manifesto, the most current work on the phenomenon of cryoulization around the world.

Founder and leader of the musical group Simentera, ex-libris of Cape Verdean music, Mario Lucio became a reference of music and culture in Cape Verde. He has nine original albums, a compilation of 80 of his most listened songs, and collaborations with Cesaria Evora, Mayra Andrade (Cape Verde), Manu Dibango (Cameroon) Touré Kunda (Senegal), Paulinho Da Viola, Gilberto Gil, Milton Nascimento, Pablo Milanes (Cuba), Mario Canonge and Ralph Tamar (Martinique) Teresa Salgueiro, Luis Represas, (Portugal) Toumani Diabate (Mali), Harry Belafonte (USA), Oliver Mtukudzi (Zimbabwe), and many others.

Academic studies and skills: Mario Lucio holds a degree in Law from Havana University. He was a Member of the Cape Verdean Parliament from 1996 to 2001. Adviser to the Minister of Culture (1992) and Cultural Adviser to the Commissioner of Expo/92. Author of the musical project of Cape Verde for Expo 92 (Seville) and 98 (Lisbon).

Cultural Ambassador of Cape Verde.

Minister of Culture and Arts, 2011 to 2016

Distinctions:
Medal of the Order of the Volcano, by the President of the Republic of Cape Verde - Cubadisco Award for Best International Album 2012 (Kreol) - Womex- Personality of the Year, 2014 - Member of the Academy of Letters of Cape Verde, of the Society of Authors and Music Editors, SACEM; Member of the Portuguese Society of Authors, SPA, and the Brazilian Union of Composers. Medal of Merit for relevant services rendered to Culture by the Government of Cape Verde.
Portuguese Language Bibliographical Fund Award
Carlos de Oliveira Award, Portugal,
Miguel Torga Award - City of Coimbra 2015;
PEN Literature Club Award for best Portuguese language novel of 2016

Playwright. Author of: Adão e As Sete Pretas de Fuligem (2001). Sozinha No Palco (2004). Vinte e Quatro Horas na Vida de um Morto (2006), Um Homem, Uma mulher e um Frigorífico (2007), Adão e Eva (2012), Os Dias de Birgit (2018).

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Activity under the Doctoral Programme Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship, the project CROME - Crossed Memories, Politics of Silence: The Colonial-Liberation Wars in Postcolonial Times, the Departament of Languagues, Literatures and Cultures and the PhD in Portuguese Language Literature (FLUC), in partnership with Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente