With the opening Poster of the festival “Forward”which takes place from 2 to 4 September at Quinta da Atalaia, in Seixal, there were several criticisms of Portuguese artists accepting an invitation to perform at an event of the Communist Party of Portugal (PCP), the only Portuguese party with a seat in Parliament that did not condemn the military invasion of Ukraine by order of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
José Milhazes spoke first. At SIC, a commentator recalled that musicians are “free to participate in anything, but they are in a party that is not just a musical one. It is a political party created by a party that supports abhorrent regimes and that currently supports war.
“I was stunned to see artists like Carminho or Paulo Braganza on the poster,” said José Milhazes, adding that he was surprised by the presence of Bia Ferreira, “who, according to the poster is one of the most prominent Brazilian voices of affirmation for the LGBT community and comes to the side of a party that supports regimes that persecute, arrest and kill all these sexual minorities.”
BLITZ podcast guest, Posto Emissor, Paulo Braganza said: “There was a wave hate because of Avant. I am a man of the world and I am going for the world. I go to work and nothing else.”
For her part, Bia Ferreira responded in the affirmative, releasing a video in which she responds to messages received after José Milhazes’ comment. “The Festa do Avante invited me to make show and on any stage that invites me to do my art, I rise because I am a woman, black and Brazilian, who does not have many opportunities to do the political and revolutionary art that I represent.
“I’m going to practice my art” Bia Ferreira
“I’m going to denounce the damage the Portuguese have done here in Brazil. If you only care about deaths in Ukraine because a white European dies, I wanted to say that every 23 minutes a black person dies here in Brazil. And that’s what I’m going to do at the Festa do Avante: condemn the damage. I don’t refuse to touch because my art will not be hushed up or condemned,” he says.
“What really worries me is that I’m complaining that your ancestor enslaved my people here in Brazil and that we’re still paying that bill to this day. That’s why you’re so excited for Bia to play Festa do Avante. Yes, I’m going to do my art,” says Bia Ferreira, who also works at FMM Sines.
Bia Ferreira developed these ideas into mail on Instagram: “Regarding the war between Russia and Ukraine, I have never been to any of these countries, but here in Brazil I have been living in war since birth and I have never seen these same people worry about our death. . Helicopters are used as a base to shoot down civilians in the favelas. The deaths in Ukraine are alarming because white people are dying. How much are the lives of the people who die every day as a result of state violence in Brazil worth? Do you know their color? If you don’t care, then you’re just another racist. And Brazil is the country that kills the most [pessoas] LGBTKIAP+ no peace!” he says.
“As long as I have ammo, I will travel wherever I am welcome.” Dino D’Santiago
For his part, Dino D’Santiago wrote: “I received messages from some people against my participation in the Festa do Avante, some asked to cancel, others accused me of Ukrainian blood shed in this war. Yeah. I am responsible for the bloodshed in this and all wars on both sides of the trench! Because I’m the son of the 20th century! The deadliest century in human history! In OUR hands we carry the blood of over 100 million people killed in the name of power, religion or genocide.”
On the other hand, the author of The New Lisbon notes:As for this war between two European countries, it seems to have finally awakened the compassion of the privileged Eurocentric, who today tastes his own “Western” poison. Where are they when famine cries out for children in Yemen, where are they when it comes to the 5.5 million refugees from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or the 1.75 million fleeing Burkina Faso, in addition to the other million refugees from Cameroon, South Sudan, Chad, Mali, Sudan, Nigeria, Burundi and Ethiopia?” he asks. “I have always been and will be for PEACE in every corner of this globe! And for this war of mankind, I carry the only weapon that I inherited from my parents … LOVE! And as long as I have ammo, I will travel wherever I am welcome.”
Express too. Enrique Raposo wrote on the topic, commenting on the reaction of the Russian Embassy to the words addressed to Putin, at a concert in Agueda. “After the Pedro Abruños case, the friendship and connivance between the PKP and Russia has become even more scandalous, and in this sense it is important to ask the question: will Portuguese artists continue to campaign and act for freedom and diversity in the morning? and during the day? Will they continue to play at the party of the party that supports Putin? Will they continue to campaign LGBT in the morning and play as the most reactionary Portuguese party in the field in the afternoon, which, on top of that, refuses to denounce the Putin regime that persecutes LGBT minorities? ”
