Black women share memories and wishes for happiness

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difficult times and a friendly shoulder to share ideas and feelings. The viral phrase “A black woman happy is a revolutionary act”, by writer Juliana Borges, emerged in this context, in 2014.

“At that time, I read a lot of bell hooks pointing out the importance of rebuilding love and self esteem for our communion”, says Juliana, who links the phrase to the animalization that black women suffer in a society marked by slavery. Seeing the idea gaining exponential recognition among black women in recent months surprised the author.

Juliana’s reflection, published in the magazine capital letterin 2015, became a light for the research of the master’s student in visual poetics and artist Mônica Ventura.

“After finding a newspaper clipping from the colonial period announcing a black woman as a slave, I felt the need to work on the relationship between advertising and Afro-descendant women”, explains the artist, who transformed Juliana’s words into a sign made with LEDs.

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The work has already been exhibited in Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, where it will remain until January 2022, in the exhibition Carolina Maria de Jesus: A Brazil for Brazilians🇧🇷

With each look at the work, an intimate call boils up inside those who experience the intersection of the feminine and blackness. The revolution takes place through this act of transformation, which is to tear down the walls that prevent access to this state of contentment.

“When a black woman develops her happiness, she also produces her humanity. I identify with the idea of ​​former Uruguayan president José Mujica that bread and work are rights, but living with happiness and joy too”, says Juliana.

Next, black women share memories, transformations and wishes for happiness, re-signifying personal and collective scars of oppression that affect the root of society in propulsion towards dreams.

Luedji Luna, 34, singer-songwriter

“I remember a defining moment, the birth of my brother, Usma. I really wanted his arrival, I got anxious and told everyone at school. We became great life partners. Happiness lives in this possibility of living the way your spirit dreams of, is being in line with your purpose, even if there are ups and downs. I understood that when I finally took the music inside me. If the public feels lightness and belonging with the lyrics I write, it’s because they did it with me first. The experiences are crossed by the pains and delights of being a black woman, which is why the connection with them is even closer. Black women are always with me, whether in the process of composing, whether in partnerships, or in the management of my career. Our exchange is not only professional, but mainly friendship. Like music, motherhood also expanded my sense of contentment. I was a person who gave in and didn’t prioritize myself because of traumas and the fear of not being loved. Dayo, my son, changed that, giving me power, since he needed to love me to take care of another human being. He was the key to freeing me from guilt, which comes less from a place of subjectivity and more from something social. To be alive with dignity is the most beautiful dream of our ancestors, who fought for it. We owe them a kind of debt to cultivate that happiness. My strategy is to look back and revere them.”

Mônica Ventura, 36 years old, artist

“For me, happiness can be born from absence. When I was 4 years old, I woke up at home and I didn’t see my mother. The emptiness caused me pain and tears, which only stopped when she opened the gate with a bag on her arm. I was happy in an inexplicable way. In my teens, absence again spread through me, as I struggled to fit in and recognize my interests. The turning point only started when I entered college and began to understand where I wanted to go. Still in this process, in 2015, about to turn 30, I discovered the philosophy of the Sacred Feminine, which connected my essence to nature, yoga and meditation. I really had a big change in my perception of life. I understood that happiness can be a continuous state with this physical, emotional, spiritual alignment. When I stopped projecting to accept reality, being happy became part of my life in a non-toxic way. I used this thought from the moments when I couldn’t do something due to lack of money, for example, to the dynamics of my routine. If my priorities are my son, work, and home, I might have to postpone a deadline or say no to something else, as I won’t be able to handle everything. Emotional intelligence allows us to experience feelings contrary to happiness, but in a fleeting way.”

Erica Malunguinho, 39, state deputy from São Paulo and founder of Aparelha Luzia

“Even as a child who experienced many happy moments, I was already affected by situations that oppressed and saddened me. But I wouldn’t let myself be carried away by them. I always had the discernment that happiness and joy existed and I looked for ways to find them more and more. The awareness of knowing that the future could be happy protected me in periods of pain and sadness, that is, the hope in happiness lifted me in adversity. However, I believe and defend that this formula is only effective at the collective level, which is why I created Aparelha Luzia – an urban quilombo to promote artistic, gastronomic and social activities in black history. The trump card of this battle for our happiness, for me, is the meeting, which happens from cultural experiences, affections, loves to spirituality. Gathered together, we share our agonies, but, above all, we recognize the achievements.”

Luana Carvalho, 22 years old, content creator

“Laying down on the car seat, on my mother and grandmother’s lap, I admired the beauty of the treetops through the window. This is a moment of happiness that stuck with me, because I felt like we didn’t have any problems. To this day, my grandmother tells me the same phrase: ‘Neguinha, you deserve to be happy, that’s all you care about’. It became a mantra. I’m getting rid of the tendency to dwell too much on what I don’t have instead of celebrating the things I’ve achieved. I was born a woman, fat and black. Without realizing it, I was taught by the world to hate myself. After I accepted myself that way and started to share my process on the internet, happiness became synonymous with freedom. I wear the clothes I want and talk about the subjects that interest me. I realize that, on social media, people give themselves to me in the same way that I give myself to them. But there is still a very cruel personal charge, which I work on in therapy. My happiness depends on the way I deal with myself and I hope that this relationship is increasingly permeated by affection.”

Gabriela Loran, 28 years old, actress and content creator

“While I was taking a shower, I decided to do an exercise that my teacher at the Faculty of Performing Arts taught me. She asked everyone to touch each other when she got home. I remember that she felt every part and cried copiously. The notion of happiness materialized for me at that moment, at the age of 23, when I met the real Gabriela and understood that she was a woman. Happiness is everywhere, but we need to be open to see it. As much as oppressions like racism and transphobia wait to kill us, I reinforce to myself that this does not form me. What constitutes me is the support of my family, the air that hits my face. Even though I am a citizen aware of the ills, I am also transforming my life with my work and I need to celebrate. I’m tired of seeing only our pain go viral on the internet, so I always try to find my essence and share the victories.”

Aurinda da Anunciação, 87 years old, samba teacher, ialorixá and activist

“Happiness begins with resignation and knowing how to be patient. I learned this from being raised by my brother, as we lost our mother when we were children. In addition to teaching me how to live, he also taught me how to read. We would be nothing without access to reading, and I wouldn’t take the necessary steps to make dreams come true, like having my own home. The day I entered it was the happiest of my life, because I already lived in favor
in other people’s homes. Religiosity teaches me daily to deepen happiness. Working for our orixás and with an open heart,
life is filled with many things. But when there is no interest, everything is worse than it already is. My dream is to see a future with a truly united world. For that, we need that effort I mentioned, the interest in understanding and respecting others so that happiness becomes a reality for everyone.”

Gabi Oliveira, 29 years old, communicator and presenter of the podcast Afetos

“I grew up being seen as a very upbeat person, with a remarkable laugh. Even at church, they asked my parents not to sit in front of me, so I wouldn’t get in the way. So when I had depression as a teenager, I saw what it was like to deal with the absence of this emotional state. After the treatment, a new meaning of happiness was born and I became even happier. I started to value this feeling, because my eyes became more sensitive to identify even the simplest good things. Since then, I’ve always tried to have dreams in my microenvironment and in the macro, because I think it’s important for us not to deny ourselves these personal desires while acting for changes in society. It doesn’t matter to be on top while the bottom is still being explored, but guilt cannot stop us. It must be transformed into a force for action. This more flexible look developed even more during the process of adopting my two children. Educating children is persevering. I was already very happy before motherhood, but now I’m experiencing a new happiness, with more color. I know that for some people it is difficult, but optimism – which is part of my essence – is my main tool to be happy. I still believe in human development and that keeps me going.”

Juliana Borges, 39 years old, writer and founder of Banca HG bookshop

“I’ve always loved to write and read – even before I knew it. When I became literate, aged about 5, my grandmother made me the happiest child in the world by giving me the Monteiro Lobato collection as a gift. It’s the same happiness I feel today when I hear my sisters laugh.
An essential way to be truly free is to be well enough to build those spaces of tranquility that I mentioned, whether for ourselves or for others. Only that can’t turn into a weight. I was on autopilot mode until the pandemic showed me that I needed to take care of myself more. I started going to therapy for the first time to rebuild things that I liked, like going to an exhibition, having a coffee, going into a bookstore just to look. Reprogramming my life has given me more energy to invest in simple pleasures, but also in actions that can help women in situation…