Mulheres negras compositoras na cena cultural de Alagoas: modos de resistência através da música.

Abstract

This work presents discussions within the theoretical-methodological field of Social Psychology. Our field/theme of study involves the experiences of black women composers from Alagoas considering the crossings of gender, race and the field of music, seeking to answer the following problem: What are the experiences of resistance of black women composers from Alagoas and how have they happened? We understand that there is little visibility of musical productions by black women and, therefore, the study of the lives of black women composers from the articulations between gender, race, class with musical production, performance and participation in the musical scene can bring important reflections on the experiences of resistance and protagonism of these women. We aim to understand the experiences of resistance of black women composers from Alagoas through musical production. Specifically, to identify aspects of the intersection of gender and race that are present in the songs produced by these women, highlight points of approximation and distance between the experiences of resistance and analyze the strategies to face gender and race inequalities in the experiences of black women composers from Alagoas. In dialogue with the understanding of the ways of doing scientific research from the Decolonial Perspective and Black Feminism, other ways of producing knowledge are reaffirmed, especially those knowledge silenced by dominant epistemologies, such as those produced by black women. We consider racism and sexism as systems of social hierarchy that have made black women invisible and inferior, reducing their access to mechanisms for asserting power and managing political and social structures. It is necessary to point out that, in the case of the Brazilian context, these black women played a leading role in the production of identity and rooting of the black population. Regarding the methodology, conversations were carried out with 8 interlocutors, black women composers from Alagoas and analysis based on the intersectionality of these conversations and 8 songs composed by them. In the analysis process, we focused on issues related to gender and race, but also to the experience as artists, the construction of their identity and the experiences of resistance linked to sound/artistic/cultural expression as elements of subjectivity and the important intermediaries in their lives. We recognize language as a potential space of resistance where alternative epistemologies are produced, we understand writing, through music, as a resistance movement of black women. Our interlocutors are aware of the challenges they face as women, blacks and artists. Her memories bring reports of experiences of racism and sexism already in childhood and adolescence, experiences that continue to be experienced after their insertion in the context of music. Their experiences also indicate that music has been a space of resistance and in this sense, their compositions are configured as a way of talking about these oppressions, their struggles and challenges, a way of raising their voices and resisting. These black women make up a heterogeneous group, but their unique experiences reflect dynamisms of the collective plan that can incit experiences of protagonism by building in their experiences, through music, modes of resistance.