NELSON MACA: Poet, Activist, and Academic

Born in the city of Parana Telemaco Borba, 249 kilometers from Curitiba, Nelson Maca, 47, has expressed the ideas of the black movement for 13 years. At 22, he moved to Salvador in search of a black Bahia and to study at Universidade Federal da Bahia (Ufba). Today, a literature professor at Universidade Católica do Salvador (UCSAL), his work is influenced by artists ranging from rappers such as Mano Brown and Thaíde, to writers like Lima Barreto and Richard Wright. His philosophy draws on the existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre and the post-colonialism of Frantz Fanon. But it’s not in the academics where he is known, but in social activism.

A member of the poesía preta (black poetry) movement and political art group Coletivo Blackitude, created 14 years ago, he shakes the black consciousness of Salvador every Wednesday at Sarau Bem Black, at Sankofa African Bar in Pelourinho. Over the past four years, the sarau has received literary names such as Cuti, alias Luiz Silva, and Conceição Evaristo, and music, such as Ellen Oléria and rappers GOG  and MC Marshal. Maca talks a lot about racism, literature, and social activism.