Dan Baron is a performance educator, living in the Amazonian afro-indigenous community of Cabelo Seco, Pará. After doctoral research into ‘theatre as education’ at Oxford University, Dan began his ‘transformance’ project in Manchester, moving to Derry in 1988, to the Rhondda in 1994. and, in 1998, to Brazil. Collaborations with at-risk landless, indigenous, trade union and school communities, generated collective performances, murals, sculptures, and in 2008, the Amazonian Rivers of Meeting project. In 2012, Dan co-founded its Community University of the Rivers with the AfroRaiz Collective. As Chair of the World Alliance for Arts Education (2006-10), and member of the World Social Forum international council, Dan advocated arts education for sustainable futures. Dan publications include ‘Theatre of Self-Determination’ (Derry, 2001), ‘Cultural Literacy’ (São Paulo, 2004), ‘Harvest in Times of Drought’ (Marabá, 2011), and numerous essays.
Rios de Encontro presents the origins and eco-cultural vision of the AfroRaiz Collective of young afro-indigenous performance-educators from the Brazilian Amazonian fishing community of Cabelo Seco. We advocate a sustainable future through powerful dance and percussion!
Dance collective Rios de Encontro sets out in 10...
Folks, I live in Porto de Moz, Pará,
on the Xingu river. We’re in the middle of Amazonia, and you have no idea what’s
going on here. The press is focussing on the question of the fires, but that’s
just one of the things that’s happening. It’s horrendous to realize that it’s
much, much worse.
Since...
Letter No 2 from Elisa Dias, Cabelo Seco, Marabá, 13 June 2019
Dear Friends,
My experience in Belgium was really extraordinary. We learned so much in just a few days. I’m gradually getting used to meeting a new organizing team twice a day, so my experience in Germany pushed me...
Letter from Elisa. Rios de Encontro. 4 June 2019
Dear Friends,
When I was leaving Marabá, I realised I was entering on a new phase of my life, one which I'd always fought to reach. It’s not just through the knowledge I've gained thanks to the hard work I've put...
‘Remember Germany, 1934,’ my moderate brother advises, ‘and be explicit’. For forty years, I have written from the threshold between resistance and liberation. I never imagined we would live on the threshold between ‘the least worse’ and fascism. My eyes brim with tears. I don’t want to leave the House of Rivers. ‘In times of fake news and seamless...
This is the second of three Letters from the Amazon, written in recent weeks by LAB collaborator Dan Baron Cohen. Further letters will be published in the next few months. You can see them all here.
Cabelo Seco, Marabá. 2 October 2018. The motorcycle-taxi slows to a halt beside me on the Trans-Amazonia highway, in front of the Headquarters of...
This is the first of three Letters from the Amazon, written in recent weeks by LAB collaborator Dan Baron Cohen. Further letters will be published in the next few months. You can see them all here.
Cabelo Seco, Marabá. 7 September 2018
Our descent into Belém airport is announced. I close my Mac and look past the man beside me at...
This is the Dan Baron Cohen's third letter from the Amazon. Further letters will be published in the next few months. You can see them all here.
Cabelo Seco, Marabá. 18 October 2018.
You know the rivers and forests of the Amazon are our world’s most advanced technology, for living well. Invite everyone, the afraid, the silent and the angry, to...