Hello everyone, I am Juliana Pinheiro Landim, the co-Founder and Managing Creative Co-Director of Katumba Drumming and Movement.

I am excited to announce the beginning of a new series of conversations that we will be having – starting – in our community and beyond, called Conversations in Culture.

Before we get started, I wanted to say that our new Conversations in Culture series, which will be in the form of written features here in our News section, videos on YouTube and sampled across our social media, are not meant to be academic, nor are they politically motivated in support of any particular politician or party.

In addition, they are not meant to be me speaking on behalf of a community or groups of people.

They are simply me sharing my opinion, my point of view, as an Afro-native person who migrated here to the UK, and one of the very, very few who actually works in the carnival arts sector (an expression that comes from Afro cultures in the Caribbean and in Brazil) – and how I experience that as Afro-native Brazilian, Queer, cis female in the sector.

So without further ado, I present our first Conversation in Culture and with it, our first theme, which explores the concept of the Global Majority.

Watch it on YouTube>>>

What is the Global Majority?

What does global majority or people of the global majority mean?  It’s a fairly new term, created here in the UK, and is self-identified, which means it was coined by people who belong to those communities.

Black people, Indigenous people, Brown people, Latinx people, particularly Indigenous and Afro Latinos, Pacific Islanders, Native Hawaiians, the Inuit Communities, Alaska Natives, Native Americans, Arab, Western Asians, Middle Easterners with dark skin, North Africans, Southeast Asians, South Asians, East Asians, Africans with dark skin, biracial/multi racial people who are mixed with one or more of the above and people in groups who can’t access white privilege.

So basically, this terminology is meant to shift away from the previous term BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic). BAME contains the word ‘minority’, which means it is from the perspective of the white people, and re-wording it to be from our perspective, putting us at the centre.

So when we put us at the centre, that group of people I define above, we can see that we are not actually a minority. Instead we are in fact, the global majority.

Why do a Global Majority Taster?

Since we founded Katumba, one of our main pillars has been inclusion and diversity.

Everything we do has been framed in that approach to increase accessibility so more and more people can reap the benefits of what we do.

People from all walks of life, with no experience needed. But what ends up happening with integrated spaces is that the dynamic of the group of people who holds power – who hold privilege – starts prevailing and shaping the dynamic of that space.

It means that for those of us people of colour, we start to – consciously or subconsciously – change the way we speak, change the way we dress, to be more accepted, to not be perceived with some of the negative stereotypes that are attributed to people of colour. That is called code switching. And that can be exhausting.

Imagine, consciously or subconsciously, that we are always adapting, always being aware, always trying to fit into those spaces.

So it’s really important that we create those spaces where that does not need to happen, so we can feel as people of colour that we can reclaim parts of ourselves that were lost.

What does that mean for Katumba?

What that means moving forward to Katumba, is that we’re going to continue to hold open the space or sections that are available to everyone as we have always done.

And it also means that we’re going to continue to learn and continue to make space and hold space for people who usually don’t have or can’t easily access the benefits of Afro Brazilian drumming and movement.

For example, we held a Queer taster as part of Pride Month, celebrating Pride, and ensuring that we hold space for us in that community as well.

And so on.

Your invitation

I wanted to invite you – to welcome YOU – regardless of your walk of life, where you come from, your ethnicity. Our doors are open to you.

I hope you come have a go at this ancient art form the way we do it in Brazil and all over the world.

We know there is so much joy in doing it in community with an incredible group of people, and that it will make you feel uplifted and part of an amazing community.

If you were not able to make it to our Global Majority Taster, you can still join our beginners classes starting soon – and through these opportunities open up to perform at Slavery Remembrance Day, Black History Month and more.

Juliana.

Check out our forthcoming events and tasters on Eventbrite here. 

 

ID: 7214