Erasures and traces in Curitiba

Abstract

This article takes as its starting point the investigation of the performance [escrevedor de histórias] carried out between 2016 and 2019, in the city of Curitiba and in six Remaining Quilombola Communities in Paraná, a period corresponding to a section of my own professional practice, to understand the place or non-place of Afro-diasporic narratives. Based on an autoethnographic analysis, the aim is to articulate Christina Sharpe's concept of “trace” and Saidiya Hartman's thinking, which addresses the limits of historical writing about characters who were victims of slavery. Based on sources that expose the absent presences of [story writer] and Anita Cardoso Neves, we aim – together with the bibliographic reference on the topic – to think about processes of subjectivation that constitute the creative processes of blackness and that are inserted as micropolitics in the face of the “official history” that governs the colonial status quo in the performing arts in the city of Curitiba.