Pulled from reports written by Leslie Macêdo, organized by Abby Rolland*
As part of The Presser Foundation’s efforts to be more transparent and to amplify the work of its partners, it uses information from grant reports to highlight grantees.
Each post will spotlight one partner, who has final say over the contents and structure of the post. In this way, the Foundation hopes to not only use information from grant reports (which often go unread and unused), but also to shine the light on many wonderful music organizations.
This post focuses on Mamadêlê Foundation (Mamadêlê), a Philadelphia-based music organization that celebrates the arts and culture of Bahia, Brazil, providing arts education programs throughout the tri-state area as well as performances around the globe.
Background
Since 2017, Mamadêlê Foundation has produced performances, educational programs, residencies, assemblies, and workshops that seek to introduce Afro-Brazilian music, dance, and martial arts to communities throughout Philadelphia and beyond.
As new immigrants to the U.S., many Brazilians often feel isolated and voiceless. Through its programs, Mamadêlê seeks to help them build connections and a sense of belonging, enabling them to become part of a vibrant cultural community while simultaneously challenging external and internal prejudices. One of the key ways it reaches the Brazilian community is by holding school-based arts education programs at schools with high concentrations of Brazilian students; however, Mamadêlê seeks to serve all students and their families in the community, regardless of race or heritage, thus increasing their exposure to and experience with Afro-Brazilian culture.
Mamadêlê’s master artists, born and raised in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, bring a deep knowledge and experience of Afro-Brazilian music and dance, and they have decades of experience teaching and performing in these traditions. The organization is proud to reach more than 10,000 people annually, including approximately 6,500 youth through its education programs.
Programming
Education
In the six years since its founding, Mamadêlê has established a successful arts education program in three School District of Philadelphia schools – Louis H. Farrell Elementary-Middle School, Abraham Lincoln High School, and Laura H. Carnell Elementary School – while expanding the number of program offerings, some of which include Afro-Brazilian percussion, dance, and the martial art form of capoeira. These schools have a large concentration of Brazilian immigrants, and 100% of the students are economically disadvantaged. Each program is tailored to the unique needs of each school and the needs of that school’s specific student population.
Mamadêlê regularly collects feedback from students, teachers, and administrators, with its long-term goal to have a presence in all 16 School District of Philadelphia schools that have a significant Brazilian population.
This past year, Mamadêlê also planned a culminating event at Esperanza Arts Center that featured student performances, a professional drumming ensemble performance, and two other Latino performing groups, as well as vendors from various Latin American countries.
Performance
In addition to its educational programming, Mamadêlê has four performance groups: 1) Ologundê offers in-school programming in music, dance, culture, and history; 2) Arrastão do Dendê is a percussion group that presents adult and community workshops; 3) Dendê & Band provides performances of Dendê Macêdo’s original compositions of Brazilian popular music that are couched in traditional music and song; and, 4) Recycled Sounds offers performances and workshops to children and adults that make use of traditional Brazilian instruments created with found objects.
These groups host lecture-demonstrations and workshops on a variety of Afro-Brazilian cultural traditions from Bahia, Brazil, such as capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian belief system of Candomblé, and samba de roda, a music and dance tradition recognized by UNESCO in 2005 as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. At the close of every program, they offer Q&A sessions to allow for critical discussion about the historical and cultural contexts of these art forms and draw parallels to similar aspects of history and culture in North America and throughout the African diaspora. Where possible and appropriate, they guide attendees in making deeper connections to present day social justice issues in Afro-Brazilian and African American culture. These presentations then provide opportunities to learn critical aspects of the African diaspora, filling a cultural gap in the American education system.
Mamadêlê’s performance groups also tour nationally and internationally, with educational programs at institutions such as Juilliard and the Eastman School of Music, and performances in the U.S. at major venues from Lincoln Center to the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, and internationally in Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, South America, and Asia.
Collaboration
Mamadêlê seeks to have a strong presence in the Greater Philadelphia community with performances at The Mann Music Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Longwood Gardens, and World Cafe Live. It collaborates with fellow nonprofits including Young Audiences, Musicopia, Artistas y Músicos Latino Americanos, and Esperanza to provide performance programs in schools. It works with other local Brazilian organizations, such as Philly Capoeira and Brazilian Day Philadelphia, to provide performance programs for the Brazilian community and the general public.
Equity
Mamadêlê’s mission is deeply rooted in countering systemic racism and racial inequity through the lens of Afro-Brazilian music and dance. Brazilian culture has many of the same ingrained issues that exist in the U.S. and the currents of change run in similar waves throughout Brazilian society.
Afro-Brazilians today still experience segregation and marginalization. Members of Philadelphia’s Brazilian community often choose to ignore or deny their African ancestry, seeking to distance themselves from this past. However, in doing so they reject much of what is to be celebrated in Brazilian culture—its music, its dance, and its traditional spiritual practices. Mamadêlê shares these art forms and provides spaces for people to come together to embrace their identity.
Impact
As Mamadêlê Foundation’s programs serve the Greater Philadelphia communities through a diverse array of performance and educational programs, the impact of the organization’s programs is greater knowledge, and therefore, appreciation for Afro-Brazilian culture.
For example, in the school-based programming, whether introducing Brazilian students to important aspects of their own cultural heritage or contributing more broadly to young people’s understanding of the breadth and variety of art forms, the staff and teaching artists seek to make the art form accessible. Students have positively responded to these efforts by sharing:
“It has made my musical knowledge better and I have learned a lot because of this class.”
“I’ve learned more about Brazilian music and the way it’s performed in Brazil.”
“This program has helped me learn about way more cultures than a classroom would.”
Mamadêlê seeks to nurture a sense of community for Brazilian immigrants and their American-born children, where they can celebrate being Brazilian and having African heritage through art, collaboration, and learning.
*Special thanks to Leslie Macêdo, Co-Executive Director at Mamadêlê Foundation, for contributing to this blog post through writing various applications and reports for The Presser Foundation.
