Poetry - Art as social liberation
Author
Selina Giorgio
Date Published
Art as social liberation
From Capoeira in the streets of Bahia,
Where enslaved people turned fear into euphoria.
They spun and kicked, in secret, in song,
Breaking chains with rhythm all along.
The music of the Gitanos in Andalusian nights,
Flamenco hearts, burned with ancient fights.
Songs of sorrow, songs of pride,
Telling history that opression cannot hide.
From Murga in Uruguay’s squares,
Cantos de los pueblos, voices laid bare.
Under dictators, censored and torn,
But they sang for freedom, for justice reborn.
From the Amazon, Shipibo kené lines,
Patterns of spirit, where ancestral knowledge shines.
Matapí Yucuna dances beneath the trees,
Moving with the rhythm of river and breeze.
All born from the same sacred desire:
To turn oppression into a burning fire.
To speak, dance, sing and create,
To heal, to resist and open our fate.
Art is not decoration, nor wealth on a wall,
It is a call to all.medicine for the soul.
A weapon against erasure, slavery, and fear,
A heartbeat, a pulse, to make our future clear.
The first thing we do when we enter this earth,
Is scream, proclaiming our power, our birth.
From first painted walls to drumbeat and song,
Art has been the fire that unite us all..
More poetry:
A journey from fear to healing through ancestral drums and dance, breaking chains of violence and finding peace in community and collective memory.
Poem reflecting on life, survival, inequality, and compassion, inspired by the streets of São Paulo, Indigenous wisdom, and a call for human awakening