Conceição Evaristo
Casa Escrevivência
Brazil · Writing
2025 - Conceição Evaristo - Brazil
Brazilian writer, professor, and researcher Conceição Evaristo was nominated for the 2025 AFIELD Fellowship for Casa Escrevivência, a cultural and educational space, devoted to challenging colonial erasures through the preservation of the history and memories of Black women in Pequena África, Rio de Janeiro.
Founded in 2021, Casa Escrevivência is a cultural, educational, and research space in Pequena África, a key site of Afro-diasporic memory in Rio de Janeiro’s historic Pequena África, near the Valongo Wharf, a key site of Afro-diasporic memory. Grounded in the concept of escrevivência, writing that emerges from lived experience, the Casa transforms Black literature into a dynamic platform for agency, care, and historical justice.
It safeguards Evaristo’s personal archives and offers open courses, reading circles, and workshops that reach educators, artists, and local communities. In three years, over 4,000 visitors and 250 students have participated in its programs. Through partnerships with institutions such as the Phoenix Institute, Casa Sueli Carneiro, and the Museum of Afro-Brazilian History, Casa Escrevivência amplifies the role of Black women’s authorship, challenging colonial erasures and envisioning literature as a collective act of resistance and creation.
Writer Conceição Evaristo is honored with a mural in Rio’s port area reflecting African heritage in Brazil I Photo by Tomaz Silva/Agência Brasil
Conceição Evaristo is a Brazilian writer, researcher, and professor, as one of the main latin american literatures and with a focus on black women. Her work explores race, gender, and class through the experiences of Black women, blending memory and imagination. Winner of the Jabuti Award and Juca Pato Prize, she has taught at universities across Brazil and the U.S. In 2021, she founded Casa Escrevivência, a cultural space that preserves and promotes Black women’s intellectual legacy. Through her theory of escrevivência, Evaristo bridges literature and activism, inspiring new generations to write their histories with power and autonomy.
Conceição Evaristo
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