In the beginning was the verb, to do. But, in fact, a sound emission was needed for the famous phrase ‘Let there be light’ to occur. Before there was sound, the sound of the word. The sound of the word that provokes reactions and makes things happen. Ideally happy days, better people, brighter worlds. Our poets are those who have the ability to transform verses into images, a synesthetic power already proven many times around... And not only do they say, but they also choose poets to say what is in their soul, to each other.
Alice Neto de Sousa is an Afro-descendant poet who in this video chose the poem A Janela Está Aberta by Gisele Carvalho and Tânia Fernandes, a poet from Lisbon chose Cirsálida by Manuel Cintra.
Alice Neto de Sousa
Inquisitive by nature in her words and her choices, a lover of freedom of thought and feeling, Alice Neto de Sousa is, among other things, a Portuguese poet with roots in Angola.
Invited to the ceremonial opening of the official events commemorating 50 years since the Carnation Revolution, she is a regular presence on the RTP África programme Bem-Vindos, one of the poets and reciters belonging to the cultural association A Palavra, a writer for the digital publication Mensagem de Lisboa and hones her craft on the stage, aiming to ‘sharpen the tongue’ to respond to emerging social themes.
Photo by André Ferreiro
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Tânia Fernandes
Tânia Fernandes was born in Lamego at dawn on the 26th April 1984. She grew up in the heart of the Douro River, and at the age of 18 went to Lisbon to complete her university studies. Within her academic path, she worked as a representative of the Portuguese State in Toulouse where she stayed for several years. Toulouse was where she would start developing her writing skills and where she also started as a speaker in the Cpop cultural association.
Today she lives and works in Lisbon. She writes and declaims poetry, regularly collaborating in ‘A Palavra’ events. She doesn’t consider herself as a poet, but rather a storyteller of stories that fervently spring from her imagination. And her voice is the channel.
In November 2022 she published her first book Contador de Sonhos (Dream Teller) that gathers together a set of poetic prose, poems and tales, and also a Cadavre Exquis made in collaboration with the poet João Silveira.
In the words of the professor and writer Carlos Vicente, ‘her prose, immersed in a poetic aura, tells stories and dreams of protagonists who exalt human sensitivity. Her poetry, vibrant in rhythm, intense in current symbols, involves the reader in a universe of real and oneiric emotions, that question and imply her convenience and indifference, inspiring, at the same time, a transforming and intervening message of life, that is a scream of suffering freedom.’
A PALAVRA (The Word) is a cultural association entirely dedicated to the Word in its multiple strands, combinations and possibilities. From spoken word, to poetic performance and poetry slam, from publishing to the show, A PALAVRA will create, develop and support projects that have poetic expression as their core or that make the word their main protagonist.
Within this context, the association intends to give voice to new trends and artistic expressions around the Word and its mixture with other disciplines such as music or regarding the image (plastic arts, video and cinema), promoting events, festivals and multidisciplinary projects that have an educational and social nature.
