Maria Caetano Vilalobos

- Portugal -

 

An actress and creator, she holds a degree in theater from the University of Évora and a Master's in Artistic Direction at ESMAE in Porto. She has participated in national and international shows in Turkey, Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Poland and Italy. She is the director and actress of projects like “!REGRA GERAL”, “Nu Geral” and “Mulher, Posso e Mando”, with which she was a finalist in the National Showcase of Young Creators, in the international Martelive Europe contest and winner of the Declamar Abril contest; She is also a theatre teacher. In the field of poetry, she was twice a guest poet at the Lisbon Poetry Festival. She has been included in five poetic anthologies and is the author of the book "Mulher, Posso e Mando". Two times winner of Poetry Slam Amadora and Slam Trafaria, being a national finalist for three consecutive years. She was a poet in the project Mbuki-Mvuki, a guest on several TV shows and was a contestant on Got Talent Portugal 2024.


 

 With the innocence of looking for the first time at an old movement, Maria tirelessly attends spoken poetry events. She is active in slams, soirées, and gatherings. She listens and speaks. The events, fortunately!, increasingly numerous in the country, always have her presence guaranteed. She proposes her poems, forms, and encounters in silence. Just as a poet is made by reading, a slammer is made by listening. And Maria is present, listening. And, as a good listener, she does not listen in silence.

 

Maria still dares to open spaces for spoken poetry by participating in television programs, putting her poetry into action during symbolic national days, and exercising her triple role of poet, performer, and director in dealing with concrete and public situations.

 

This experience of the poet in confrontation and movement is what makes Maria able to sweat, her poetry able to dance, and the words breathe in her texts.

 

This first book by Maria, as stated on the flap, should be read aloud. It should be read like someone finding a crack and wanting to enter. Maria's verses have the scent of the new and inaugurate a moment in Portuguese spoken word. The feminist exercise in Maria's poetry demands a loud voice, not just for the format but for the urgency of the discourse. A combative poetry that needs to be heard.

 

Maria Caetano writes to be spoken. In this sense, she is inaugural in the contemporary Portuguese movement for also being thought to be present in the country's gatherings even without the author. It is a poetry of sharing and, as such, presupposes a community that is gradually being built.

 

Maria is a poet because she thinks about the encounter when writing. And it shows. Just like a true encounter, you don't leave this book the same way you entered it. Welcome, readers, to the affectionate and attentive proposals of Maria. 

 

Maria Caetano Vilalobos's poetry screams on paper. 

Do not read it still. 

Read it in motion, aloud, with words between the tongue and the foot. 

Maria's performative word begs for action. 

The poet builds images like someone traveling together, 

singing in the car, 

observing the clouds 

and          the          smell          of          the          tires. 

The road is society 

and the vehicle, 

a woman's body.

 

It enjoys, trembles, and fights. 

Maria Caetano's poetic body prints her opinions and manifestos in words 

and words in her movements. 

She invites us not to witness the present with impunity. 

Accept and move with her 

knowing that, together, 

we can.

 

Maria Giulia Pinheiro 

More about the poet

Poetry

  1. Lineage / Linhagem

  2. Love has changed / O Amor mudou