FLIPSIDE in Suffolk
Last year we went to Brazil and one of the highlights of the trip was the Paraty FLIP book festival. This weekend some of that glamour, joy and humour of FLIP, will be in Snape Maltings in Sufflok and I am going to bask in the experience. I received the press release this week and here are some of the highlights.
“Brazilian literary stars Bernardo Carvalho, Milton Hatoum and Adriana Lisboa, Ana Maria Machado, Patricia Melo and Ferréz, are just some of the headlining authors taking centre stage in Suffolk this weekend for the inaugural FLIPSIDE Festival of Brazilian literature, Music and the Arts. As they line up alongside UK literary heavyweights Misha Glenny, Ian McEwan, Blake Morrison, James Scudamore, Will Self and Ali Smith for a series of ‘encounters’ and debates, FLIPSIDE promises an important and timely opportunity for UK audiences to engage in cross-cultural discourse – and to discover the very best in Brazilian writing”.
What I find refreshing about FLIP was summed up by Liz Calder, the FLIPSIDE Director and FLIP Co-Founder, on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour, “I would like to see much more cultural interchange between countries and languages and much more translation”.
The FLIPSIDE festival promises to show how literature, music, art, dance, film, football and the culinary arts are intertwined in Brazilian life – bringing street food, caipirinhas, feijoadas and a blast of ‘carnival’ to Snape Maltings on the Suffolk coast.
Opening the festival on Friday night is a tribute to the poet and lyricist Vinicius de Moraes and composer Antonio Carlos (Tom) Jobim, who together created Bossa Nova. ‘The Boys from Ipanema’ concert will be performed by musician and composer José Miguel Wisnik, singer Paula Morelenbaum (who toured with Jobim) and uber-guitarist Arthur Nestrovski, artistic director of São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra. On Saturday night, audiences will be further enchanted by Adriana Calcanhotto, one of Brazil’s most adored singer-songwriters (and a major highlight at FLIP 2009).
I plan to take some photos and write about this festival in more detail as the events roll out. Brazilian literature offers much and the reasons why were also summed up by Liz Calder this week.
“In Brazil, the relationship between music and the written word is uncommonly close. It is a country where distinctions are blurred: where poets write lyrics for popular songs and musicians are known to write the occasional literary novel; where to be called a poet is to be offerred the warmest endearment, and where football inspires great films, novels and music. Football, samba and capoeira have travelled comfortably beyond Brazil’s borders; Brazilian cinema has followed in their wake. But Brazilian literature remains a largely undiscovered cultural goldmine – one that is now set to dazzle British readers of all ages.”
More details and the programme for the festival can be found here
http://www.flipsidefestival.co.uk/whats-on-at-flipside-festival.aspx
