International Festival brings the world’s sights, scents, tastes, and national histories to Brasilia
Cultural fest resumes, setting tone for spectacular post-pandemic fashion
By Lisulo Imukusi
The scents of Kenya’s Zanzibar, of cloves, cinnamon, and cardamom, of Jasmine wafting through the air mixing in with the tangy, rich, and slightly salty flavors of feta from Greece next to the creamy and fluffy texture of humus from Israel and more set the mood and the atmosphere that welcomed visitors at the Brasilia International School’s student-produced International Fair this past April 29 after a two-year pandemic presential absence.
The evening's hustle and bustle unfolded amid Nigerian agbada-attired and Indian salwar kameez-wearing students passing others in kimonos, hijabs, and kufiyahs, typical national dresses and national colors that blended into a multi-cultural celebration that turned the warm Friday evening at the Christian school’s Asa Sul campus into a lively mini-United Nations in Brasilia.
But there was more food and more flavors to turn the ordinary into the exotic. Jasmine again fragrant in Thai rice mixed next to Rwandan sweets, then, around the corner Zambia’s typical nshima vegetables and Lake Tanganyika kapenta fish under rich Zambian colors, one more turn and seaweed-wrapped rolls from Japan and the oddly sweet and smokey Jollof rice from Ghana, spicy too, and the even American chocolate chip cookies completed the visual and sensory instruction that was the festival
Brasilia International School, a member of the Network of International Christian Schools, has students from all around the world, including the U.S, India, Ghana, Australia, Argentina, Canada, Cameroon, China, Greece, France, Iraq, Italy, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Pakistan, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe along with Brazil and other countries. The school is home to all these cultures and more, literally the world in one school campus.
Established to serve primarily the international community in Brasilia, BIS offers an American curriculum, providing U.S.-style education based on a Biblical worldview. With a staff base roughly matching its student mix of about 60% Brazilian and 40% non-Brazilian.
The International Fair is a traditional event for BIS, the school says it has successfully organized and coordinated the event for the past 15 years. Due to the covid pandemic, the school did not have the event for the past two years. In 2020, but the oncoming pandemic changed the fair plans and families made videos about their cultures, which were shared it on the school’s YouTube channel. In 2021, with students back in person but COVID still very much in our fears, the Fair took the form of a car parade where parents drove through a car line to see the students waving their flags. “But nothing compares to having our community here celebrating the nations,” says the school.
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The event, under the coordination and oversight of School Headmaster Clark Skip-Hults with the elaborate assistance from Business Manager and Event Translator Nathan Caze, Event Coordinator Priscila Nascimento with support from the rest of the school’s staff, concluded with a spectacular and colorful Parade of Nations with students proudly joining under the flag of the country where they came from, and then a feast of the foods from all cultures.
The International Fair was structured in three parts: 1. The academic part where students present the countries they had been researching, 2, The Parade of the Nations and, 3. The National foods, where every family brought a dish traditional from their culture. “It is such a rich part of our event that I dare to say it's everyone's favorite,” said the headmaster.
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| School Headmaster Clark Skip-Hult and event translator Nathan Case |
“Our school is very similar,” he concluded. “Last year people talked about closing our school, and while it wasn't closed it was pruned back to 76 students last July. Here we are tonight a healthy miraculous school of 200 students."
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| The author in traditional Zambian Siziba attire |
To happy applause, the proud and happy headmaster then led the attendants to a spread of national foods that was as much a treat of flavors as it was of exotic scents and a visual explosion of how people manifest their love in foods around the world.
The waning pandemic has many missing key events like these, but there is always next year.
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More than a Ukrainian flag on Facebook
Brasilia’s Welf Herfurth jumps into global hasher effort to save war-torn lives
By Milan Sime Martinic
Men are rarely pure and never simple, especially those men who dare to be true to their nature and project their own voice and world through their actions. Yet what Welf Herfurth does can be boiled down as a pure and simple service and concern for other people. Herfurth, the Brasilia Hash House Harriers leader, does it in a way that is serious and zealous in intention, purpose and effort. In this time of war, that has translated into an all-out organizing and coordinating effort to help Ukraine war refugees almost from the moment the war started.
Herfurth’s voice and Brasilia hash world have become the Brazilian end of a global effort that has provided logistical, moral, and financial support to heroic hashers who set out to evacuate those in need from Ukraine’s capital to safer cities like Lviv and then out of the country to safety. That has meant late nights and early hours tirelessly raising awareness and coordinating efforts, cajoling help and connecting people. Ukrainians in need have had a friend hard at work in Brasilia since the day peace ended and danger came.
Last week, Herfurth and his wife were doing the work in person, in Brasilia, helping a newly arrived Ukrainian family navigate Brazilian requirements to legalize refugee status.
The flight to safety for war-displaced and disoriented Ukrainians is a complex and lucky string of hundreds of turns sometimes held together by a kind word, a kind person, someone doing for others what people like Herfurth do: taking their own initiative to do what needed to be at their own risk, at their own expense, on their pure desire, simply doing it without delay and without interest other than to help a human being in need.
“There are just people who need,” says Herfurth who has been doing this kind of thing for decades, including years as a volunteer firefighter in Australia. “I just want to help,” he says with an intense look that breaks into a smile before it freezes and fades as he focuses his eyes nowhere in particular in an earnest expression of emotion within which he promptly shakes off seeking refuge in a cigarette.
Herfurth is a pillar of the Brasilia Hash House Harriers group. In fact, he is the soul and driver of the irreverent group of “drinkers with a running problem.” Doing stuff for others is what he does in an eager, importunate way, pressing ahead despite myriad everyday obstacles.
Hashers are known for not taking themselves too seriously, bonding over a bit of anarchy and a purposeful walk or run and a beer. It is a tradition that dates back more than eight decades when some British officers began running around pre-war Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to shake off their hangovers and get tipsy anew. These fellows were fed corned beef hash on nearly a daily basis, so they called their dining room the Hash House, thus the name. The Brasilia group is one of more than 2000 branches in just about any major city on the planet, together forming the world’s bawdiest and perhaps largest running collective.
The expats in the Brasilia hash, a mix of diplomats, educators, administrators, and adventurers, depend on Herfurth’s sincerity and genuine heart in organizing hash events that keep the community together week after week for years running. He can be counted on scouting, setting up, and running the bi-weekly hash runs and weekly social get-togethers. Opulence, as is his hash name, is one individual who makes a significant difference in the lives of hashers in Brasilia. He is their Hash Meister.
Yet the war in Ukraine provided an opportunity to put that heart into helping people who are running for their lives. All irreverence aside, and all political considerations forgotten, Herfurth took a request for help and ran with it, insistently working to get serious attention. But the success of his efforts is a function of his personal seriousness and sincerity.
In no time, he was connected with the global network of hashers and was suddenly on the phone with a hasher in Milwaukee who was taking his own resources and heading to the war zone to evacuate hashers and whoever is in the path of oncoming bombs.
Everybody in the Hashers Helping Hashers effort needed support, and Opulence kept the light on for them. On the other line, Opulence was on the phone with the hash master in Kiev as he relocated his efforts to the then-safer Lviv; in Brasilia, Opulence was coordinating ways to get support to the field. Then he was on the phone with Australia raising funds, and then writing an Op-Ed in Brasilia to express his concerns for the developing human disaster, and to raise awareness of the humanitarian need.
Resolutely and soberly taking the initiative, Herfurth has been the constant Brasilia hub to a global hashers effort of like-minded individuals who did not necessarily have the time, but unquestionably have the heart and a simple purpose: to leave the world and people in need in a better place than they are, and to do it fearlessly.
With Herfurth, there is a lifetime of experiences that have shaped the 59-year-old German native into the man who matter-of-factly and without doubting himself puts the needs of others before his own emotions and who feels it in the bone that the global hashers network is a valuable resource to help those torn by war. At 16, while living in Iran during the Iranian revolution, he came face-to-face with many of life’s harsh realities as he saw in front of him people’s lives and fortunes change in an instant when people suddenly faced cruelty and the unimaginable pain of loss in large numbers.
That was the time, he says, when he found his passion for helping when the situation looks dire and things do not seem to be going well.
But that does not come from a political position or dislike of one side or the other. In the current conflict, he can see both sides of the political reasons for the hostilities. Conscious that Russia has overplayed its hand and crossed several lines of decency, he is careful not to include individual Russians in that generalization. In fact, he has Russian friends who support Russia’s position, but he prefers to focus on the people and not the power play.
Like many leaders, Herfurth thinks creatively, finding newer, better ways of getting through complex situations and getting things done when obstacles come up. “There are no problems, just solutions,” he says.
The scarcity of resources and lack of funds to help people far away were just one more problem to overcome. That is when he put on his resourceful hat to think creatively in order to maximize results through the network of hashers.
Above all, however, Herfurth enjoys his achievements keeping a baseline diffidence that comes across quietly and clearly through his actions. He and the hashers in this global help effort share the goal of seeking to create meaningful impact and bring about a positive turn for those affected through their caring action.
It may be a while before he knows how much his efforts helped, but Herfurth is a reservoir of tenacity and patience. As a personal outreach to the wider expat community in Brasilia he has been spearheading a hash effort to provide a Things-to-do Guide for the community and visitors to Brasilia through the brasilia4dummies.com website, an ongoing effort to involve the community; he grapples daily with things that don’t fall into place as easily as one would expect.
But, as the trademark cry known to all hashers goes, "On-On!"
Now, focused on weightier matters, Herfurth, the disruptor and anarchist, dispenses with all the vicissitudes and focuses instead on the two things he knows in his heart: He just wants to help people, and he needs to turn problems into solutions.
"I just do what I do," said the reserved Herfurth whose work has always been behind the scenes and away from the limelight. "I don't really see myself that way."
That is it. Pure and simple.
"On-On!"
# # #
More than a Ukrainian flag on Facebook
Brasilia’s Welf Herfurth jumps into global hasher effort to save war-torn lives
By Milan Sime Martinic
Men are rarely pure and never simple, especially those men who dare to be true to their nature and project their own voice and world through their actions. Yet what Welf Herfurth does can be boiled down as a pure and simple service and concern for other people. Herfurth, the Brasilia Hash House Harriers leader, does it in a way that is serious and zealous in intention, purpose and effort. In this time of war, that has translated into an all-out organizing and coordinating effort to help Ukraine war refugees almost from the moment the war started.
Last week, Herfurth and his wife were doing the work in person, in Brasilia, helping a newly arrived Ukrainian family navigate Brazilian requirements to legalize refugee status.
The flight to safety for war-displaced and disoriented Ukrainians is a complex and lucky string of hundreds of turns sometimes held together by a kind word, a kind person, someone doing for others what people like Herfurth do: taking their own initiative to do what needed to be at their own risk, at their own expense, on their pure desire, simply doing it without delay and without interest other than to help a human being in need.
“There are just people who need,” says Herfurth who has been doing this kind of thing for decades, including years as a volunteer firefighter in Australia. “I just want to help,” he says with an intense look that breaks into a smile before it freezes and fades as he focuses his eyes nowhere in particular in an earnest expression of emotion within which he promptly shakes off seeking refuge in a cigarette.
Herfurth is a pillar of the Brasilia Hash House Harriers group. In fact, he is the soul and driver of the irreverent group of “drinkers with a running problem.” Doing stuff for others is what he does in an eager, importunate way, pressing ahead despite myriad everyday obstacles.
Hashers are known for not taking themselves too seriously, bonding over a bit of anarchy and a purposeful walk or run and a beer. It is a tradition that dates back more than eight decades when some British officers began running around pre-war Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to shake off their hangovers and get tipsy anew. These fellows were fed corned beef hash on nearly a daily basis, so they called their dining room the Hash House, thus the name. The Brasilia group is one of more than 2000 branches in just about any major city on the planet, together forming the world’s bawdiest and perhaps largest running collective.
The expats in the Brasilia hash, a mix of diplomats, educators, administrators, and adventurers, depend on Herfurth’s sincerity and genuine heart in organizing hash events that keep the community together week after week for years running. He can be counted on scouting, setting up, and running the bi-weekly hash runs and weekly social get-togethers. Opulence, as is his hash name, is one individual who makes a significant difference in the lives of hashers in Brasilia. He is their Hash Meister.
Yet the war in Ukraine provided an opportunity to put that heart into helping people who are running for their lives. All irreverence aside, and all political considerations forgotten, Herfurth took a request for help and ran with it, insistently working to get serious attention. But the success of his efforts is a function of his personal seriousness and sincerity.
In no time, he was connected with the global network of hashers and was suddenly on the phone with a hasher in Milwaukee who was taking his own resources and heading to the war zone to evacuate hashers and whoever is in the path of oncoming bombs.
Everybody in the Hashers Helping Hashers effort needed support, and Opulence kept the light on for them. On the other line, Opulence was on the phone with the hash master in Kiev as he relocated his efforts to the then-safer Lviv; in Brasilia, Opulence was coordinating ways to get support to the field. Then he was on the phone with Australia raising funds, and then writing an Op-Ed in Brasilia to express his concerns for the developing human disaster, and to raise awareness of the humanitarian need.
Resolutely and soberly taking the initiative, Herfurth has been the constant Brasilia hub to a global hashers effort of like-minded individuals who did not necessarily have the time, but unquestionably have the heart and a simple purpose: to leave the world and people in need in a better place than they are, and to do it fearlessly.
With Herfurth, there is a lifetime of experiences that have shaped the 59-year-old German native into the man who matter-of-factly and without doubting himself puts the needs of others before his own emotions and who feels it in the bone that the global hashers network is a valuable resource to help those torn by war. At 16, while living in Iran during the Iranian revolution, he came face-to-face with many of life’s harsh realities as he saw in front of him people’s lives and fortunes change in an instant when people suddenly faced cruelty and the unimaginable pain of loss in large numbers.
That was the time, he says, when he found his passion for helping when the situation looks dire and things do not seem to be going well.
But that does not come from a political position or dislike of one side or the other. In the current conflict, he can see both sides of the political reasons for the hostilities. Conscious that Russia has overplayed its hand and crossed several lines of decency, he is careful not to include individual Russians in that generalization. In fact, he has Russian friends who support Russia’s position, but he prefers to focus on the people and not the power play.
Like many leaders, Herfurth thinks creatively, finding newer, better ways of getting through complex situations and getting things done when obstacles come up. “There are no problems, just solutions,” he says.
The scarcity of resources and lack of funds to help people far away were just one more problem to overcome. That is when he put on his resourceful hat to think creatively in order to maximize results through the network of hashers.
Above all, however, Herfurth enjoys his achievements keeping a baseline diffidence that comes across quietly and clearly through his actions. He and the hashers in this global help effort share the goal of seeking to create meaningful impact and bring about a positive turn for those affected through their caring action.
It may be a while before he knows how much his efforts helped, but Herfurth is a reservoir of tenacity and patience. As a personal outreach to the wider expat community in Brasilia he has been spearheading a hash effort to provide a Things-to-do Guide for the community and visitors to Brasilia through the brasilia4dummies.com website, an ongoing effort to involve the community; he grapples daily with things that don’t fall into place as easily as one would expect.
But, as the trademark cry known to all hashers goes, "On-On!"
Now, focused on weightier matters, Herfurth, the disruptor and anarchist, dispenses with all the vicissitudes and focuses instead on the two things he knows in his heart: He just wants to help people, and he needs to turn problems into solutions.
"I just do what I do," said the reserved Herfurth whose work has always been behind the scenes and away from the limelight. "I don't really see myself that way."
That is it. Pure and simple.
"On-On!"
# # #
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Brasilia celebrates its 62nd anniversary
The city symbolizes the nation’s aspirations showcasing its greatness and richness of talent
By Milan Sime Martinic
Brasilia, the idealistic, fanciful, and often fantastic capital city that aimed to reinvent and redefine for the future the style of living of Brazilians was inaugurated April 21, 62 years ago, after a serious, monumental undertaking spurred and inspired by President Juscelino Kubitschek who led the planning, design, and construction of the city in just 1000 days (about 2 and a half years). It was Kubitschek's vision, will, and political skill that made the city possible and its construction one of the world's most remarkable national efforts.
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| President Kubitschek during the inauguration of Brasilia |
Selecting the design of his friend, architect and urban planner Lucio Costa, building designs by another friend the iconic Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, and parks-and-gardens design by the world-famous modernist landscape architect Burle Marx, Kubitschek ran the country from a temporary and spartan wooden palace, also designed by Niemeyer and built in just 10 days, in an unceremonious area near the shacks of the workers building the new capital.
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| Juscelino Kubitschek and Lucio Costgas |
Everything from the layout of the city to the design of its buildings is full of symbolism and messages to the Brazilians of the future. A showpiece of Brazilian architecture and Niemeyer's art, Brasilia's most important buildings—The Planalto Palace (and its complementary Alvorada Palace) and the Supreme Court building— are made to seem to float effortlessly in the air in symbolic message that the weight of these centers of powers should be light on the shoulders of the people.
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| Planalto Place, under construction |
Relocating Brazil's capital to the country's central plain was enshrined in the 1891 republican Constitution as a manner of spurring development beyond the coastal areas. Every president since had promised to build the new capital, but it never got much beyond words, until Kubitschek promised to do so in 1956 while campaigning for office. "The Constitution will be fulfilled," he said, and he made it his task to complete the job before his presidential term was over.
The city’s anniversary comes on the Tiradentes national holiday in Brazil, making it a fine day to pay homage to the remarkable Kubitschek by visiting the JK Memorial Museum and crypt on the highest point of the Monumental Axis. The museum is the best curated and best-presented museum in the city and a fine walk through the life of the man and history of Brasilia. It is a generous gift of knowledge and an illuminating experience.
Tiradentes Day is in honor of national hero Joaquim José da Silva Xavier who died on this day in 1792. He was a working miner and amateur dentist, thus the name. While you are at it, you may want to check the Niemeyer-designed Palomar (birdhouse) built in his honor in Three Powers Plaza. Tiradentes was a bird connoisseur and enthusiast, the birdhouse is the clothespin-like structure in the plaza itself.
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Music for Your Eyes: The Visual Art of Brasilia’s American School
Paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations, photography formed an exceptional exhibition that was an optical melody and tour de force
By Milan Sime Martinic
Two years into their Visual Arts class the IB students at EAB, the American School of Brasilia, along with a handful Junior IB students took their art into the bustle and bright lights of the capital’s Monumental Axis. The resulting exposition showed a multitude of creative expressions addressing one essential human quest: Making sense of life and the world through the poetry of artistic visual exploration.
Under the tutelage of the school’s dynamic art director Fiona Murphy, they invaded the tall glass walls of Brasilia’s TV Tower Mezzanine deck and transformed it into an ephemeral museum of their explorations, their art, their obsessions, their mind adventures, their unsettling thoughts, and beautiful visions. They presented multiple confrontations with the reality that grinds minds down to the passing hours of everyday life. The students were prolific with their approachable art, pushing past conventions as expected but their collective work added to a spectacular exhibit showing multiple arrays of creative works in a constant conversation.
At points, the exhibit was a screaming song without words: visual music expressing the EAB students’ perspectives on life, time, and place; visual music throbbing and mesmerizing, intense and powerful in a range that enabled visitors to walk about into unknown worlds. It was loud bossa nova in its feast of detail, its relationship with the senses, its poetry, its full flavor, and in that seduction that kept people lingering long in front of the exhibits, taking in the spectacle of art.
Visual Arts exhibits are a staple of IB programs in international schools, they are strange and marvelous displays of the exploration of human creativity and expression. The 2022 EAB IB Visual Arts Exhibition was extraordinary even by those demanding standards. Murphy’s students showed up possessing already a highly refined and individuated way of thinking that blossomed under her teaching, presenting a thoughtfully intellectualized selection of self-curated works fitted with the artistic dreams of their minds
Evident was a meticulous creation and organization designed to move the spectator and to cause reflection through a multifaceted, elusive exhibition made up of drawings, paintings, sculptures 3-D prints, graffiti, installation, and other conceptions. That was a show that could make you smile, leading you through the universe of each student, meeting their works and finding the young artists entirely immersed in their projects. This, in a way that made you happy for a while, suddenly gazing at your own perceptions and feelings, happy to see such earnest work and pride. The students exhibited their sketchbooks, notes, and digital portfolios alongside, generously sharing their creative process.
The exhibition celebrated the work of 12 students, seven seniors: Victoria Avelar, Anna Carolinna Costa, Alice Freitas, Alisha Kenny, Amanda Miyano Maluf, Hanania Najhan, and Daphne Ray, and five juniors: Marcelo Baptista, Helena Barros, Chandler Capistrano, Bruna Ligocki, and Glori Miles, presenting themselves to the world with intelligence and complexity in this theater of their creativity.
Their work was a potent reduction of the weight and lightness of life through the eyes of learned youth, and evoked an acute sense of the moments slipping away.
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| Anna Carolinna and her Brasilia-inspired depictions of Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro |
Senior Anna Carolinna curated her exhibit as a diagramed invitation to her mind; using different techniques for making art she explained a close relationship with the architecture of place and its effect on people. Deeply engaged with the Oscar Niemeyer architecture of Brasilia, she takes his forms into abstract representations of the iconic cities of Brazil and sowed an obvious joy when spectators recognized the city in her work.
Alysha Kenney put the spectator face to face with the emotions and intentions we tend to hide to gain acceptance or approval from others in her acrylic on canvas piece “Pulled Apart.”
A haunting black acrylic and water on paper titled “Ghosts,” by senior Hanania Najhan and a chalk and graffiti on wood titled “Spot” by Junior Helena Barros are powerfully uncomfortable in the feelings they elicit and their visually stunning use of black predominantly over other colors. Making the spectator stop and think about ourselves as individuals and the world we live in, these austere and eerie pieces made an impactful stray into dark art in the exhibit.
Eloquent and beautiful is the encaustic art “Fish out of Scale(s)” also by Barros, giving life to her own desperation in unsettlingly loud color, like music that manages to give you an overwhelmingly ominous feeling such as the “gasping for air of a fish out of water.”
To explain the range and depth of this year’s Visual Arts Exhibition by the American School in Brasilia is to explain a performance by a symphony orchestra that takes you away from the normal control of your senses, that inspires you, entertains you, teaches you, and makes you feel out of the ordinary. The pieces and art students described here are but individual notes in a superb concert where it is the whole orchestra that gives the show its magnificence. Every piece contributed to this extraordinary exhibition.
Having led the making of the visual arts exhibit into a student performance that flowed like a melody and keeping it at a steady pace, Murphy characteristically credits the school Administration Team and IB Coordinator, Dr. Maria Sieve as well as its Communications Team, Maintenance Team, Events Manager Cynthia Lee, Arts Assistant Daniel Sá, and Sugar Robinson from Makerspace for helping students use complex machinery in putting their art pieces together.
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Um Jardin na Minha Lente: Unveiling the beauty of flowers through the lens of Christoph Diewald
Photographic exposition commemorates the 37th anniversary of Brasilia’s Botanic Gardens turning weeds into works of art
By Milan Sime Martinic
The walls of the exhibit area of Brasilia’s Botanical Gardens are blossoming with stunning natural beauty in an exhibit that amplifies the garden experience with splashes of color and photographed botanical life through the lens of German-born and longtime Brasilia-resident photographer Christoph Diewald.
His commemorative exposition, Um Jardim de Miha Lente, organized by the Jardim Botanico de Brasilia and produced by Pictura Fine Art explores the remarkable beauty and variety of plants that can be found at the botanical gardens and in the Cerrado biome of central Brazil. The exhibit opened on March 4, and it runs through March 13.
The photographs' larger-than-life perspectives are unique because of their considerably complex composition and execution. There is a reverence in Diewald’s lens, and it is evident in the way he captures excruciating details that give you macro views of leaves, petals, and pistils, and the tendrils that stretch out and twine around below a flower. It takes considerable patience, talent, art, and skill to complete that composition.
The concept for the exposition came from a mentoring program when the 74-year-old Diewald was spurred and inspired into a collaborative project to display his art. It led to the careful selection of 25 pictures of flowers and leaves from a databank of over 1000 of his pictures. Diewald himself has thoughtfully curated the exhibition to project a sense of wonder and mystery through their display and interaction.
In his photographs one sees parallels with the eloquence of 1980s renowned American photographer Robert Maplethorpe, an unconscious kinship Diewald recognized after-the-fact, when exposed to the powerful work of the master photographer.
Self-taught without any formal photographic instruction, Diewald has developed techniques of his own that are evident in his use of negative space, depth of field, leading lines, and framing that give his work impact in their detail, making them engaging to the viewer.
To take in all the splendor of the exposition requires patience to immerse yourself in each piece of a plant so carefully focused that the senses and the mind have to reconcile the knowledge that it is merely nature and beauty captured so well that it does not seem real. The rewards can be life-enlarging, as when suddenly seeing the reticulate venation on the back of a leaf in labyrinthine detail; this texture, like life itself. interconnected with the whole, complicated in its structure, smooth in its beauty from afar, in elaborate grainy nearness to your senses.
The art and skill behind the ability to put that image in front of you come from a lifetime of experience seeing life in its important, often unseen detail, not all of it behind a lens. Diewald came to Brasilia in 1994 as a World Bank economist focused on the conservation of tropical forests.
Here, his childhood love for photography and photographing plants encountered the opulence of plant species and the mechanisms to protect and preserve their diversity. Entwined with his respect and appreciation for nature, put his lens and focus on the plants of the Cerrado savannah and the rich examples of plants endemic to the area, Diewald has been perfecting his art and botanic photography style with a passion that reflects not only the talent but also the inner beauty and aesthetic of the artist.
Recognized by the capital city’s Botanic Gaden in its effort to integrate art and nature, Diewald’s art and style are now on display for Brasilia to see, but the real richness is on both sides of the lens, in the exuberance of Cerrado flora so splendidly captured, and in the eye and the art of Diewald. Both enrich the culture and beauty of the area.
The show celebrates the March 8th anniversary of the Botanical Gardens and continues through March 13 in the Exhibit Hall of the botanical garden’s Visitor Center. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 9 A.M. to 5:30 P.M.
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Austrian Embassy’s tribute to Stefan Zweig jointly honors Brazil’s bicentennial and celebrates 442 years of friendship uniting the two countries
By Milan Sime Martinic
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| Ambassador Dr. Stefan Scholz |
He was indeed the man who dreamed the Brazilian dream, at least the first to put it into words, establishing a new possibility to build a civilization different from the then self-destructing Europe.
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| Stefan Zweig |
The man who had been so openly enchanted by Brazil was at the time one of the world’s most popular writers and the most translated author.
In 2017 Stefan Zweig posthumously receives Brazil’s highest award for foreigners, the National Order of the Southern Cross which counts as its other laureates Queen Elizabeth II and US President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
On Tuesday, ambassador Scholz, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Austria, will confer the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art upon the conductor of the concert honoring Zweig — kapellmeister, acclaimed violinist, soloist, and chamber music player, maestro Cláudio Cohen, the Principal Conductor, Music Director and one of the founders of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Theatre of Brazil, OSTNCS.
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| Maestro Cláudio Cohen |
He is a man widely recognized in the capital for this talent and stature. Born in the city of Belém in the state of Pará, Cohen is an honorary citizen of Brasilia and has been recognized as one of the most prominent personalities of the capital, receiving several orders of merit, the Silver Star da BPW, the Expression of Merit by the International Academy of Culture, the Peacemaker, and the Medal by the Brazilian Military among many others.
The maestro has conducted orchestras around the world including the Osterreischiche Symphoniker Linz and the Euro Symphony SFK in Austria the global epicenter of classical music, at the Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa in Portugal, the Vogtland Philarmonie Orchestra in Germany, and the Sinfônica de Roma in Italy along with orchestras in Mexico, Ecuador, Argentina, and throughout Brazil.
The celebration hosted by the Austrian embassy highlights as much the memory of Zweig as the ongoing work of Cohen, exalting and magnifying the potential of Brazil and its people and serving to expand the long and storied friendship between Austria and Brazil. It is also doing the work of introducing Zweig to many Brazilians who may yet have to discover his work, and projecting his vision on the current work of Cohen with its multicultural elements that combine to build the harmonious whole of Zweig’s romantic vision for the country.
In keeping with the Orchestra Symphonica’s traditional start time, the concert will begin at 8 pm.
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THE ARTS/ CULTURE/ EVENTS
Beauty and the Beast musical comes to Brasilia this March
Live Orchestra, 30 actors, singers, dancers, 120 costumes, and 4D special effects to make the great fairy tale come alive
By Milan Sime Martinic
Mrs. Potts singing "Beauty and the Beast" just as Belle and the Beast come down the great staircase and end up waltzing across the ballroom will cap the emotions of old and young in Brasilia this March as a cast of 30 actors and dancers in some 120 costumes will gain grandeur with special effects, 4D technology and the live music of a full orchestra immersing the audience in the special musical production of the ancient and timeless tale at the Ulysses Guimarães Convention Center in the Plano Piloto this March 12.
Poetry of old times, rhymed in Portuguese in a text adaptation by Lucas Cavalaro will be sung live, taking the audience through the tale’s grandiose scenarios as the musical superproduction immerses the theater in the magic of the soundtrack performed by the Espirito Santo philharmonic orchestra.
The full-length musical foray will last an hour-and-forty minutes as the 4,000-year-old tale takes its modern adaptation by 18th century French songwriter Madame de Beaumont into one of the great classic fairy tales that transform a beastly heart into the prince of the precocious beauty’s dreams.
This presentation is a national-level production by general director Bruno Souza, with stage direction by Manuela Littiérry, choreography by Gabriela Evangelista is under musical direction by Maestro Ettore Veríssimo following the text adaptation by Lucas Cavalaro. Production of the musical is by Palavra & Som Entretenimento.
The single performance in the capital city will take place Saturday March 12, at 15:30h, with doors opening at 14h.
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Mane Mercado Virgula: The heart of the city gets a cool and exciting addition, a relaxing ‘comma’ in your day with delectable food and drink options
By Milan Sime Martinic
Beer was flowing as heavily as on an October day in Frankfurt. The vibrant ambiance took in the Friday lunchtime crowd under the giant open space of Mané Mercado Virgula, a striking architectural addition meshed into the grandeur of Brasilia’s Estádio Nacional Mané Garrincha and the striking high rises around the city’s Monumental Axis for a commanding view of the whole cityscape.
But Mané Virgula Market is much more than that. It is a carefully curated selection of restaurant offerings that range from Argentinian to Arab to Japanese, to churrascos, burgers, roasted birds, Brazilian specialties, pastries, beers, wines, and several culinary offerings that each specialize in various aspects sure to please foodies and dabblers alike. It is a paean to Brasilian cuisine; most of the food kiosks there are restaurants that already exist and have been successful in pleasing the public in Brasilia for years.
Commanding a corner of the vast covered area and very busy is Lima, Cocina Peruana by Chef Marco Espinoza of Taypá, one of Brasilia’s best innovative, elegant restaurants. Though there is some table service, most clients seem to be content standing in line and placing their orders, mixing and matching various tastes. If it is pork you crave, you can find a helping of Le Birosque’s porceta, long famous with Quituart diners
Virgula is the word for comma, the punctuation mark that signals short interval or difference in pitch in a sentence, Mane Mercado Virgula is an R$8 million, 43,000-sq.ft., 800-seat, 21-restaurant epicurean pageant in the middle of Brasilia's Plano Piloto, designed to give that comma-like inte4rval to your day.
It is a far more organized operation than the typical mess of community seating and standing around found at the markets its developers say that inspired it, but that is not to say that you will find the long lines, large crowds, and long waits inviting. It is the sort of Catch-22 that attracts more people and at the same time serves to repel others. For those with wanting more immediate rewards, there are displays with ready empanadas, pastries, sandwiches and more.
It is the realization of projects that were designed during the pandemic by the dynamic and innovative entrepreneurial Grupo R2, itself reinvented from its former iteration as R2 Productions, into what it says is a new moment to impact developing segments of entertainment from grand shows to this type of marketplace platform that offers new and distinct kinds of experiences to the public.
“It is meant to be dynamic, varied, without strings,” says its parent group, R2, in its YouTube ‘manifesto.’ “A market with the experience of an event, perennial and plural.” It is a sort of immersive love letter to the local community, a place for memorable experiences with plenty of food and drink experiences. “Mané is a unique mixture that will include the traditional restaurants of its “Brasilian roots” next to premium brands recognized by the most demanding clients,” it says.
Following Sustainable Development Goals set out by the UN global Agenda Toward a Better World, the Mané Virgula Market promises a wide structure and services for people with disabilities -- ramps, menus in Braille, lower service counters, and the like. The operation aims to showcase small local producers and to bring them closer to the public, highlighting the origin and value of items produced in the Cerrado.
Part beer hall, part wine bar, part multi-options eatery, all a feast for Brasilians’ eyes, stomachs, and minds, the self-described “pause” (comma) market promises a two-story children’s playground, a store of “beautiful things,” and it welcomes visitors with a wall-length wine cellar.
The name of the project itself is a blend that incorporates the name of the stadium and the symbolism of having a comma, virgula, to break the daily race, Mané Mercado Virgula.
“We need breaks from the busy day and the comma symbolizes that for us. Being a comma market is, above all, giving up the period,” said R2 partner in charge of the project Bruno Sartório, famed Brasilia producer, entrepreneur and winner of the 2021 Brasilia Prize, Prêmio Brasília: o novo Olhar do Turismo.
Mané Mercado Virgula opened officially this Feb 15, after a very well-attended soft-opening the previous two weeks. It is now open 7 days a week from noon til 10 pm, Friday and Saturday until midnight.
☆☆☆☆☆
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Living Brasilia Forum: A safer place for getting connected through a helpful Facebook group for expats
By Milan Sime Martinic
Brasilia is home to a sizeable number of international families, the capital hosts diplomatic missions representing close to 135 nations with a constant rotation of delegations making the expat community dynamic and everchanging. As the song says, Brasilia is a different city, it can be difficult to find your way around, driving for miles and miles without finding a store, or a pharmacy, or even a neighborhood grocery store, unless you understand the city the way only those who have been here longer can help you understand. Building a life in Brasilia can come with a lot of questions, getting connected can be daunting.
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| Living Brasilia Forum on FB- Cover art by Fiona Murphy |
Founded in February 2013 “to give or receive information about our city, surroundings and how to make the most of our time here,” LBF is relatively small and consists of around 2300 members, a size that allows it to be homey and comfortable, but it also makes it an invaluable platform to weave an international community.
"Are you a foreigner living in Brasilia? Need contacts, tips and helpful information? Want to find the right doctors, discover new places, learn about events, entertainment, find house-help, or work opportunities? Like to meet new friends? Then Living Brasilia Forum is for you," say the administrators.
It is an essential starting point for finding your way through everyday life and connecting with other expats for both newcomers and long-term residents, it is the kind of place where families find other families to meet up with, ask questions, post about events in the city, find other expat groups and activities, and more.
The group is energetic which means any pressing questions will usually be answered promptly. It is the ultimate group to get general real-time information, find references and access to activities like Vox Mundi, the Brasilia International Choir, the Brasilia Hash House Harriers, articles about expat life in B4D Magazine, and resources like brasilia4dummies, along with free classes, events, and others, or to just to consult with fellow expats.
Brasilia is one of the safest cities in you are likely to find yourself in Brazil but, like any city, stuff happens. The Living Brasilia Forum lets you stay up to date on safety issues as they happen, through news links, questions answered, reports by expats, and first-hand accounts of incidents.
“Relocation and life can be a challenge and is sometimes isolating; hopefully through this group, we can all help each other, welcome new families, find new friends and keep a good balance in our lives with this extra support and information,” says the group’s explanation of its mission.
Though it is possible to spend countless hours ruminating over the philosophical implications of life in a new country, LBF is generally concerned with the practical of everyday life.
When it comes to being an expat, LBF is more than the kind of anchor that supports and builds a unique fabric of life, it is a profile in long-term commitment to pragmatic service to the community, says Julie Cartagena, a Brasilia newcomer transferring from Bolivia.
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Live music, the lake, the stars, and a healthy imagination create one of Brasilia’s most romantic restaurant settings
By Milan Sime Martinic
High on the Coyuca Hills over Acapulco Bay was one of the world’s most spectacular restaurant settings― the fabled Coyuca 22 of Mario Puzo and Sydney Sheldon novels of The Godfather and Bond movies, of multiple superstar diners on any night. In the decades since I first dined there, there has never been a restaurant that has taken my breath away as did Coyuca 22, from the minute I got past its old, worn adobe walls to every second admiring my luck to be able to be there. The food and service were always grand but that was not the unforgettable part, it was the lovely uber-romantic atmosphere, the bay reflecting the stars, the city lights across the bay. In all my travels only the spectacular Lycabettus Restaurant in Santorini ever came close. I went back to Coyuca 22 everytime I got a chance until the restaurant closed in the last few years. I thought I would never feel the likes of that atmosphere again.
This chic but laid-back lakeside restaurant is situated right on the approach to Life’s pearly white lakeshore on lake Paranoa. At night, it is a surprisingly magical place, which sits slightly above the lawn as it stretches to the edge, one can feel as if you were floating in the dark blue of night, sky above, water below, and if you let your senses go, you will find yourself enjoying a ridiculously picturesque setting to watch the sparking night waters.
As evening falls and the stars emerge, blossom scents waft through the air, and lights from boats flicker to life and cause the waters to lap the shore. Few experiences match the feeling on the breezy terrace as night engulfs you while the pinks and oranges of the sky fade into black. It does not get more dreamily romantic in Brasilia.
Food ranges from the common, a fish-and-chips that was quite unremarkable, to the sophisticated with well-seasoned risottos and filet mignon with elaborate sauces, so choose carefully. Service ranges from adequate to neglectful, to sometimes splendid attention. Drinks are more consistent and better than expected, rivaling some of the most carefully prepared in town. But the star of the evening is almost always the setting and the ambiance that for me, at least, recalls one of the most spectacular and romantic restaurant settings I have found anywhere. It is lovely casual dining.
Pricing is reasonable; expect to pay at least R$10 cover per person for the entertainment. La Terrazza is open daily for lunch and dinner.
IF YOU GO: You will have to head to the LIFE resort on Asa Norte, just north of Vila Planalto. Tell the porters you are heading to Restaurante La Terrazza. You will get a wristband to wear and instructions on where to park. Go through the lobby and down the stone steps into the restaurant and get a table out on the veranda facing the lake.
★★★★★ Ambiance
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★★★★ Food
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