Tag Archives: 25 de Abril

Song is a weapon: For José Mário Branco (1942-2019)

José Mário Branco was musician, song writer, composer, poet and militant. Though largely unknown outside portugal and lusophone countries, he was a central figure, among others (e.g. José Afonso), in what came to be known in his country as “musica … Continue reading

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Voices of a revolution: Portugal, 25 of April 1974, Música de intervenção

A people without song are perhaps not a “people”, or at least, they are not more than temporary aggregates of consumers of music.  But consumers do not make up a people and if it is in times of intense and … Continue reading

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The lyricism of revolution: José Afonso

Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth. Theodor Adorno If creation is the constitution of new spaces and times, as Gilles Deleuze once said, then the creativity of music and that of politics, if not the same, … Continue reading

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25th of April: Revolutions within a revolution

The portuguese government and opposition parties in parliament today commemorate the forty years of the 25th of April revolution; yet they do so fearful of the very word “revolution”.  To commemorate is already to disarm, to confine the event to … Continue reading

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The Dream of a Revolution: “Bom Povo Português” of Rui Simões

In the echo of protests in Portugal this last weekend (15/09), memories and possibilities from the past reappear, take on physical form, masks to reassume and modify for a utopian politics of the present.  The testimony/intervention of Robert Kramer with … Continue reading

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The art of revolution/Revolutionary art: Robert Kramer and the portuguese revolution

Robert Kramer's Scenes from the Class Struggles in Portugal (1977) remains an extraordinarily powerful film.  Committed ideologically to the revolutionary process unleashed by the coup d'état on April 25th, 1974, Kramer rejects any pretensions to neutrality.  The film is not … Continue reading

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