Conceição Evaristo to headline A Festa Literaria Das Periferias 2025 which runs in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from November 17 and 23 and November 27 and 30, 2025.
A Festa Literária Das Periferias (English: Literary Festival of the Peripheries) is the literary festival of the favelas in Rio de Janeiro. The first edition took place in 2012, in Morro dos Prazeres, a favela in the central region of Rio de Janeiro. Since then, it has been held in Vigário Geral, Mangueira, Babilônia (2015 and 2021), Cidade de Deus, Vidigal, and a region of Rio known as Little Africa (2019 and 2022). In 2024, the festival honoured Black women with its programming.
The journey to 2025, which is the fifteenth edition, started with the revelation of theme which is “Ideas to Re-enchant the World: Writings, Dreams and Beats”, a celebration of the revolutionary political, artistic, musical and poetic legacy of the Caribbean and its profound influence on the African diaspora, especially in Brazil, with its soundsystem culture. They also revealed the festival headliner Conceição Evaristo, a writer of fiction and essays with numerous awards like the Caribbean Philosophical Association’s Nicolás Guillén Literature Award in 2018 and Jabuti Award for literary personality in 2019, Prêmio Juca Pato in 2023, who joined Brazil’s Academia Mineira de Letras in 2024.
Festival organisers describe Evaristo as one of the most influential writers in Brazil, whose concept of “Writings” transformed the way we understand and narrate the experiences of black women and peripheral communities. Her work, deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the African diaspora, resonates with the resilience of the mangrove forest — its ability to thrive in challenging conditions, to create life where it seems impossible.
Some of the other guests will be Djamila Ribeiro, Itamar Vieira Junior, Eliana Alves Cruz, and Jeferson Tenório.
For more information on the festival as more artists are added to the roster, we recommend that you check out the official website.
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