Street Syntax
Saints and Sinners: Why Gangs Became Brazil's Unlikely Tastemakers
In the favelas where the state fears to tread, criminal factions have become unlikely cultural curators, turning violence into art and survival into scripture.
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Diaspora Aesthetics
The Rhythm of Resistance: How Marrabenta Became Mozambique's Blueprint for Cultural Survival
In the humid backstreets of Maputo, kids are choreographing revolution with their feet. This is the story of marrabenta – the sound that rewrote the rules of resistance.
System Hacks
José Mouta Liz: The Banker Who Believed in the Barricade
From central bank vaults to clandestine violence.
System Hacks
The Long Nap After the Revolution: A Memory Hole Where History Should Be
The carnations wilted. The fascists returned. And no one taught the kids how to see it coming.
Street Syntax
24 Is Not a Joke: The Secret Life of Brazil’s Most Stigmatized Number
Queerness, Superstition, and the Secret Codes of Brazil's Oldest Illegal Game.
Diaspora Aesthetics
Weaving New Narratives: Lusophone Diaspora Artists Bridge Past and Future
From Lisbon's galleries to its vibrant club scenes, artists from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe are transforming Portugal's cultural landscape
System Hacks
Shadowbanned by Reality: The Theatre of the Feed, and Who Gets the Mic
The right speaks in emojis. The left speaks in footnotes. And the feed listens to who screams louder.
Shifting Grounds
The River Between Us: Almada Between Memory and Masterplan
What exactly is at stake for Almada? And what does this say about the future of urban Portugal?
Sonic Cartographies
The Sonic Contrabandist: Berlin called, Rio answered
Daniel Haaksman doesn't just play records—he traffics in frequencies, philosophies, and fever dreams, all pressed onto wax and hurled across continents like sonic grenades.
Coded Dreams
Amazofuturism: Tupinambá Time Machines
They say the forest holds the memory of all things. That the river doesn’t forget the footsteps of the jaguar, nor the whisper of a canoe gliding across its surface at dawn.
Street Syntax
Samba, Syntax, and Saudade: The Power Struggle Inside a Shared Tongue
It didn’t just evolve—Brazilian Portuguese danced, improvised, and sang its way into the future. Now, with its melodies spreading through music, film, and screens worldwide, Portugal is left wondering whether its own linguistic cadence is being drowned out.
Shifting Grounds
Reclaiming the Tracks: Transpraia’s Second Life
On a forgotten beach line, Portugal reimagines a future of collective movement.