Ancestral Echoes
The Heat Was Never the Problem ...
Colonial theories of "tropical inferiority" still haunt Brazil — now Black artists are burning them down.
Ancestral Echoes
Where the past whispers futures.
Ancestral Echoes
Postcards from the Plantation: Brazil’s Tropical Dream Rebranded
From Freyre’s erotic myths to Instagram’s filtered favelas, Brazil keeps remixing colonial desire into a pop aesthetic called “diversity.”
Ancestral Echoes
Call Me João: Portugal's Strange Obsession With Naming Everyone the Same Thing
From Salazar's moral bureaucracy to the algorithmic age, Portugal's tiny name pool reveals a country still wrestling with its need for order — even in the chaos of identity.
Ancestral Echoes
Holy Brew, Dirty Politics: Guess Who Turned Ayahuasca Into a Fascist Sacrament?
Inside the União do Vegetal, where psychedelics are allegedly mixed with political indoctrination — proving that even enlightenment can be weaponized when religion and power share the same altar.
Ancestral Echoes
From Chains to Chants: The Black and Red Streets of Laranjeiras
The Festa dos Lambe-Sujos e Caboclinhos isn’t about costumes — it’s about memory, rebellion, and the unfinished story of liberation.
Ancestral Echoes
The greatest massacre in Rio de Janeiro began 525 years ago. And it never ended.
Indigenous activist and writer Yakuy Tupinambá exposes how state violence against Black and Indigenous peoples continues the unfinished project of colonization.
Ancestral Echoes
Forget Greta: These River Warriors Are Taking Climate Activism to Another Level
The Yaku Mama flotilla is bringing the fight for climate justice straight to the doorstep of next year's UN summit — by boat.
Ancestral Echoes
The Exotic Alibi: How Europe Still Uses Brazil to Forget Itself
A brief history of European thinkers finding salvation in Brazil — and erasing Brazilians in the process.
Ancestral Echoes
When the Beat Becomes a Crime Meter: Brazilian Courts Tell Cops to Back Off the Terreiros
It starts the same way almost every time: a neighbor calls, the cops show up, the drums fall silent. Afro-Brazilian terreiros—those sacred yards where atabaques mark the rhythm of the gods—are often treated like noisy bars rather than temples. The charge is always the same: “perturbação do sossego”
Ancestral Echoes
F*** Your Wig: A Bissau Project Is Turning Natural Hair Into Revolution
In Guinea-Bissau, a movement called Meninas Sem Peruca is ripping wigs off the colonial playbook and crowning Black women with their own damn power.
Ancestral Echoes
Katú Mirim: From the Courtyard to the Mosh Pit
The Bororo rapper is suing festivals, shredding stereotypes, and turning Indigenous rage into a future Brazil can’t censor.
Ancestral Echoes
Against the Museum Glass: Why Indigenous Culture Defies Patrimonialism
For Ailton Krenak and a new generation of Indigenous artists, culture is not an object to preserve but a living force in constant motion.