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Drawing from the unapologetic and powerful poem by Tamyris Soares, a queer Black Brazilian artist and occupier at Ouvidor 63. Her enraged words weave together a reckoning with the overlapping crises of un/inhabitability, marginalization and dis/belonging in the Brazilian urban context, particularly in Sao Paulo’s landscape of financialization, white flight and food insecurity.

No amount of words can fully capture the breadth and richness of the organizing and solidarity we witnessed at the various housing movements from MTST (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto, or Homeless Workers Movement) and MSTC (Movimento de Sem-Teto do Centro, or Homeless Movement of the (City) Centre), and although we took on this fieldwork as a means of mutual learning, exchange and knowledge co-production, I can confidently say we, as researchers and students, were irrevocably humbled by the learnings and generosity we experienced, to be trusted with people’s life stories, to be allowed into people’s homes and allowed a glimpse into the lives of those who unromantically live in the movement and constitute its beating heart.

My group focused our research through the lens of reparative belonging. We were seeking to comprehend how labors of endurance that manifested in praxes and spaces related to art and food were crucial to these housing movements while acknowledging the difficulties and asymmetries that exist in how the labor is divided. With that said, we also worked to build off of the work being done to fortify and scale out these labors, and how productive-reproductive dichotomies were being blurred as these labors were being streamlined and shared. 

This work changed me. Brazil changed us all. It was our deepest privilege to hear from so many amazing activists/researchers/militants/occupiers, and I am forever grateful to have done this work with my group members. You made this project even more worthwhile.

Quem na luta, ta morta.

A luta é pra valer

Quem ocupa cuida.