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MANIFEST OF THE POET-WON'T

At the door of every poet's room should be hung the sign: THE POET WON'T BE WORKING. The maintenance of the world's structures depends on his dream. The beauty that erodes rust and exposes the unimaginative criteria that bind the dream to the night realm depends on his dream. It depends on what the Poet-won't be able to outline the winding lines whose straps and contours separate those who poetize-not from the cowards who shepherd the terrifying flock of tiny daily hatreds.

The POET-WON'T be recognized for his generosity in publicly doing what he could do only for his own personal benefit: he knows how to describe a dream without necessarily making it come true. Those who remain on the horizon are more enduring: step by step spinning the compass and crossing the calculation - our steps come from far away: in the crossing, with each miracle we mourn a thousand tears miracle.

He must be recognized for his generosity in publicly doing what he could do only for his own personal benefit: proud and noble, he is embedded in the tension between scissors and  paper. The role and the character. The character and the mouth. The mouth and the kiss between the near and the inside.

POET-WON'T be entitled to wake up singer, actor, dancer, model, flower. From his explosive power to collapse the hidden structures, not the truth, but something that should derive from it because it is much more dangerous to the capital: justice. The poetics that EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA extrapolates the idea that the beauty of the flower is proportional to its precariousness. Spoiler alert: all beauty is convulsive; that's why POET-WON'T write turning his back to the world.

POET-WON'T claim he doesn't walk alone, as he dances at the ceremony of his ancestors, where he is never a foreigner: the poet-won't be a grandfather, mother, daughters, sea, a sea mist he shall be.  The tide. The sea is where the poet won''t walk alone: nothing is by the shore alone, everything is a frontier. "Sail", the poet-hand reaches. This way...

Ana Maria Gonçalves

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inner dive

From my father I inherited not only my teeth and my eyes – that any seeing person will see – but also his zest for work, his readiness to come up with dimensions according to political symbols – leftist at first – that call for common truths: ​​rights, equality, justice, unprecedented developments, courage in breakups and boldness. Now that my time is set by the clock on my Apple computer in a global present, I’m not so sure we could preach the left with such thoughts. I think it through. Yet none of that is a matter quantized in an inventory. My healthy teeth, I owe them to my black ancestors and their shiny bones that drew attention to disputes over their bodies. I bring physical resistance in my genetic material with psychoemotional sequelae. My father, when dying, had only his teeth intact.It was impressive. In his first exhumation – five years after being buried six feet under – there they were – resilient to the time that had consumed his flesh and clothes. His teeth. I didn’t see them with my own eyes that worms will eat before my piano, but I was told by the undertaker – a  blabbermouth who, on one more of his unhealthy days at work, said: only his teeth are left. Itamar's mouth – famous for saying what came to mind, not shallowly as the saying suggests – was an organ to swallow and vomit, in a violent movement between the extremely important and vilified silence of his professional posture and the need to speak up as a free black man, whose relatives hadn’t been able to do so. He sinned through his mouth, in a Judeo-Christian interpretation. They called him damned. His teeth. Sometimes clenched from cocaine. Sometimes wide open in a generous smile. They chewed on insults and pork during his existence. Seventeen years after his death, I – first offender, confess to the crime of absolute love. I dedicate hours of my days to extol his life and also to brush my shiny teeth well. My teeth never saw braces thanks to all those good genes hailing from African Nigeria or Kenya and Sierra Leon – as my DNA test will say. Peoples with firm bones and technological muscles – not quantized in inventories, mind you.

I, Black Mestizo, realize the importance of underscoring my African ancestral tree, as my white side is accounted for in all documents I have access to at the Immigrant Museum, in my city, Sao Paulo – in addition to all the songbooks by my Euro colonizing ancestors . An Italian passport seems to have more value than my teeth, but, as far as the matter goes, it will decay well before my canines. Fact.

As a beige African, I allow myself to navigate through mixed ancestral memories. I’ll let what doesn’t need praising now decant. I’ll now archeologically dig what I was denied to know about us. Sometimes I find fuel that keeps me going, sometimes I find intact thorns that also keep me going. Nothing in this excavation is an accident that suggests pause. I am an archeologist of myself in a sublime desire for encounter and knowledge. This is the bias of my inheritance.

I walk with Blacks, Whites and Non-Whites in an eternal crossing of location and fissure.

I am surton with the arrow pointed into the sky in a round call:

Sit here with me on this rock

Let's go for an inner dive.

Anelis, October 2020. 32 natural teeth.

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Parallax, translation, and scope: Itamafricas arriving

We offer here a different presence of Itamar Assumpção. His non-patrimonial, counter-colonial memory of what does not die, from beginnings and events, rises on the horizon. Nego, besides Dito, is multiply translatable. Translate in terms of times and lines of force, and not of languages; not of techniques or syntaxes; perhaps, more of morphology, if morphology of a black body, offering a comprehensive black becoming to those who still want to (en)chant what they live - with cutlass, technology to be invented and the dense beauty of Osanyin's sophisticated sap. It is, therefore, about Itamar between now and ancestry, which are (at) the same time. It is taking you through the Yoruban poetic frequencies to the gear of an oriki – poetic realization in the world, poetic fact in the flesh and in the absence, poetic fact in which you cross, poetic fact in the dream of orchids. It is taking the open invention, still resonant, creating futures (in the caves of the present), all dressed with ojás, in a playful circuit, adorning the science of the food dishes that feed the ori-head, the ori-destination, the singing orifice and brief (like Isca  de Polícia [Police Bait]). Itamar in Yoruba is the activation of both what founds us and what we struggle to expect. It means that the orixás "sent down to see", once again in history, after the Filhos de Gandhi, the first museum of a black artist in Brazil. In this sense, the centrality of the Yoruba language lies in the evocation of the black-diasporic language of the various African languages ​​in dynamics: turning, variation, volition. Like Zózimo in “Alma no Olho”[Soul in the Eye],  we see the rupture of white currents when intelligences circulate unrestrained between Oyó, Ketu, Daomé, Kongo, Ndongo, Haiti, Cuba, United States, Brazil and other arts… between the arriving territory and life a lot. In the quilombo of Itamar, Beatriz and her “ntu” speak of the continuous circle of history and independence in relation to death… of course… Beatriz will always be our Nascimento [Birth], just as Itamar will always be the Assumpção [Assumption] that we are at the Vanguarda [Avant-garde] - necessarily, without military, without police and without salvation.

Tiganá Santana

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Life and a Mouth Kiss

Police bait, "Me chamo Benedito João dos Santos Silva Beleléu, Vulgo Nego Dito, Nego Dito cascavé... Apaguei um no Paraná, pá, pá, pá, pá!” ["My name is Benedito João dos Santos Silva Beleléu, aka Nego Dito, Nego Dito cascavé ... I put one out of the way in Paraná, bang, bang, bang, bang!"]

Around the age of 15, I found Itamar's discography, in the mid-2000s. I fell in love almost instantly with that upright voice singing in clean Portuguese, almost without an accent.

Soft Power is when a political body uses cultural means to diplomatically influence other political bodies. Itamar Assumpção's music is political Soft Power. In a mild way, it portrays several socio-racial problems. His criticisms and observations in the form of music is a magical synesthetic experience that, almost unconsciously, moves the body of those who experience it.

But Itamar doesn't fascinate me just because of his musical creation. For me, he is a living entity that inhabits my imagery repertoire, with its African-futuristic style à la Sun Rá. His slender, slim figure, dominated by his presence of mind, is among my references in fashion and art.

And, apparently, not just mine. Its aesthetic legacy influences the hood to this day. His style is a language of survival and social self-assertion. Thanks to Itamar and its precursors, the black in the hood today is “in drag”. Women, men, trans and cis will show off their colorful locks and bespoke costumes as they head towards the centers of large cities. Oftentimes, this hood style will set the tone of great products from the fashion and entertainment industry.

His choice for an independent career, taking a stand against the abusive and racist politics of record labels is inspiring. It showed us that it is worth dreaming and that it is possible to overcome material adversities. Itamar is a symbol of integrity in the face of a system that privileges Non-Blacks.

In “Vá cuidar de sua vida”[Go mind your own business], a song by black Geraldo Filme, strategically interpreted by Itamar, reveals the ills of structural racism and hypocrisy of Brazilian society. His many occupations and professional talents to guarantee life are brilliantly narrated as fiction in the ballad "Vida de artista" [Life of an artist], a faithful self-report. However, my favorites are still the romantic ones: “Tua Boca” [Your mouth], “Finalmente” [Finally] ... I melt! How about "Milágrimas" [Thousand tears]? A delicate medicine in those days of acute PMS.

Do you know that feeling of kissing on the mouth? Passionate poetry? That sensation that mixes sensuality with a crazy desire to live? For me, this is the legacy of our ancestor "estileira" [stylish]: that feeling of "good vibes". An artistic trajectory rich not only in images, but in unique letters and resistance. It is worth visiting and revisiting his work countless times.

Let us celebrate the intellectual and cultural contribution that Itamar offered to our people. Let us celebrate Itamar (yesterday and today!) And his descendants who continue his legacy.

Long live the Itamar Assumpção Virtual Museum!

Mônica Ventura

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THE IMPORTANCE OF ITAMAR ASSUMPÇÃO MUSEUM

In my opinion, a museum telling and preserving Itamar Assumpção’s history is something great.
An artist, a thinker from an era of humanity as he was in the 70s, 80s, of our 20th century
in a giant city like São Paulo – a city that is part of a continental country like Brazil, to be remembered how he was is representative.

Because he as a black man, thinker of his time, putting and narrating history from the point of view and place of speech of a black man from São Paulo in a highly racist city, a city that crushed the African Sao Paulo culture. Sao Paulo was one of the last cities to abolish slavery, a highly punitive city in relation to the black culture and religiosity of the African Brazilian.

That’s why everything is really important for all black artists to see a strong name marking territory and this place of speech by the artist, the intellectual, the man and the black Brazilian citizen.
Mind you, because it is not the same, it is different when one civilization overlaps another and erases all traces of another civilization as it happened to the history of Africans and their descendants, as it happened in Sao Paulo.

For if you want to know, you have to search rare books, photographs and rare records that speak of this black civilization in the city.
This is my point of view on the things I see and have read and tried to know, this is how I see it.

Mano Brown

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Itamar Assumpção was a brilliant musician, as well as a rebel marching against the pacts established, for the plasticity of dead letters of meaning, by the current cultural industry, which saw him as a strong opponent. He lived the beauty and the hardness of being independent, in a country of hereditary captaincies little used to this format.

Before we even think of ourselves as human beings, the country's secular coloniality imposes itself on our interpersonal relationships, prescribing expected behaviors. For the black, “Yes, sir” is required. We are seen as objects at the service of white supremacy that reinvents itself to maintain the oppression of one racial group, which has all economic power, over the other.

Those among the oppressed who can draw the masses are expected to adhere to unfair contracts, to hold concerts with little or no meaning just to please music label bosses, to pasteurize their lyrics for as little discomfort as possible - preferably no discomfort.

Itamar fought against all of this while also celebrating blackness. As babalorixá Sidnei Barreto says, with each layer of black that you cover your ori and your body, the greater the anti-colonial nuisance that you awaken. A black, brilliant, independent, candomblé man, who would build his avant-garde music on ancestral knowledge, was certainly destined to make the noise he made on the Brazilian cultural scene, a transformative work.

Long live the Itamar Assumpção Virtual Museum, another initiative to crown the immortality of this popular artist who, 'damned’ in colonial terms, promoted, in addition to brilliant music, fissures through which the ginga of the black people infiltrates and follows his steps to continue resisting and creating new forms of life and existence in the country.

Sao Paulo, September 25, 2020

Djamila Ribeiro

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Huge words, not bad words.

Being a poet is a type of destiny, a type of gene, a type of thing that happens to a person – whether one wants it or not.
Wanting is not enough though; if you weren’t born with that something, it’s not going to happen! You may study as hard as any poet will and then pull off some well concatenated sentences, at most; yet they will lack the grace and mystery of true poetry.
By the same token, some people are poets and don't even know they are. It happens. It is rare, but it happens.
The biggest proof is that it happened to Itamar.
A soccer player, an actor, a musician, a multi-instrumentalist, a composer, a singer: he did all this with the greatest poetry and still said he was “no poet”.
Only a great poet would be able to do that.
In Nego Dito Beleléu and Às Próprias Custas we see more of the playwright, the storyteller, the chronicler, because he loved to create a script, an argument, tell a story, that is, he was always a writer, but in all of this there is a poet saying present, past and, mainly, future.
A poet who starts to come out more and open wide with Sampa Midnight, thankfully. That must be why this is my favorite record by Itamar and, as he confessed to me, his too.
But for the next albums, until the end, he had fun versing all musical genres, from samba to rock, and especially, that genre that he created, only his, with few notes and a strangely new rhythm/noise, that has already gathered its followers.
His word is equally new and creates the same strangeness as his melodic lines. Everything perfectly blended in its novelty.
All in the service of a political, warrior statement, in defense of an ethical ideology without ever giving up aesthetics and, above all, without the effort to create it. Just like the best art should be.
Everything in his song flows as if this new one, which provokes and surprises, had always existed, or, at least, had been alive forever, just waiting for him, to come up.
Itamar flows as people say. And his speech means beyond what he says, in form and content, and perfectly blended.
Its subtlety holds several meanings beyond the first reading.
Therefore, his speech is the type that will continue to speak for decades until it is fully understood. Because his word is huge, it will cross the times, it will continue to provoke, inspire, and it will stick to the ear of history.

Alice Ruiz

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BLACK ART

In a nation like ours, whose civilizing process is irremediably associated with merging different autochthonous and foreign peoples and cultures, the role that each of them has played in this process cannot be overlooked, in its parts and whole.  Just like Caucasian Europeans, African, Asian, and Amerindian peoples have also contributed to the Brazilian amalgam. To the colonial Portuguese language, innumerable ways of speaking, saying, singing of the peoples who were and are here have been incorporated: African-Brazilian ways, Indigenous ways, Eastern ways, and many others.

A museum to the memory of Black artists comes to affirm the particularity of the African contribution in terms of the immense participation of weavers of Creole languages ​​in the creation of this baroque Brazilian cultural tapestry.

The Itamar Assumpção Virtual Museum is nothing but the recognition of the greatness of the life and work of one of the most profound artists that emerged among us through this history of suffering, struggle and overcoming by Black people in the formation of Brazil. “Não me toquem nessa dor. Sofrer vai ser a minha última obra” [“Don't touch me in that pain. Suffering is going to be my last work”], resonate Paulo Leminski’s words in the voice of Itamar's audacious melody to reveal his touching verses. Black memory. Black possibility of existence. Crystalline source of ancestral fluids.

The Virtual Museum Itamar Assumpção is here to set, to fix our eyes on the overseas that brought us here and that will take us from here to where else our black soul wants to go. Our watery eyes from which, in the words of the great duo Ita and Alice Ruiz, “a cada mil lágrimas sai um milagre” [“after every thousand tears comes a miracle”].

Gilberto Gil.

"I am pure Afro-Brazilian" is what Itamar Assumpção said in his song "Cabelo Duro" (Hard Hair) on the album "Isso Vai Dar Repercussão com Naná Vasconcelos" (That Will Get Repercussion with Naná Vasconcelos).In order to express his blackness, he also stated the contradiction that is contained in the idea of being an Afro hyphen Brazilian and the idea of purity. Only those who are the fruits of centuries of transits and crossings can bear such complexity.

Coincidentally, or not, Ita is the name given to the Brazilian packets, steam boats that carried cargo and people. Itagiba. Itapagé. Itahité. Itajubá. Itamar. Body-vessel crossing the open veins of the Black Atlantic, navigating through its blood flows, receiving impulse from the marine breath. The Ocean that joins Africa to the Americas is a living and moving entity. More than that, it is a place of intersections, it is the pathway.

"I am pure Afro-Brazilian" is a long-lasting exhibition about the trajectory of the singer, composer and poet Itamar Assumpção. However, in the country where there is a delirium of racial democracy, it is necessary to point out what one has to say: this exhibition recounts the trajectory of a black artist, coming from the countryside, who met his harbor in São Paulo. He was an independent artist, father, husband, brother, friend. Itamar was human, above all, the kind of being filled by dignity. His life is a mirror to many others and his work a musical-visual kaleidoscope. As Tiganá Santana would say "The Nego, besides said, is multiplying translatable" and goes beyond the relationships "between now and ancestry, which are at/the same time".

In a spiral of time, the expository discourse presents the archive material intersecting important black narratives, revealing documents, images, videos, costumes and objects, as well as multiplying the artistic potency of Ita. Going back and forth in time searching for new ways of narration.

Ana Maria Gonçalves, Anelis Assumpção,
Frederico Teixeira e Rosa Couto.

Click to start
“I walk with Blacks, Whites and Non-Whites in an eternal crossing of location and fissure.I am surton with the arrow pointed into the sky in a round call: Sit here with me on this rock, let's go for an inner dive.”
anelis assumpção
read the full text

1950

"There was a time when the land
groaned And the people trembled
from so much beating
So much lashing on the loins that
many would die in the same spot.
Freedom beyond the horizon, so
many people died from so much
dreaming.
It was Zumbi!"

Excerpt from Batuque, 1981
 
Itamar Assumpção in her mother's lap, Maria Aparecida, in 1950.

1942 - Ataulfo Alves and Mario Lago release the samba “Ai que saudades da Amélia“(The much I miss Amelia) 1942 - Jimi Hendrix was born1947 - Luiz Gonzaga releases “Asa Branca” (White wing) 1942 - Ataulfo Alves and Mario Lago release the samba “Ai que saudades da Amélia“(The much I miss Amelia) 1942 - Jimi Hendrix was born1947 - Luiz Gonzaga releases “Asa Branca” (White wing) 1942 - Ataulfo Alves and Mario Lago release the samba “Ai que saudades da Amélia“(The much I miss Amelia) 1942 - Jimi Hendrix was born1947 - Luiz Gonzaga releases “Asa Branca” (White wing)

In 1949, Itamar de Assumpção* was born in the city of Tietê, in the countryside of São Paulo, where he lived with his grandmother until he was twelve. This city was originated due to the activity of the bandeirantes, who invaded the countryside of Brazil in search for precious metals and indigenous peoples to enslave. Over time the city received a significant number of Africans and afro-descendants from other regions of Brazil as enslaved workforce. One of the social outlets for black men and women in this city were the Batuques de Umbigada, popular culture manifestations that would be very important for the performative upbringing of Itamar Assumpção.

POLICE BAIT
During the military dictatorship in Brazil, the common logic of murder and persecution against the black population was extended to the rest of civil society. Cultural activities are censored and groups forced into clandestinity. The Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN), founded in 1944, had its activities interrupted by AI-5 in 1968 because of the ban imposed on Abdias do Nascimento, its founder. In 1967, Milton Nascimento launched his iconic album Travessia. The musician would be one of Itamar's greatest musical references.

Also in 1949 was created, in the capital of São Paulo, the Grêmio Recreativo Cultural Escola de Samba Nenê de Vila Matilde, located in the eastern zone of São Paulo, a few kilometers from where Itamar would live and die years later.

At the dawn of the 1950s, Adoniran Barbosa would launch his classic "Saudosa Maloca" and years later Ataulfo Alves and Elza Soares would make their debut with their ripping Bossa-Negra. The radio was the greatest attraction in the Brazilian homes, moulding the listening and musical taste of several generations.

1* * * Itamar de Assumpção - registered name. Francisco José Itamar de Assumpção - baptismal name. Itamar Assumpção - artistic name.

"He got a little guitar and wanted to learn, but as we were unable to buy a new guitar, he said: 'I'm going to try this one'. Then he started.”

Transcript of the testimony of Maria Aparecida Silva de Assumpção in 2003 for the short film “Beleléu Cá Entre Nós - Itamar Assumpção before Nego Dito”, by Fábio Giorgio.
One year before his first title in 1956, the Sociedade Amigos de Vila Matilde parades his first float.
Moment of the passage of the scarf of Batuque de Umbigada in Rio Claro, 1955. Photo by Rodolpho Capriva. Source: Collection of the historical pedagogical museum of the Amador Bueno da Veiga Museum.
Police bait
Batuques and other kinds of black social gatherings, that were not directly linked to the religion and culture of the white people were persecuted by the police and tossed to the most peripheral regions of the cities.
Elza Soares singing around 1950.
Photo: National Archive / Public Domain

1951: The Afonso Arinos Law prohibiting racial discrimination in Brazil is promulgated 1952: Frantz Fanon publishes the book "Peles Negras, Máscaras Brancas" (Black Skins, White Masks)1957: Ghana becomes independent1958: Edison Carneiro publishes the book "O Quilombo dos Palmares1959: Elza Soares recorded "Se Acaso você Chegasse" ( If only you arrived) by Lupicínio Rodrigues  1951: The Afonso Arinos Law prohibiting racial discrimination in Brazil is promulgated 1952: Frantz Fanon publishes the book "Peles Negras, Máscaras Brancas" (Black Skins, White Masks)1957: Ghana becomes independent1958: Edison Carneiro publishes the book "O Quilombo dos Palmares1959: Elza Soares recorded "Se Acaso você Chegasse" ( If only you arrived) by Lupicínio Rodrigues 1951: The Afonso Arinos Law prohibiting racial discrimination in Brazil is promulgated 1952: Frantz Fanon publishes the book "Peles Negras, Máscaras Brancas" (Black Skins, White Masks)1957: Ghana becomes independent1958: Edison Carneiro publishes the book "O Quilombo dos Palmares1959: Elza Soares recorded "Se Acaso você Chegasse" ( If only you arrived) by Lupicínio Rodrigues

Batuque de Umbigada of Tietê, SP.
Photo: Ivan Bonifacio
Itamar Assumpção poses with the shirt of the 'Quem sabe pode' wing ('Who might be able to') from Samba school Nenê da Vila Matilde, 1985.
Photo: Oscar Barros

1960

The 1960's are founding years! Brazil suffers the consequences of the military coup of 1964. In 1966 the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, USA. At the beginning of this decade Carolina Maria de Jesus releases her “Quarto de Despejo: Diário de uma Favelada” (Dumping Room: The Diary of a Favelada), intimately and poetically exposing the precarious situation of many black families in Brazil.

1961 – The young boy Ita moves to Arapongas, a small town near Londrina, in Paraná, to live with his parents. In this city, he joins GRUTA, Grupo de Teatro de Arapongas, directed by Nitis Jacon. Over time, Itamar ventures into Londrina's cultural life, taking part in the music and theater festivals that made that city famous. With GRUTA, he stages Tiradentes Arena, being the main character, a black Tiradentes.

Abdias do Nascimento was an actor, poet, writer, playwright, artist, professor, politician and civil and human rights activist of the Brazilian black population. Photo: National Archive / Public Domain
POLICE BAIT
Batuques and other kinds of black social gatherings, that were not directly linked to the religion and culture of the white people were persecuted by the police and tossed to the most peripheral regions of the cities.
Black Panther Party symbol, USA, 1966
 
Carolina Maria de Jesus writing. Source: UOL/ Publishing.
 
Police Bait
During the military dictatorship in Brazil, the common logic of murder and persecution against the black population was extended to the rest of civil society. Cultural activities are censored and groups forced into clandestinity. The Teatro Experimental do Negro (TEN), founded in 1944, had its activities interrupted by AI-5 in 1968 because of the ban imposed on Abdias do Nascimento, its founder. In 1967, Milton Nascimento launched his iconic album Travessia. The musician would be one of Itamar's greatest musical references.
 
Photographic record of Pin from Santos Futebol Club used by Itamar, 2020

1960: Maria Carolina de Jesus publishes "Quarto de Despejo - Diário de uma favelada" ("Room of Depletion - Diary of a Slum resident") - BRAZIL1960: Célia Cruz - Cuba's Foremost Rhythm Singer - CUBA1962: American scientists Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson helped placing the first rocket into Earth' s orbit - USA1962: Algeria conquers independence from France 1966: Clementina de Jesus releases her first album1969: James Brown released the album "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud". 1960: Maria Carolina de Jesus publishes "Quarto de Despejo - Diário de uma favelada" ("Room of Depletion - Diary of a Slum resident") - BRAZIL1960: Célia Cruz - Cuba's Foremost Rhythm Singer - CUBA1962: American scientists Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson helped placing the first rocket into Earth' s orbit - USA1962: Algeria conquers independence from France 1966: Clementina de Jesus releases her first album1969: James Brown released the album "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud".

Itamar Assumpção in the role of Tiradentes, GRUTA group, Londrina, PR. Source: Folha de Londrina.
Itamar Assumpção at the University Festival of Londrina. Source: Folha de Londrina
Itamar Assumpção, Neusa Pinheiro and Arrigo Barnabé during a performance at the 1979 Popular Music Festival. Source: TV Tupi

1970

"... There was a blackout at Paulista
Murkiness at Trianon
Where is Consolação?"

Trecho de Sampa Midnight, Sampa Midnight, 1985

In 1973 - Itamar Assumpção performs at the Festival Na Boca do Bode, which took place at the Theater of the University of Londrina (UEL).

It was still in Londrina where the name Police Bait would have appeared after Itamar was arrested, carrying the recorder of his friend Domingos Pellegrini. In the same year, the musician relocated to São Paulo, moving in with his friends Arrigo and Paulo Barnabé in a rooming house. The musical collaborations among the three of them intensified.

The impact suffered by the "moleque saci"(brat-saci*) Itamar for arriving and living in a major metropolis such as São Paulo, which in the 1970s was expanding itself toward its peripheries, has made an intense mark on his life and his music. As the artist himself used to say "São Paulo is something else, it's not exactly love, it's absolute identification". This relationship with the city, its contradictions and its characters will pervade several of his writings.

In 1973 Bob Marley and The Wailers released their first album - Catch a Fire, the album that makes Jamaican Reggae international, an African rhythm that is strong in Brazil, especially in Maranhão.

In 1975 Itamar Assumpção marries Elizena Brigo and moves to Penha, East Side of São Paulo, working as a deliverer of IPTU carnets (municipal property tax).

POLICE BAIT
Reggae, a genre that strongly influenced Itamar's work, despite its success in the music market, was related to socially marginalized and persecuted people and activities. This mindset generally hits black cultural manifestations, such as samba, funk and hip hop, persecuted by the police and associated with criminality.
Excerpt from the Documentary Classic Albums: Catch a Fire, 1999

In 1977 Serena Assumpção was born, the couple's first daughter and Zena's second daughter, who was previously a widow and already had a daughter from her previous marriage, Celina.

Itamar and Elizena's marriage certificate
Information Sites in the subway construction areas near the Viaduto do Chá. Source: São Paulo City Hall
 
Vale do Anhangabaú Postcard in 1970
 
Ita and Zena in the 1970s
 
Police Bait
Reggae, a genre that strongly influenced Itamar's work, despite its success in the music market, was related to socially marginalized and persecuted people and activities. This mindset generally hits black cultural manifestations, such as samba, funk and hip hop, persecuted by the police and associated with criminality.
Excerpt from the Documentary Classic Albums: Catch a Fire, 1999

“I spun all this time
Knocking on door
Looking for a shelter, an attachment, a horizon
Trying from end to end
São Paulo
From side to side
In the battle of peace, relief, or even death...”

Excerpt from Embalos - Sampa Midnight, 1985

1970: Pelé is regarded as the best player in the world in Mexico's World Cup 1970: Miles Davis releases "Bitches Brew1970: Tim Maia releases his first album1973: Luiz Melodia releases the album "Perola Negra" (Black Pearl)1977: Blacula and Blackenstein,movies from the Blaxploitation movement are released 1974: Jorge Ben releases the album "Tábua de Esmeralda" (Emerald's Board)1974: Fela Kuti releases the album "Alagbon Close" 1977: Beginning of the Black Rio Movement 1970: Pelé is regarded as the best player in the world in Mexico's World Cup 1970: Miles Davis releases "Bitches Brew1970: Tim Maia releases his first album1973: Luiz Melodia releases the album "Perola Negra" (Black Pearl)1977: Blacula and Blackenstein,movies from the Blaxploitation movement are released 1974: Jorge Ben releases the album "Tábua de Esmeralda" (Emerald's Board)1974: Fela Kuti releases the album "Alagbon Close" 1977: Beginning of the Black Rio Movement 1970: Pelé is regarded as the best player in the world in Mexico's World Cup 1970: Miles Davis releases "Bitches Brew1970: Tim Maia releases his first album1973: Luiz Melodia releases the album "Perola Negra" (Black Pearl)1977: Blacula and Blackenstein,movies from the Blaxploitation movement are released 1974: Jorge Ben releases the album "Tábua de Esmeralda" (Emerald's Board)1974: Fela Kuti releases the album "Alagbon Close" 1977: Beginning of the Black Rio Movement

Itamar Assumpção and his wife Zena, 1975
Itamar and Zena in bed with baby Serena, 1977
Itamar and Zena in bed with baby Serena, 1977
Family and friends posing with couple Zena and Itamar Assumption after civil marriage
Celina and Itamar at Penha Neighborhood during the 1990s
Letters exchanged between Zena and Ita

1980

In 1980, Itamar releases its iconic album Beleléu Leléu Eu, by the label Lira Paulistana and definitely assumes the independent management of his career, debuting in festivals and stages in São Paulo.

Beleléu was born a classic, becoming one of the most important records of Brazilian popular music, bringing together almost all the characteristics that would make Itamar Assumpção a synonym of musical quality: sound experimentalism; intersection between the visual (cover, insert) and musical; theatrical performances; complex and intricate lyrics to the choirs that work as true blowing suits.

The techniques of collage and overlay of symbols used by Itamar Assumpção in the construction of the cover and insert, are in line with the universe of visual arts and Afrofuturist language of the period.

The music that, in a way, gives the title to this first album tells the tales of Nego Dito, a character eternalized in the figure of his own creator.

In 1987, Nego Dito becomes popular in Branca di Neve's samba rock version on his album Branca Mete Bronca.

“I invoke myself, I fight,
I do, I make it happen
I chase them away!
I do what I have to and show you the results
To prove it to whoever wants to see and check it
My name is Benedito João dos Santos Silva Beleléu AKA Nego Dito, Nego Dito cascavé”

Trecho de Nego Dito, Beleléu Leléu Eu, 1980
Contract between Itamar and Selo Lira Paulistana for the production of the record Beleléu Leléu Eu
 
"I'm not real, just like you. You don't exist in this society. If you did, you wouldn't be seeking equal rights. If you were real, you would have some status among the nations of the world. So we are all myths. I do not present myself as a reality, but as a myth. Because that is what black people are. Myths. I came from a dream, dreamed by black people a long time ago. I am a gift from your ancestors.

Sun Ra in the movie Space is the place, 1974"
 
Parliament-Funkadelic, mid-1970s
 
Itamar sunglasses, 2020
 
Itamar and Alzira E sing during a show at Funarte. Photo: Vange Milliet
Itamar Assumpção performs at the Lira Paulistana Theater, 1981
Recording Beleléu via Embratel at Nosso Estúdio, São Paulo, 1981. Photo: Renato Mascaro
Reproduction of cover and back cover of LP Beleléu Leléu Eu, 1980
   
▶   OUÇA
   
POLICE BAIT
The character Beleléu ironically, sarcastically and humorously linked together the stereotypes usually associated with the Brazilian black population in order to expose and transform them. Like a real clumsy comic book villain, Beleléu makes the listener fall in love with his adventures right from the first listen.
“He lived the beauty and hardness of being independent, in a country of hereditary captaincies little affectionate to this format.”
DJAMILA RIBEIRO
read the full text

As well as the release of the album, Itamar Assumpção and his band Isca de Polícia ("Police Bait") perform a season at the Lira Paulistana Theater, promoting the recently released work. The stage prepared for this season of concerts was surrounded by strings that imitated a prison cell, thought to contain Beleléu and his "very dangerous" gang, which at that time was made up of Denise Assunção, Suzana Salles, Vânia Bastos, Luiz Chagas, Paulo Lepetit, Gigante Brazil, Virgínia Rosa and Rondó.

Lira Paulistana was an independent venue open to multiple artistic languages. It was essential as a space of dissemination and sociability among artists of the then called Vanguarda Paulista ("Paulista Vanguard") until the mid 1980s. In the same year of 1980 Arrigo Barnabé launched his Clara Crocodilo, establishing him as one of the great names of São Paulo's independent music scene of the decade, together with Itamar Assumpção.

Lira Paulistana façade in the early 80s. Photo: Calil Neto

The year 1980 is highlighted by the birth of Ita e Zena's second daughter, Anelis Assumpção who, as a child, tagged along with her father in rehearsals and recordings and, after growing up, became a stage partner.

Itamar, Anelis and Iara Rennó during a concert at Crowne Plaza, 1998
Photo: Jairo Torres
Itamar Assumpção and Arrigo Barnabé in still of the film “Lira Paulistana e a Vanguarda Paulista”, musical documentary by director Riba de Castro
 
Unauthorized japanese version of the album "Beleléu, Leléu, Eu" manufactured in Brazil, sold in Vila Madalena in São Paulo
 
Police Bait
The character Beleléu ironically, sarcastically and humorously linked together the stereotypes usually associated with the Brazilian black population in order to expose and transform them. Like a real clumsy comic book villain, Beleléu makes the listener fall in love with his adventures right from the first listen.
 
Cover of Clara Crocodilo, record by Arrigo Barnabé, 1980.
 
Photoshoot of Itamar Assumpção with Anelis, 1990. Photo: Glória Flugel
 
Itamar posing with Anelis, Mariana and Ana Carolina at the entrance of Museu do Ipiranga, c.1987
Photo shoot by Itamar Assumpção and the band Isca de Polícia, 1983. Photo: Oscar Bastos
Presentation by Itamar and Banda Ísca de Polícia (with Suzana Salles and Vânia Bastos), São Paulo, 1981. Photo: Renato Mascaro.
Às Próprias Custas S.A. ("At your own expense Co.") LP cover
   
   


In 1981 Itamar Assumpção and the band Isca de Polícia (Police Bait) released their album-performance Às Próprias Custas S.A. ("At your own expense Co.") by the ISCA Label, which he created to make this work come alive, as the name implies, financed by the artist himself. Recorded from a series of shows at Sala Guiomar Novaes, at FUNARTE-SP, this record brings authentic reinterpretations of artists like the "desbundados" Jards Macalé and Waly Salomão and a very original version of Noite de Terror ("Night of Terror"), a hit by Jovem Guarda previously performed by Roberto Carlos.

In 1983 Itamar Assumpção met the couple Alice Ruiz and Paulo Leminski, two great names of Brazilian literature, respectively linked to the "mimeograph generation" and the creation of haikais, Japanese technique of composition of short and synthetic poems. This encounter will be life-changing and the influence of this friendship and the partnerships they establish can already be seen in Ita's third album, Sampa Midnight.

Itamar and Wally Salomão at Funarte, May 1984. Photo: Jorge Rosemberg
Itamar photoshoot with Jards Macalé, 1987. Photo: Lita Cerqueira
 
Band "Isca de Polícia" in the disclosure of Show at FUNARTE - SP
 
Photo Record of "Banda Isca de Polícia" Costume, 2020
Itamar Assumpção and Leminski, 1988.
Photo: Lailson Santos

Sampa Midnight was launched in 1985, during the process of dissolution of the independent scene to which Itamar was linked, that was based around the Lira Paulistana, which had closed its doors that year. This album, which already indicates a musical change, is filled with lyrics replete with reveries like "Z da Questão Meu Amor" ("Z of the Question My Love"), "E o Quico?" ("And what I?"), "Sampa Midnight" ("Sampa Midnight") and by partnerships like "Navalha na Liga" (" The Razor within the Link"), which is the result of a reorganization by Ita of poems by Alice Ruiz. The poem that opens the album and precedes the track "Prezadíssimos Ouvintes" ("Dearest Listeners") is an adaptation of Paulo Leminski's poem "Novo" (New).

the new no longer shocks me
nothing new under the sun
What exists is the same usual egg hatching the same new”

Poem “Novo”, by Paulo Leminski, adapted by Itamar Assumpção
Sampa Midnight LP cover, 1983
   
   
Graphic novel inspired by Itamar songs, Brancalion, 2020
 
Leminski, Itamar Assumpção, Serena, Fortuna and Aninha pose for photo, 1987
 
Itamar with Alice Ruiz in the kitchen of Musicasa
 
Itamar Assumpção and Alice Ruiz, 1994

“The drawer of joy
it's already full
of being empty”

Alice Ruiz
Itamar Assumpção, Isca de Polícia ("Police Bait") and Ring at age 5 during rehearsal, 1985. Photo: Emídio Luisi

1982: Geraldo Filme releases album "O Canto dos Escravos" ("The Slave Chant") with Clementina de Jesus and Doca - BRAZIL1982: Lélia Gonzalez publishes the book "Lugar de Negro" (" The Place of Black"), in collaboration with Carlos Hasenbalg - BRAZIL1987: Olodum releases the album "Egypt Madagascar" - BRAZIL1988: Sueli Carneiro founded Geledés - Black Woman's Institute - BRAZIL 1988: Ousmane Sembène releases the film "Campo de Thiaroye" ("Field of Thiaroye") - SENEGAL 1989: Spike Lee releases the film "Do the Right Thing" - USA 1982: Geraldo Filme releases album "O Canto dos Escravos" ("The Slave Chant") with Clementina de Jesus and Doca - BRAZIL1982: Lélia Gonzalez publishes the book "Lugar de Negro" (" The Place of Black"), in collaboration with Carlos Hasenbalg - BRAZIL1987: Olodum releases the album "Egypt Madagascar" - BRAZIL1988: Sueli Carneiro founded Geledés - Black Woman's Institute - BRAZIL 1988: Ousmane Sembène releases the film "Campo de Thiaroye" ("Field of Thiaroye") - SENEGAL 1989: Spike Lee releases the film "Do the Right Thing" - USA

In 1988, more partnerships will be established on the record Intercontinental! Quem Diria! Era só o que faltava!!! (Intercontinental! Who Would Have Guessed It! That' s just what we needed!!), released by Continental, a national label. Despite being the first album released by a label outside the independent scene, Itamar maintained as much musical autonomy as possible, composing tracks that are still up-to-date as "Adeus Pantanal" ("Goodbye Pantanal"), with the contributions of Alzira and Tetê Espíndola, both singers and composers born in Mato Grosso do Sul.

“I was born and I live in Brazil, so
I went to Corumbá to the Pantanal to look at the animals
And I went to see, and I did not see, what a disappointment I felt”

Excerpt from Farewell Pantanal,  Intercontinental! Quem diria! Era só o que faltava!! (Intercontinental! Who would say! It was just what was missing!), 1988

In 1987 Gilberto Gil became the president of Gregório de Matos Foundation, an institution dedicated to Afro-Brazilian culture. During his administration, he intensified the relationship between Bahia and Africa, establishing in Salvador the Casa de Benin, and in Benin in Ouidah, the Maison du Brésil.

“A museum to the memory of Black artists comes to affirm the particularity of the African contribution in terms of the immense participation of weavers of Creole languages ​​in the creation of this baroque Brazilian cultural tapestry.”
gilberto gil
read the full text

In 1988, Itamar and his band, formed by Paulo Lepetit, Gigante Brazil, Denise Assumpção and Luiz Waack performed for the first time in Germany, invited to a series of events in celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Abolition of Slavery in Brazil, during Documenta in Kassel, one of the largest contemporary art exhibitions in the world. With shows in Hamburg, Berlin, Nuremberg, Bremen and Kassel. Itamar opened an intense relationship of artistic exchange with the country, following two of his records were released in the German phonographic market, by Messidor, a label that had already released names such as Piazzola and Tito Puente.

Itamar and Denise Assunção interviewed in Hamburg, 1989. TV Chroma

The audience and critics welcomed it very positively and, according to Hessisch-Niedersächsisch Allgemeine, Ita and his band's (Police Bait) music sounded like a "post-industrial improvement of the African musical tradition".

POLICE BAIT
According to Felipe Tadeu, a journalist from Rio who met Ita in Germany, the band's first international adventure did not go without problems with the authorities. On the way back from Berlin to Hamburg, the police made a point of searching the pack. Itamar didn't leave it lying and proclaimed to the press, touching the raw nerves: "Why are we suspects? Just because we're black and white people together?".

Itamar Assumpção returns to Europe again through his entry in Germany, once accompanied by Suzana Salles, Ná Ozetti and Bocato, and later with Alzira Espíndola; as well as the guitar duo Duofel.

“A museum to the memory of Black artists comes to affirm the particularity of the African contribution in terms of the immense participation of weavers of Creole languages ​​in the creation of this baroque Brazilian cultural tapestry.”
gilberto gil
read the full text
Itamar Assumpção's appearance in the Roda Viva show with Gilberto Gil, 1987. TV Cultura.
 
Itamar Assumpção poses in front of the written panel Welcome to Germany, Photo: Vânia Toledo
 
Brazilian press announcing Itamar's trip to Germany
Itamar plays with Duofel, 1988
Reproduction of the cover of Sampa Midnight - Messidor, Germany, 1988
Programming flyer for the Werkstatt concert hall, 1988
Itamar postcard sent to family, printed by his record company in Germany
Police Bait
According to Felipe Tadeu, a journalist from Rio who met Ita in Germany, the band's first international adventure did not go without problems with the authorities. On the way back from Berlin to Hamburg, the police made a point of searching the pack. Itamar didn't leave it lying and proclaimed to the press, touching the raw nerves: "Why are we suspects? Just because we're black and white people together?".
LP cover of Intercontinental! Quem diria! Era só o que faltava!! (Intercontinental! Who would say! It was just what was missing!), 1988
   
▶   OUÇA
   
Visite a loja e compre a reedição deste LP
Itamar Assumpção and singer Ná Ozzeti
Cover of Bicho de 7 Cabeças ("7-headed beast") Vol. I Photo: Vânia Toledo
   
   
Cover of Bicho de 7 Cabeças ("7-headed beast") Vol. II Photo: Vânia Toledo
 
Cover of Bicho de 7 Cabeças ("7-headed beast") Vol. III Photo: Vânia Toledo
 
March of the movement Caras Pintadas (painted faces) in downtown São Paulo, 1992

1990

The decade changes and also the mutant Itamar continues in constant search for invention and ruptures. Rita Lee records for the first time a composition in partnership with Itamar, ‘Só Vejo Azul’, on her album All Women in the World. She will be one of Itamar's musical companions, who alongside Alice Ruiz, Alzira Espíndola, Vera Motta and others, define part of her songbook by taking on partnerships with women, voices less present in the market.

It is at this moment taken by an unaware feminism, that Itamar sets up an all-women band, Orquídeas do Brasil (Orchids from Brazil), being the first singer from his generation to have such attitude. In 1994 releases with this band the trilogy Bicho de 7 Cabeças ( 7-headed beast).

The Orchids, as the band members were fondly referred to, set a period in which Itamar was even more committed to the entanglement of words and the beauty of melodic lines. They were: Simone Julian, Simone Sou, Clara Bastos, Tata Fernandes, Geórgia Branco, Nina Blauth, Miriam Maria, Adriana Sanches and Lelena Anhaia.

The trilogy Bicho de 7 cabeças ("7-headed beast") counts with partnerships with Tom Zé, Jards Macalé, Alice Ruiz, Alzira Espíndola and Paulo Leminski. In the 1990s, her compositions started to attract, not only Rita Lee, but also important MPB performers such as Ney Matogrosso, Cássia Eller and Zélia Duncan.

Besides establishing himself as a lyricist and an excellent self-taught arranger, Itamar draws the world's attention by his exuberant aesthetics branded by the use of sunglasses and costumes designed by him and often fashioned and sewn by Zena. He is always in dialogue with his brothers and sisters in Diaspora along with the elegance and boldness inherited from a unique Africa.

Ticket receipt for the Bicho de 7 Cabeças show
 
Itamar show with Tata Fernandes in the background of Ricardo Cukierman's orchid in the background, 1990s
 
Photographic essay by Itamar Assumpção and Rita Lee, 1993. Photo: Fernando Sampaio
Concert ticket at Teatro Ipanema
 
Itamar Assumpção is posing with band Orquídeas during the trilogy concert Bicho de 7 cabeças at SESC Pompeia, 1994. Photo: Rubens Chaves.
 

In 1995, in a project that brought together Orquídeas and Iscas, Itamar released the album Ataulfo Alves - Pra Sempre Agora ("Ataulfo Alves - Forever Now"), in which he reinterprets songs by Ataulfo Alves, a samba musician whose work he studied for three years, in a process of true recomposition of his songs. Provocative, daring and creative, this album was a response to those who believed it was possible to "frame" Beleléu, trying to fit him under some kind of label.

Photo montage of the faces of Ataulfo Alves and Itamar Assumpção, 1993.
Image: Helcio Nagamine (Folha Imagem)

In 1998 Itamar releases the first record that would also become a trilogy: Pretobrás I - por que que eu não pensei nisso antes? (Pretobrás I - why didn't I think of that before?). This same year, Itamar Assumpção was awarded the prize of best composer by the Association of Art Critics of São Paulo, APCA.

With a solid and consistently awarded career, although under the label of "cursed" and facing all the struggles in the phonographic market, Itamar is established after having released nine albums all going against the stream of the industry.

POLICE BAIT
1990 was also the decade when many rap groups, such as Racionais MC's made their debut on the national scene. Acting in the peripheral areas of São Paulo, rappers often portrayed the oppression and police violence suffered by black men and women. Itamar used to kid about how he was a predecessor of rap, with his Nego Dito, showing kindness and a will to dialogue with that strong generation, a fact that is now consolidated in MU.ITA itself.
Cover of the album PretoBras, 1998. Photo for the cover: Sérgio Roizenblit.
   
   
Police Bait
1990 was also the decade when many rap groups, such as Racionais MC's made their debut on the national scene. Acting in the peripheral areas of São Paulo, rappers often portrayed the oppression and police violence suffered by black men and women. Itamar used to kid about how he was a predecessor of rap, with his Nego Dito, showing kindness and a will to dialogue with that strong generation, a fact that is now consolidated in MU.ITA itself.
 
“For me, he is a living entity that inhabits my imagery repertoire, with its African-futuristic style à la Sun Rá. His slender, slim figure, dominated by his presence of mind, is among my references in fashion and art.”
monica ventura
read the full text
 
Pretobrás II - Maldito Vírgula, 2005
 
Pretobrás III - Devia Ser Proibido, 2005

1990: Racionais MC's release the debut EP " Holocausto Urbano" ("Urban Holocaust") - BRAZIL 1990: Denise Assunção releases the album "A Maior Bandeira do Brasil" ("The Biggest Brazilian Flag") - BRAZIL 1991: Prince releases the album Diamonds and Pearls - USA1993: Ali Farka Touré releases the album "The Source" - MALI1994: Jards Macalé releases "Let's Play That" album with Naná Vasconcelos - BRAZIL 1994: Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa - AFRICA DO SUL1993: Oumou Sangaré launches Ko Sira - MALI 1996: Ella Fitzgerald passes away - USA 1990: Racionais MC's release the debut EP " Holocausto Urbano" ("Urban Holocaust") - BRAZIL 1990: Denise Assunção releases the album "A Maior Bandeira do Brasil" ("The Biggest Brazilian Flag") - BRAZIL 1991: Prince releases the album Diamonds and Pearls - USA1993: Ali Farka Touré releases the album "The Source" - MALI1994: Jards Macalé releases "Let's Play That" album with Naná Vasconcelos - BRAZIL 1994: Nelson Mandela becomes president of South Africa - AFRICA DO SUL1993: Oumou Sangaré launches Ko Sira - MALI 1996: Ella Fitzgerald passes away - USA

Grace Jones in 1977
Head Prop record used by Itamar Assumpção, 2020
Itamar poses with a diploma and microphone during a thanking for the award of best composer given by the Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte (APCA), 1998. Photo: Camila Gauditano.
“For me, he is a living entity that inhabits my imagery repertoire, with its African-futuristic style à la Sun Rá. His slender, slim figure, dominated by his presence of mind, is among my references in fashion and art.”
monica ventura
read the full text
Reproduction of the album cover Ataulfo Alves by
"Itamar Assumpção - Pra sempre agora", 1993
   
   
 
 
Ney Matogrosso performs Isso Não Vai Ficar Assim, (It Will Not Be Like This) DVD
 
Cássia Eller sings "Já Deu Pra Sentir" ( I can feel it) in the TV Show Metrópolis, 1991. TV Cultura.
 
Itamar Assumpção wearing crochet turban made by Jairo Torres, 1981. Photo: Jairo Torres.
 
“An artist, a thinker from an era of humanity” 
mano brown
read the full text
 
Cover of the record Sobrevivendo no inferno (Surviving in Hell), by Racionais Mc's, 1997.
 
Itamar Assumpção with Zélia Duncan
 
Itamar Assumpção, Chico César and Jards Macalé
 
Luiz Melodia with Ita, 1992. Photo: Juan Esteves (Folha Imagem)
“By the same token, some people are poets and don't even know they are. It happens. It is rare, but it happens. The biggest proof is that it happened to Itamar.”
alice ruIz
read the full text
Itamar Assumpção embraced with Jandira, owner of the bocce club bar in Penha and Jandira's daughter in the kitchen

Penha de França is the second oldest neighborhood in São Paulo, after Santo Amaro. Anyone who has ventured to take the subway, Radial Leste or Marginal Tietê and get to Penha can understand why Itamar Assumpção loved living there.

Full of alleys, steep climbs, fairs, grocery stores and hovels, Penha is the perfect refuge for those who have the countryside inside, for those who are mature, Saci. This was one of the many facets of Ita, who liked to stroll along the square where the Church was built in 1802 by enslaved women and men, members of the Brotherhood of Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Homens Pretos. Right next to the Church is the Martins Penna Theater, at the Centro Cultural da Penha, in which Ita performed more than once.

In addition to these spaces in the old “small center” of the neighborhood, Itamar liked to walk and get to Sociedade Amigos de Vila Beatriz to play truco, bocce ball and spend time at Jandira's bar. He lived there in the East Zone with his family from 1976 until the end of his life, paying homage to this part of the city in volume II of the Bicho de Sete Cabeças Trilogy, with the song Nobody Knows, full of good humor.

Itamar Assumpção na Penha, posing for a photo hanging on the door of a bus with a shirt painted by Zena, 1991
 
Photographic record of blue shirt in tailoring hand painted by Zena, 2020
 

2000

In 2002 Ita performed a historic concert with Elke Maravilha, eternalized by the interpretation of the song Dor Elegante ("Elegant Pain"), a collaboration with Leminski, pierced by Elke's performance as Death.

“Elke Wonder Woman
A pagan goddess a sonar
An altar a trail”

Excerpt from the song Elke Mulher Maravilha (Elke Wonder Woman)  from the album Pretobrás I

In 2003, after a long battle against cancer, the old Ita leaves the stage, but not without first making it ready for what would come later. One year after his departure to the world of ancestors, the album in collaboration with Naná Vasconcelos was released. The last stage of production was held by Paulo Lepetit and Bocato, already in the absence of Itamar.

Itamar doesn't leave, either, without first holding his first granddaughter, Rubi, daughter of Anelis Assumpção who was born in 2002.

In 2005, at Itamar's request, his work is transcripted by Clara Bastos and organized by Luiz Chagas and Mônica Tarantino, in the two volumes of Pretobrás - Why didn't I think of this before? The book of songs and stories by Itamar Assumpção.

In 2006, Ana Maria Gonçalves published her first book that would become a bestseller - Um defeito de Cor ("A defect in color").

Cover of the album Isso Vai Dar Repercussão ("It's going to get Repercussion"), 2004
   
▶   OUÇA
   
Itamar Assumpção and Elke Maravilha perform at SESI, 2002. Photo: Mila Maluhy.
 
Itamar Assumption holds his granddaughter Ruby, 2002
 
Photoshoot of Itamar Assumpção and Naná Vasconcelos, 2000
Itamar Assumpção and Elke Maravilha perform at SESI, 2002

2001: Tinariwen releases the album "The Radio Tisdas Sessions" - MALI 2003: Chimamanda Adichie publishes her book "Hibisco Roxo" ("Purple Hibiscus") - NIGERIA 2003: Conceição Evaristo publishes the book "Ponciá Vicêncio" - BRAZIL2004: Konono nº1 releases the album "Congotronics" - CONGO 2004: The Museu Afro Brasil is founded in São Paulo - SP -BRASIL2009: . Lupita Nyong'o wrote, produced and directed the documentary In My Genes. - USA 2009: Rosana Paulino opens the exhibition Roots and More: The Journey of the Spirits - BRAZIL 2001: Tinariwen releases the album "The Radio Tisdas Sessions" - MALI 2003: Chimamanda Adichie publishes her book "Hibisco Roxo" ("Purple Hibiscus") - NIGERIA 2003: Conceição Evaristo publishes the book "Ponciá Vicêncio" - BRAZIL2004: Konono nº1 releases the album "Congotronics" - CONGO 2004: The Museu Afro Brasil is founded in São Paulo - SP -BRASIL2009: . Lupita Nyong'o wrote, produced and directed the documentary In My Genes. - USA 2009: Rosana Paulino opens the exhibition Roots and More: The Journey of the Spirits - BRAZIL

Show Vozes do Brasil, 2000s. Photo: Mila Maluhy
Photographic record of Itamar's overalls made from towels from the cancer hospital, when under treatment, 2020
Images of orchids cultivated by Itamar and Zena at their home in Penha
Documentary "From that moment on", 2011, directed by Rogério Veloso

2010

In 2010, Selo Sesc relaunches the entire discography of Itamar Assumpção, adding two previously unpublished albums, the continuity of the Pretobrás trilogy: Volume II - Maldito Vírgula (Cursed Comma), produced by Beto Villares and Volume III - Devia Ser Proibido (This Should Be Forbidden), produced by Paulo Le Petit.

In 2011 film director Rogério Velloso launches Daquele Instante em Diante ("From That Moment Ahead"), a documentary about the life of Itamar Assumpção and his musical career, featuring statements from people who worked with Ita, as well as their family members.

In the same year, Benedito was born - second child of Anelis, who was named in honor of his grandfather.

In 2013 the "Cadernos Inéditos" ("Unpublished Notebooks") were published, bringing together in a single book all the writings of Itamar Assumpção: poetry, lyrics and ideas. This work was organized by his daughters Anelis and Serena Assumpção and by Elizena Assumpção, assisted by Marcelo Del Rio, composer and family friend.

In 2014 the documentary Reverberações, about the work of Itamar Assumpção, directed by Cláudia Pucci and Pedro Colombo, was released.

On March 16, 2016 Serena joins her father at Orum and, similarly to Itamar, she left a piece of artwork. The album Ascensão is a musical album based on her research about Candomblé, organized to be presented to the world. Serena left it finished, and its release was soon after her departure, being nominated for the Latin Grammy as the Best Brazilian Roots Album.

Naná Vasconcelos, left a week before Serena, on March 9th.

In 2019, when Itamar Assumpção would turn 70, was marked by intense celebrations, which included gatherings, academic events and even a dedicated stage at the world's largest cultural event taking place in the city of São Paulo, the Virada Cultural.

That same year, Pretoperitamar premiered, a theatrical opera that talks about the musician's trajectory, breaking the temporal logic. Directed by Grace Passô, who also signed the playwright alongside Ana Maria Gonçalves, this project was headed by Anelis Assumpção.

In 2019 Spike Lee won his first Oscar for the film BlacKkKlansman.

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Photoshoot for Disclosure of Pretoperitamar Musical, 2019
 
Caixa Preto (Black box) with the complete work of Itamar, launched in 2010 by Sesc

2013: The international movement Black Lives Matter / Vidas Negras Importam arouses 2014: Juçara Marçal releases the album "Encarnado" (" Embodied") - BRAZIL2015: Liniker and the Caramelows release the debut album " Cru " - BRAZIL 2016: Beyoncé launches " Lemonade " - USA2016: Serena Assumpção releases the album " Ascension " - BRAZIL2017: Djamila Ribeiro publishes the book "What is Lugar de Fala? - BRAZIL2017 :Opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art - AFRICA DO SUL 2018: Carioca Councilwoman Marielle Franco is executed - BRAZIL2018: Érica Malunguinho is elected the first transgender state representative - BRAZIL 2018: Anelis Assumpção releases the album "Taurina" - BRAZIL2019: Baco Exu do Blues is awarded in Cannes with the visual album "Bluesman" - BRAZIL 2019: Okwui Enwezor dies, Nigerian curator - NIGERIA 2013: The international movement Black Lives Matter / Vidas Negras Importam arouses 2014: Juçara Marçal releases the album "Encarnado" (" Embodied") - BRAZIL2015: Liniker and the Caramelows release the debut album " Cru " - BRAZIL 2016: Beyoncé launches " Lemonade " - USA2016: Serena Assumpção releases the album " Ascension " - BRAZIL2017: Djamila Ribeiro publishes the book "What is Lugar de Fala? - BRAZIL2017 :Opening of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art - AFRICA DO SUL 2018: Carioca Councilwoman Marielle Franco is executed - BRAZIL2018: Érica Malunguinho is elected the first transgender state representative - BRAZIL 2018: Anelis Assumpção releases the album "Taurina" - BRAZIL2019: Baco Exu do Blues is awarded in Cannes with the visual album "Bluesman" - BRAZIL 2019: Okwui Enwezor dies, Nigerian curator - NIGERIA

Ita70 Stage at the Virada Cultural of São Paulo, 2019
Pretoperitamar, Sesc Pompéia, São Paulo , 2019

2020

Itamar Assumpção's artwork goes on breaking new ground and exploring the seas. It is his privilege to be the first black Brazilian man to have a virtual museum, the MU.ITA.

Far beyond via Embratel, the ancestral black technologies of survival continue to be articulated so that his life and his work will be remembered, known, recognized and celebrated.

Cover of the EP Beleléu via Embratel, released in 2020
   
▶   OUÇA
   
Pretoperitamar Program, 2019
 
Clip with images from MU.ITA for the single "Beleléu Via Embratel". Direction: Parteum. São Paulo, 2020.

2020: George FLoyd is murdered by a policeman in the USA 2020: Negro Léo releases album "Desejo de Lacrar" (" Wish to Enclose") - BRAZIL2020: Luedji Luna launches "Good Even Is Being Under Water" - BRAZIL 2020: Jaqueline Goes helps sequencing the coronavirus genome - BRAZIL 2020: George FLoyd is murdered by a policeman in the USA 2020: Negro Léo releases album "Desejo de Lacrar" (" Wish to Enclose") - BRAZIL2020: Luedji Luna launches "Good Even Is Being Under Water" - BRAZIL 2020: Jaqueline Goes helps sequencing the coronavirus genome - BRAZIL 2020: George FLoyd is murdered by a policeman in the USA 2020: Negro Léo releases album "Desejo de Lacrar" (" Wish to Enclose") - BRAZIL2020: Luedji Luna launches "Good Even Is Being Under Water" - BRAZIL 2020: Jaqueline Goes helps sequencing the coronavirus genome - BRAZIL

2030

Which other pathways will the artwork of the old Ita open in this immense universe that is the Brazilian black art?

It is, therefore, about Itamar between now and ancestry, which are (at) the same time. It is taking you through the Yoruban poetic frequencies to the gear of an oriki – poetic realization in the world, poetic fact in the flesh and in the absence, poetic fact in which you cross, poetic fact in the dream of orchids.
TIGANÁ SANTANA
read the full text
It is, therefore, about Itamar between now and ancestry, which are (at) the same time. It is taking you through the Yoruban poetic frequencies to the gear of an oriki – poetic realization in the world, poetic fact in the flesh and in the absence, poetic fact in which you cross, poetic fact in the dream of orchids.
TIGANÁ SANTANA
read the full text
 
Pictures by Vânia Toledo
Album cover from Missa in Memoriam, Arrigo Barnabé, 2003
Itamar Assumpção and Luis Melodia perform at a concert. Photo: Rubens Chaves

IN MEMORIAM

This exhibition is also a tribute to the photographer Vânia Toledo, who documented Itamar's career throughout her existence. (Paracatu, January 29th, 1945 - São Paulo, July 16th, 2020).
Gigante Brazil (Rio de Janeiro 25 de abril de 1952, São Paulo, 20 de setembro de 2008)
Naná Vasconcelos (Recife, 2 de agosto de 1944 — Recife, 9 de março de 2016
Luiz Melodia (Rio de Janeiro, 7 de janeiro de 1951 – Rio de Janeiro, 4 de agosto de 2017)
Every effort has been made to contact the rights holders of the images. In case of omission, we will make all possible adjustments at the first opportunity. This is a non-profit publication, and is free of copyright payments in Brazil, protected by Law No. 9,610, Title III, Chapter IV, Art. 46, Item VIII.

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