Capoeira with Mestre Lobinho
In Fall 2024, the University of Michigan community participated in a workshop on Capoeira, an Afro-Brazilian art form blending acrobatics, music, martial arts, dance, and ritual. Students from the LACS course “Afro-Brazilian Cultural Studies” shared their knowledge from coursework with attendees alongside instructor Mestre Lobinho, founder of the Brazilian Michigan Cultural Center. Participants learned the ginga, Capoeira’s foundational movement, and took part in a roda, or circle, where they had the opportunity to jogar (play). They also practiced call-and-response songs alongside movement. The workshop concluded with an introduction to Maculelê, a stick dance closely connected to Capoeira.
Excursion to the Museu Afro Brasil in São Paulo with GCC Brazil - Global Blackness
In Summer 2025, postdoc Ryan Morrison accompanied students led by Professor Frieda Ekotto on a visit to the Museu Afro Brasil in São Paulo as part of the “Global Course Connections Brazil: Global Blackness” program. Students engaged with works by artists such as Rosana Paulino, Sidney Amaral, and Heitor dos Prazeres, informed by the expertise of bilingual museum staff and Professors Ekotto and Morrison. The experience concluded with a shared meal in Ibirapuera Park, where the museum is located, featuring traditional dishes of the African diaspora in Brazil.
Invited Talk in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures
Professor Morrison delivered an invited lecture to the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures in Winter 2026 titled “Black Geographies across the Pampas: Fugitivity and Internationalism in the Borderlands of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay,” presenting a portion of his current book project. The talk examined Black internationalism and fugitivity in the Pampas, tracing how three cultural producers navigate state recognition and refusal across distinct national contexts throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries: the poetry of Virginia Brindis de Salas in postwar Uruguay, the militant writing of Oliveira Ferreira da Silveira in dictatorial Brazil, and the paintings of Washington Cucurto in neoliberal Argentina. Across these moments, he underscored enduring legacies of displacement and misrecognition through Black hauntings in the regional literary canon and dominant cultural production, which these artists and writers reimagine through their work.
Portuguese and Rio de Janeiro Excursion with University of Michigan Chamber Winds
Students from the University of Michigan Symphony Band performed at Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Theatro Municipal in Summer 2026 as part of the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Conference. In preparation, Professor Courtney Snyder and Director of Bands Jason Fetting invited Professor Morrison to lead an intensive introduction to Brazilian Portuguese during the Winter 2026 term. Professor Morrison reconvened with the ensemble in Rio to lead an arts-focused excursion with the group, highlighting the city’s musical traditions and cultural history, recognized as among the most vibrant and influential in the African diaspora.
Portuguese Bate-papo Conversation Tables
Students in “Contemporary Debates and Advanced Concepts in Portuguese” a two-semester cycle of Advanced Portuguese classes, along with Prof. Morrison, attended Portuguese Conversation Hour sessions sponsored by the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. Undergraduate and graduate students at all levels of Portuguese had the chance to train their skills alongside Brazilian students in a relaxed and productive environment. Bate-papo conversation hours take place several times per semester, in the RLL Commons on the fourth floor of the Modern Languages Building.
Speaker Event with the University of Michigan History Club
The University of Michigan History Club featured a speaker event with Ryan Morrison in Fall 2024. In his presentation, “Djalma do Alegrete: Exalting the Black and Queer Pampas,” Prof. Morrison examined how Black and queer cultural production disrupts dominant myths of the white, heteronormative gaucho figure in southern Brazil, demanding more expansive imaginings of this frontier landscape and its peoples. Focusing on Djalma do Alegrete and his 1963 Miss Universe costume, he reads the garment as staging the convergence of the borderlands with a queered African diaspora, reconfiguring Brazilian national identity for the global audience in Miami, Florida. The event highlights the key relationship between the Brazil Initiative and the Department of History.
Virtual Visit to Museu Afro Brasil in São Paulo
In Fall 2024, Professor Morrison and the Brazil Initiative organized a live, virtual tour of the Museu Afro Brasil Emanoel Araújo. Students in the LACS course Afro-Brazilian Cultural Studies and the broader University of Michigan community had the opportunity to engage the museum’s collections through a bilingual Portuguese/English guided visit on Zoom, followed by a Q&A with the guide. Housing the largest collection of Afro-Brazilian historical, artistic, and ethnographic materials in Brazil, the museum offered participants insight into Black cultural production, memory, and diaspora. The initiative extended Afro-Brazilian studies beyond the classroom through direct interaction with one of the world’s most significant archives of the African diaspora.
