Leo Felipe’s A História Common do After (A common historical past of the afterparty) could be learn in numerous methods. The e book, printed in Portuguese (nunc, 2019) and Spanish (Caja Negra, 2022), could be an autoethnographic report of a scientist who loses his sanity as his analysis progresses. Additionally, it’s a narcotic chronicle written within the warmth of the underground digital music scene in Porto Alegre, São Paulo, and Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Or it may be learn as a compendium of artwork criticism texts which, as an alternative of analyzing work or installations, analyzes events in demolished warehouses and blocked streets, and the extended results of ketamine or DJ periods.

By numerous first-person textualities (letters, newspaper clippings, poetic notes on the brink of dying by overdose), Felipe examines a current second within the Latin American conjuncture: the reconquest of city house by political id teams searching for not a promise of happiness, however at the least a (dis)organized backwater from the violence of capitalism within the Brazil of the 2010s. Taking a distance from utopian readings of white digital music, the e book proposes a South American materialism of the celebration wherein the common is reached by way of the actual tales of those that left every thing on the dance flooring: Black our bodies, trans our bodies, and drugged our bodies dancing within the ruins of the fashionable creativeness, ready to be reborn in no matter comes after the tip of the celebration. What follows beneath is the e book’s final chapter.

—Caja Negra Editora

***

X for Bronx

I used to say that even the worst O Bronx celebration would all the time be higher than the perfect Base celebration. Self-criticism is warranted right here: greater than anybody, I used to be conscious of the formal fascination that the Black physique exerts and of the ideological nature of this fascination. Magnificence is a political truth, and it’s important by no means to neglect that the item of need is itself a topic. Sue accused me of utilizing the brand new “forged”—her pals—as a part of my scenography. It was a harsh accusation that challenged the celebration’s politicization discourse.

My excessive had all the time been to concentrate to what the brand new youngsters had been proposing. Why ought to I act any otherwise with probably the most fascinating factor that had emerged on the Porto Alegre celebration scene within the final quarter of a century? O Bronx introduced Black folks to the guts of a scene dominated by whites wishing to be Black. The hipster—the “white negro,” in Norman Mailer’s expression—is the best of appropriators.

In a well-known 1957 essay, Mailer (a stereotype of the heterosexual white man: a drunkard, a womanizer, quarrelsome, and a sports activities fanatic) describes a gaggle of younger folks in america who, despising the materialistic values ​​of the American lifestyle, flip in the direction of African American tradition searching for a reference for his or her refusal. The hipster is the American existentialist. He rejects Protestant morals underpinned by work and sexual repression and launches right into a infantile adoration of the current. That is how he manages to stay underneath the shadow of dying that was projecting itself over postwar Western society, be it the moment dying that might come at any minute with the atomic bomb or the sluggish dying of conformism.

“Hip” means the hip that strikes freely to the sound of jazz and likewise designates what’s new within the scene: that which probably the most progressive wish to find out about, the avant-garde, the hype. The that means of hip is against that of sq.: uptight. In one other essay on the identical matter printed two years later, Mailer compiled a listing (not by likelihood, the hipster’s favourite literary style) distinguishing the traits of 1 group from one other. Whereas the hip could be wild, romantic, instinctive, spontaneous, nihilistic, perverse, Catholic, a query, endowed with free will, and Black (amongst different attributes), the sq. would have the “reverse” qualities: sensible, traditional, logical, orderly, authoritarian, pious, Protestant, a solution, determinist, and white. Mailer’s checklist finally ends up reinforcing among the racial stereotypes that infect our creativeness right now. I assume he made it with regards to the technology of younger writers that will later be often called the Beat Technology.

Hip additionally has to do with one other idea: cool, indifferent from the world of passions, the elegant and imperturbable coolness of the nonchalant, of those that couldn’t care much less in regards to the opinions of others. Miles Davis is the avatar of cool, blowing sparse notes on his trumpet, going through away from the white viewers. What subsequently fascinates Mailer’s “white negro,” the excessive that makes him lengthy for the key novelty, the most popular factor on the block, is that every one this exists within the first place in order that he can not have entry. He’s not on the visitor checklist. However that received’t cease him, and he’ll do something to seek out out the key.

Mailer highlights some vital components for the existence of the hipster, indicators of marginality appropriated from African American tradition: marijuana, jazz, and above all, language stuffed with slang and expressions unintelligible to straight folks. The hipster is a practitioner of blackface whose masks is just not fabricated from paint, however of phrases, gestures, and methods of presenting himself, for instance by way of haircuts or clothes.

Greater than half a century after his start, the hipster remains to be fascinated by novelty. The outdated commodity has been expanded/exploded into what we name life-style. To stay effectively, the hipster is just not purported to really feel any guilt, and that all the time requires the perfect intentions. O Bronx wasn’t about intentions. O Bronx was motion. Empowerment from materials achievement throughout the capitalist system, as taught by Beyoncé. O Bronx neither deserved nor wanted my condescension. Consideration was truly wanted, as a result of there have been variations—the chasm—of age, race, and sophistication. I needed to stroll a tightrope, conscious of my very own steps (learn: privileges), the little steps (greater than being affectionate, the diminutive right here is referential), and the GIANT STEPS of everybody concerned it making it occur, like Clara, Rhuan, Laura, Golden Woman, Camila, Robson, Lana, Jean, Endriew, Carlinhos, Andrius, Micha, Lua, the Yrenes.

Not like the hip-hop scene that usually reproduced gender phobias, hatreds, and prejudices, O Bronx was an LGBTQ+ celebration, open to whoever else wanted to be included within the acronym. Clara and Rhuan had been of their early twenties (or not even there but) and had been studying to supply it by sheer pressure. Their households had been from Restinga, one of the populous neighborhoods in Porto Alegre, the place a big a part of the town’s Black inhabitants was relocated within the Nineteen Sixties after being evicted from the area that’s now Cidade Baixa. Clara informed me that her mom produced Black dances within the Nineteen Nineties. She, subsequently, belonged to a lineage of partygoers. Clara labored as a mannequin and Rhuan had dropped out of structure college as a result of he hadn’t gotten a scholarship.

By a kind of bizarre coincidences, the proprietor of the storage the place we had events mistakenly scheduled Base and O Bronx on the identical date. We ended up transferring to the out of doors parking zone on the different finish of the identical block. It was location, between the bus terminal and a Common church, with the highway community of bridges and overpasses and lampposts and high-voltage wires and billboards asserting the brand new policed Brazil, meshing with the dark-blue sky and pink clouds of an evening of concrete, gentle, and absurdity. Throughout preparations, Rhuan came to visit to our location. He requested a couple of questions in regards to the sound and lightweight tools. We exchanged cellphone numbers. A mild and engaged man. He was carrying a t-shirt three sizes too large and a pair of basketball sneakers that had been as white as his t-shirt. I mentioned I might cease by his celebration later and he replied that I might be on the checklist.

After I entered the crowded storage, I observed there have been few white folks within the place. Everyone danced as if the world would finish earlier than the celebration did. The seems to be had been nice, and the group, uninhibited, was doing the funk strikes often called sarrada. At Base, issues nonetheless hadn’t picked up—just a few technocrats had been transferring on the dance flooring as in the event that they had been nonetheless warming up for the large race. In the meantime, O Bronx was already on fireplace! The celebration had began earlier and likewise ended earlier, and afterward, their complete entourage got here to Base. Vigorous and classy individuals who knew tips on how to have enjoyable.

From that day on I began inviting them to our events. Then I received Sue’s remark. The digital music scene is mostly a largely white, elitist house. It might not be straightforward to interrupt with this logic of selectivity. First, there was the difficulty of infrastructure. Entry wanted to be facilitated. I assumed that a part of the general public who might afford a costlier ticket on the door ought to finance those that couldn’t. The bar additionally needed to function at inexpensive costs, however above all, the motion needed to come from inside, in an natural method, that’s: with the presence of Black DJs and performers. Digital dance flooring music (the time period was coined by post-structuralist ninja DJ Dr. Malhão to tell apart it from the educational digital music of live performance halls) ought to be reappropriated by those that had created it. For now, this appeared like a utopia.

I began to advocate for the institution of one thing known as the techno sarrada as a method of subverting the technocracic zombies’ inflexible dance strikes. However one night time, speaking to Duda, I spotted that the techno sarrada was additionally a cultural appropriation on my half. The contradictions we had been experiencing manifested themselves in some ways and in lots of locations, together with within the hips. We threw an epic afterparty on the one-year anniversary of O Bronx, perhaps the final large one within the residence. Two dozen folks huddled on the lounge couches speaking and dancing, and other people had been having intercourse within the bed room and doing medicine within the rest room. My funky flat.

Sue ran the entire present. She was a lioness who faked it so utterly that she arrived at sincerity. At fifteen she’d gotten a tattoo on the again of her neck with the title of an emo band that consisted of a letter of the alphabet and a quantity. Sue had different tattoos throughout her physique: a mermaid on her forearm, an oyster (or was it a vagina?) on her ring finger (she later tattooed a tourmaline stone on high), and the phrase livre on her stomach, which implies “free.” After I met her, she lived in a communal feminist home in Cidade Baixa and offered brizadeiros at avenue events. Then she moved in along with her grandparents at ​​a housing challenge on the opposite facet of city, however went again to Restinga virtually each week to go to her mom and two little sisters. She ended up dropping out of faculty to dedicate herself to DJing and managing Casa Frasca, which she remodeled into an area with a extra pronounced political character (for instance: no-men nights).

I used to listen to her inform pals that she was in an open relationship. I discovered it amusing till I spotted that I used to be the open half, not the connection. My different half is an open e book. My celebration is a damaged coronary heart. My intercourse and medicines don’t have any rock ‘n’ roll. In Rio, I stayed with Lígia and Marília (my fantastic hippie aunt), in Glória. After I learn within the information that the PCC had arrived in Favela da Rocinha, days after the navy intervention started, I remembered a query that somebody had requested on the seminar on medicine I attended on the college. What could be the consequence of the warfare between legal factions over management of drug trafficking in Brazil? Militarization, the professional had replied. When a faction decides to regulate your complete drug commerce, it is going to act immediately on the borders. The product comes into the nation by way of its geographic borders, that are guarded by the military. I questioned if the 2 info—navy intervention and PCC’s arrival—had a connection.

It was a Friday morning and I had been struggling to complete the e book, and hadn’t left the residence in per week (I solely went out to eat and purchase one thing to drink, apart from the time once I walked to Urca with Amanda, after Bruna went again to Porto Alegre). My cellphone buzzed with an incoming message. It was Sue, saying that she had written me a letter. I had nudged the lioness hours earlier with a like on a photograph the place she seemed actually stunning. I used to be moved. It was the primary letter I received, after so many messages. Studying it, I observed that it seemed extra like a prose poem than a letter precisely. Generally she referred to herself within the third individual and this pronominal change additionally occurred in reference to the addressee, which on this case was me. I requested her if I might publish an excerpt in my e book. “Be happy.” Then she wished to know which half I might use. I mentioned all of it, and I instantly anxious if that wouldn’t additionally represent appropriation. Or was it reward? The letter-poem had the enigmatic tone of Ana C., some vignettes with excerpts from the lyrics of “Ashes to Ashes,” a chorus from Soul II Soul, amongst different references.

As soon as once more within the vampire’s alcove

Little fruit bat

In spite of everything,

As in case you spent too many traces on me

Purple drank don’t make me excessive anymore

I’m grateful, one thing straightforward to digest (poem)

I’m blissful hope you’re blissful too

Our love is crush revival, in no way romantic

It was the primary time I felt afraid of you. I used to be blissful, one thing new in the course of plenty of nothings jogged my memory.

—The place are you? —afterafter

So fairly it’s a waste

Her preparing is sort of a bride, simply cooler and nonmonogamous

—I don’t assume so

He wasn’t him, she wished romance

—Pure disguise. It was extra like debauchery, however I didn’t know tips on how to present it.

And there goes my low-cost cognac.

There was one other time (and one other) that I painted a monster within the options of your face.

It was a sketch. I threw the sheet away and located you so candy.

I did not imply to trigger any bother, I swear. My mom all the time informed me that I’m far and wide. Daughter of Iansã, a whirlwind, fortunate.

I used to be positive I knew tips on how to conceal—however he learn me. What she thought he ought to learn, he didn’t. Between discourse, lengthy texts, and principle, he wrote me what he thought it was.

Not even she knew.

There was one other time once I was scared too. I ran off like a skittish kitten. And the dance flooring was sizzling tin. On goal. I used to be harm and wished to make a noise, the little lion that she was.

My momma mentioned to get issues executed

A time on the opposite facet of the abyss (again 2 life, again to actuality). She comes again working along with her tail between her legs, asking for a cuddle. This time extra daring. Pretending to not be, however excited by the timbre of your ego and the little treasured stones. If solely I had the reassurance of a well-established whiteman. At the very least what he seems to have.

A couple of minutes later, one other message arrived:

It isn’t purported to be a narrative, or a joke, or a hey there, very long time no see, or an apology. It is extra like a group of these obscure phrases that will solely be understood between us. I might embrace different moments, however you know the way my head is all the time full, I neglect.