Samba schools honor Black Brazilian female authors during their Carnival parades

Samba and literature rarely share the same stage, but at this year’s Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, two samba schools used their parades to tell the stories of Black Brazilian female authors. It’s an unusual recognition of writers who have been historically marginalized due to their race and gender.

On Saturday, 79-year-old Conceição Evaristo, a writer from Minas Gerais known for her powerful works centering on Black women’s experiences, sat majestically atop a float designed by samba school Imperio Serrano at Rio’s famed Sambodrome.

Two days later, the samba school Unidos da Tijuca dedicated its parade to the late Carolina Maria de Jesus, a favela-based diarist who died nearly five decades ago, and also featured Evaristo.

“For Black women in Brazil everything is very difficult,” Evaristo said during an interview at the school’s warehouse while preparations were in full swing. The parade, she said, “presents other forms of knowledge that are born