ECOTEMPORÂNEOS: Gisela João

ECOTEMPORÂNEOS
Literature in green spaces

Guest: Gisela João (fado singer)
Chosen book: “The Sun and his Flowers” by Rupi Kaur
Green space: Quinta da Alfarrobeira São Domingos de Benfica, Lisbon

> Session with a Portuguese Sign Language interpreter and book offer in Braille

Ecotemporaries share the same time (contemporary) and the same space (environment) around literature and place.
In each session, we learn about the history of that garden through its gardener, a special guest chooses a book and presents it in relation to that place.
Open, inclusive and accessible, Ecotemporaries sessions also have a Portuguese Sign Language interpreter and books are produced and distributed in Braille, making reading and dialogue accessible to all.
In the year that Lisbon is European Green Capital, BoCA, in partnership with EGEAC, continues to develop this project that occupies the city’s green spaces, promoting its accessibility and fruition through literature. In the previous sessions, we had different guests, such as Matilde Campilho, Mamadou Ba, Dulce Maria Cardoso, João Pedro Vale & Nuno Alexandre Ferreira, Albano Jerónimo, Capicua, Teresa Villaverde, Julião Sarmento, Mariana Monteiro, Tiago Rodrigues.

Gisela João is a Portuguese fado singer of the new generation. She was born in Barcelos, got to know fado on the radio and started to play it for his family, first for friends and neighbors, then in children’s talent contests. She moved to Porto, she wanted to study fashion design. At 16/17 years old, Gisela went to sing for “Adega Lusitana”, in Barcelos. But the singing was stronger, it entered the Marialva circuit of Invicta and spent a few years there, ending up in Mouraria. And it was there that the skinny girl, with a hoarse and powerful voice, began to show the rest of the world what she says, in the last words of the last song of her first album: “Whoever wants to be a singer is not a singer, but who was born a singer”. In 2008 she recorded her first solo album “O Meu Fado” – Estúdios Conquista by author’s edition. In 2009 she recorded an album with Atlantihda. She is then one of the guest names on Fernando Alvim’s album. Appointed by Camané as the great musical bet for 2013, Gisela João has stepped on stages in Lisbon, such as the Centro Cultural de Belém, the Lux nightclub (first as a guest of Nicolas Jaar and later in a concert in her own name), Teatro do Bairro, the Frágil club, or the tasca A Bela, in Alfama.

Conception and artistic direction: John Romão
Executive production: Carolina Forjaz Trigueiros
Production: BoCA
Co-production: EGEAC Public Space
Supports: Lisbon City Council, Ministery of Culture / Direção-Geral das Artes, Millennium BCP Foundation, Lua de Papel Publisher