El Alto | Queer: Gender Sexuality and the Arts in the Americas

El Alto 224 Dani Nega
225
SPREADING
THE ‘SUINGUE’
Dani in conversation with Roberta Estrela D’Alva
Dani Nega was still a girl when I first met her.
She was undergoing that phase where one
uses permanent hair straighteners and is still
discovering one’s sexuality. She joined in 2006
the Bartolomeu Centre for Testimonies, a
hip-hop theatre company of which I am also a
member. Together, we performed in the play
Beloved Phratry, Brazil (a pun on Brazil’s national
anthem). A year later, I directed Cindi Hip-
Hop: A Small Rap-opera, and during one of the
performances, whilst playing the character of
Marina Quadras, Dani revealed to her parents,
in the middle of the scene, that she liked girls.
She also accompanied during my journey of
rehearsals for my solo act, Bugger off!, helping
me develop the sound and music effects for the
performance, while operating our old MPC Akai
sampler with incredible precision. One can’t
not laugh when she’s around. Her character
Chouchou, the skater, is the trademark of ZAP!,
Brazil’s first poetry slam. We grew distant for a
time, but our connection was never lost. Her
family held the most exciting funerals. I will
never forget spending the night listening to her
black aunts and uncles telling stories of grandma
Marlene and grandpa João, and the powerful
singing around the coffins. Dani took off, went
natural, re-did herself and found her own way.
And, suddenly, her work with DJ Craca came
out: the compositions, the music direction, the
soundtracks... there is much more to come
because her talent is enormous. She expresses
herself with a music and rhythm that beat to an
ancestral pulse and her lyrics gain depth with
each day. I follow everything she does closely
and I am very proud of being her godmother: she
will always be under my protection. And now it is
time for the world to see! Crack on, Nega!
Roberta Estrela D’Alva (RA): I met you when you
were very young, during your first days in the
theatre and music scenes. What kind of artist is
Dani Nega today?
Danni Nega (DG): Today I am a patchwork of all the
places I’ve been to: from Rua 10 and its parties
and the ZL (East São Paulo) to the youth group
theatre from the spiritualist centre I used to go to,
to Primeiro Ato (the name of her first rap band),
ELT (Escola Livre de Teatro) and the Bartolomeu
Centre of Testimonies (a Hip-Hop Theatre Group),
Os Crespos (“The Kinky-Haired,” a theatre company
comprised of black artists), Coletivo Negro (“The
Black Collective,” a theatre and research group
focusing on performance, poetics and racial
issues), Parlapatões (“The Boasters,” a theatre and
comedy group), and the numerous parties that I
organised myself or together with the collectives
in which I participated. This profusion of languages
and spaces has opened me up to new spaces in the
arts. As an actress, MC, DJ, presenter and so on,
Dani Nega is a young, plural artist who is constantly
researching.
RA: You have worked with DJ Craca and other
artists whose backgrounds are very different
from yours. Now you’re starting your first solo
musical project. Tell about this new phase.
DN: This new work stems from my wish to give
life to something new that I’ve conceived. It’s a
search for a sound that speaks to my trajectory
1
so far. I believe the moment is right, I believe I’m
prepared. I feel that my body has the needed
strength, the learning, the stories, the exchanges,
the experiences, the frustrations, the losses, the
love, etc. Something is pulsating inside me and
begging to come out. Only I can be responsible
for this and become the agent of this power. I
don’t know how this new project will sound like.
All I know is that this music will be me. That’s
what I hope.
RA: As a black woman and a lesbian, you have
incorporated to your songs themes related to
these issues. How has the public reacted to this?
Do you feel that you represent other women who
are going through the same situations as you do?
DN: Yes. Many women approach me to say that
what I voice in my songs is either similar to
what they’ve gone through or that it represents
exactly their experiences. It makes me very glad.
I am what I am today because of the incredible
references I had and also because of the spaces
that welcomed me with an open heart and
allowed me to discover who I actually was. To
me, there’s no other way of making sense of what
art is: it needs to be an agent of change and
transformation. Obviously, being a black woman
and a lesbian is disturbing to many people.
There’s both incredible feedback from my sisters
that identify with and feel represented by what
I say, and lots of criticism from those that don’t
understand my existence. I’ve simply had to
toughen up and carry on.
RA: You have been working with soundtracks
and music direction in theatre. How do these
lamguages influence your music and your
performance?
DN: Theatre plays a big role on how I sing and
compose. At times, when I listen to a rap album,
I ask myself if this is really what I do. Sometimes
I don’t think so. Perhaps it’s a combination of all
these different languages. Theatre shows us a
new way of placing our voice, of articulating our
speech. This is why I feel like my voice sounds
different from other voices in rap music. I have
a very high voice and, at times, it sounds too
sweet. I was often bothered by that because I
thought I did not convey the punch that a song
required. But nowadays I see that this is not the
case. It’s the whole package that matters: the
voice, the lyrics, their drama, the performance.
The combination of these factors can convey
strength or lightness, whatever is required by
the music. I also understand now that there’s no
instruction manual for singing. Each person has a
unique body, voice and identity. The beauty of it
lies in singing who we are and the way we are.
RA: You are starting to produce some beats and
to work with music production software. Are you
planning on becoming a beatmaker?
DN: Yes, I really do. I want to have the expertise
to work with all of that (which is still a very
masculine field, although there are some sisters
coming into the scene) so that one day I can
produce and play my own beats.
RA: You have been following the slam scene from
up-close. How did it influence your work with
spoken word poetry?
DN: I’m impressed by the strength, the
courage and the quality of the lyrics and of the
performance of these young people. This new
generation is one of heavyweights. These guys
never forget their history nor the place where
they come from. This is what’s most valuable
to me. Every slam I’ve attended is like a shot of
self-esteem and courage, not to mention the
inspiration for finding an aesthetics within the
spoken word, which has varying metrics and
diverse performances.
1 – Portuguese transliteration of swing. To have
suingue, in Brazil, means to have a talent to groove to
music.
Roberta Estrela D’Alva is an actress,
MC, director, researcher, slammer and
TV presenter.