This bi-lingual volume brings together the first comprehensive compilation of Afro-Brazilian literature produced by the Quilombhoje group over three decades of their existence as a cultural and political movement in Brazil. Comparable to the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s in the United States, Quilombhoje continues the tradition of the Quilombo, a communal sense of cultural resistance, survival, and renewal assumed by descendants of Africans who refused to be enslaved. In producing poetry and prose through the Cadernos Negros series, contemporary Afro-Brazilian writers make a cogent statement against the stereotypical images of blackness while formulating a defiant and regenerative counter-discourse informed by Black pride, dignity, and Pan-African consciousness. Contributors include Cuti (Luiz Silva), Carlos de Assumpção, Geni Guimarães, Arnaldo Xavier, Miriam Alves, Abílio Ferreira, Márcio Barbosa, Jamu Minka, Conceição Evaristo, Esmeralda Ribeiro, Landê Onawale, Oliveira Silveira, Jônatas Conceição, Oswaldo de Camargo, Éle Semog, José Limeira, Cristiane Sobral, Waldemar Pereira, Thyko de Souza, Lepê Correia, Oubi Inaê Kibuko, Marcos Dias, and Alzira Rufino among others.

“Cadernos Negros Black Notebooks informs us that there is more to Afro-Brazilian literature than the acclaimed Abdias Nascimento. The poets and story tellers included in this anthology maintain a “stubborn presence” to use the words of Lepê Correia. The generation of poets of Quilombhoje affirms that their identity and that of “our people” is rooted in Africa. The themes explored by the poets include womanness, the erotic, Brazilian regionalism, a history of African diaspora and slavery, racism, and dance as an expression of a people’s struggles and overcoming. These writers refuse to be invisible and challenge the propaganda that Brazilian society is racially harmonious. In addition to uniting Africa and Brazil, they also offer readers in the Anglophone and lusophone worlds an opportunity to read the words of writers who are no longer literary maroons.”
—Donald Burness,
Emeritus Professor, Franklin Pierce College, and founding member of the African Literature Association

Niyi Afolabi teaches African and African diaspora literatures and cultures in the W.E.B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, USA. He is the author of The Golden Cage: Regeneration in Lusophone African Literature and Culture, and editor of Marvels of the African World: African Cultural Patrimony, New World Connections, and Identities.

Márcio Barbosa is co-editor of the Cadernos Negros (Black Notebooks) series and author of Paixões Crioulas (Black Passions), Frente Negra Brasileira (Black Brazilian Front), and Gostando Mais de Nós Mesmos (Loving Ourselves More). He has contributed to Os Cem Melhores Contos Brasileiros do Século (Best 100 Short Stories of the Century), Thoth, and Callaloo.

Esmeralda Ribeiro is co-editor of the Cadernos Negros (Black Notebooks) series and author of Malungos e Milongas (Brothers and Sisters). A professional journalist and a seasoned Afro-Brazilian writer and critic, Esmeralda Ribeiro has contributed to many anthologies including Finally Us, Ancestral House, Fourteen Female Voices From Brazil, and Callaloo.