PHOTOS: Somerville Celebrates Brazil

Brasileiro! festival brought music, dancing, food vendors, athletes, and community members together to enjoy the cultural traditions of Brazil and Somerville's large Brazilian community. 

The festival, held Sept. 10, began with Marcus Santos's Grooversity, a drumming troupe that performed traditional rhythms and featured Brazilian members. The troupe marched into Union Square and got the crowd dancing for the first of many times that afternoon. The band was joined by dancers and an athlete demonstrating soccer skills, all of whom were Somerville High School students. Soon after the drumming ended, an impromptu capoeira, a traditional Brazilian dance and martial art, circle broke out, and ended when the official soccer display began. 

Wadson Michel, a psychotherapist in the public schools, served as head coach and emcee of the soccer displays. He got audience members engaged in a game of keep-away with each other. A few lucky volunteers from the audience got $25 gift certificates for their efforts. 

Dressed in a Brazilian soccer uniform and a volunteer himself, Michel, a Haitian immigrant, explained his reasons for helping the festival: "I am Haitian, but I am Brazilian for today. After the earthquake, every nation came together to help Haiti, now I volunteer at every nation's festival as a way to give back." 

The community attending the festival was similarly diverse; at one point during the Samba no Pe concert, at the very end of the afternoon, bandleader David Ramos asked the Brazilians in the crowd to raise their hands. After they did, he observed, "Fifty-fifty. Mixed. I like that."

Other musical moments that afternoon included free samba lessons. Instructors from a group called Samba Viva led a crowd of all ages in basic samba steps and rhythms, and more than one pet owner was seen samba-ing with an animal friend. 

The true animal highlight of the evening, and perhaps the most exciting part of the day overall, was Robson Lemos's performance in the Brazilian folk theater style "BoiBumba." Lemos, in clown makeup and clown clothing, came on halfway through Samba no Pe's set and began a traditional BoiBumba show. He had the audience of about one hundred and fifty form a large circle, then pulled three volunteers from the audience. He put some perfume on each volunteer and gave a speech about life, death, and important values (friendship, love, and peace), then had the volunteers sprinkle dry leaves on an elaborate bull puppet-costume he placed in front of all of us on the ground. The drama concluded with a wild dance as Lemos, in the bull costume, ran in circles and charged the audience while the band played upbeat traditional music.

Brasiliero had tamer components as well, including a maraca-making table for kids, face-painting by local artist Andreza Moon, two Brazilian food vendors, a table from nonprofit that serves new immigrants, and a greeting card vendor. 

Meagan O'Brien, ArtsUnion's organizer of the event, credits the event and its success and diversity to the efforts of the community. "It came together through a lot of different people, really, the whole community." 

She also gave particular credit to Marcelo Zicker, the editor of the Brazilian Times (the U.S's most-circulated Brazilian newspaper, based in Somerville), to David Ramos, the bandleader of Samba no Pe, and a local meat market, , who donated the $25 gift certificates given in the soccer exhibition.