Úlulu means placenta in Forro or Lúngwa Santomé. According to an ancient ritual in São Toméan culture, the úlulu is planted, along with the umbilical cord, in the family’s large backyard. Thus, according to older generations, children grow to travel the world but also know how to return to their birthplace. This is a performance where three creatures/makers evoke music, movement, poetry and landscape in a search for cords of transmission and nurturing, as they speculate and repeat rituals that harmonize collapse and renegeration, and raise questions: what if belonging to non-human geographies is a solution for the oncoming extinction? How can you do that without wasting the memory of rituals that can be useful for that transmutation? Where can you leave clues for a possible escape in order to return?
bio
RAQUEL LIMA is a poet, transdisciplinary artist and post-colonial studies researcher with a particular interest in orature, intergenerational memory, Afro-diasporic movements and contemporary practices of escapism, abstraction and healing. She has presented her artistic and academic work at international events and conferences such as the Venice Biennale, the World Congress of Women in Mozambique and the São Paulo Biennale. She has a degree in Art Studies, published the book Ingenuidade Inocência Ignorância and co-founded UNA – União Negra das Artes (Black Union for the Arts). She took part in the TBA’s Essentials project in 2020.
