Tomás Anjos Barão

Tomás Anjos Barão

tomasbarao.pt

Communication designer, activist and volunteeer from Portugal.

E-mail: tomas@tomasbarao.ptTelegram: tomasanjosbaraoMatrix.org: @umleaozinho:matrix.org

Some things we should do

Some things we should do

First scene of the play "The Writer", by Ella Hickson
First scene of the play "The Writer", by Ella Hickson

A very incomplete list of practical things I keep taking note:

  • Debunk the myths about the Roma (gypsy) population (like this episode from a portuguese podcast), the myths about being homeless (like this series of comic strips by Toby Morris – part 1, 2 and 3) and the myths about LGBTI people (like when I go to schools and talk on behalf of rede ex aequo).

  • Tell the stories of silenced people (like this documentary about LGBTI children in Russia) and the stories mainstream media can not tell (like the audio interviews and feature articles by Fumaça).

  • Research and tell our recent History (like the theatre plays by Hotel Europa, or the @lgbt_history Instagram account)

  • Make campaigns and political pressure for portuguese schools to teach a complete and realistic History of our colonialism, instead of a romanticized and hypocritical version (like the Impact of Omission project in the U.K.).

  • Raise awareness about the political dimensions of our daily lifes, and the many different ways of participating (like we did in this exhibition I co-produced, or this series of videos by JoutJout in Brazil). Create spaces for common people and their elected representatives to talk (like I did in the City Council of Setúbal).

  • Make campaigns to elect people with innovative and progressive ideas (like the Graphic Liberation Movements to elect Manuela Carmena in Madrid and Ada Colau in Barcelona).

  • Projects for dissemination and circulation of theatre and dance performances and other great cultural productions made in Portugal and around the world. While some places have plenty of cultural events, other places have great venues with no schedule at all. Projects for audience building (like this one on a National Theatre in Portugal) and promotion of cultural attendance. Any project using culture (in its more traditional sense of arts and performance) for human emancipation (like the Meio no Meio project).

  • Deconstruct individualism. We already have lots of self-help books; now we need books to help the collective (like this spanish book on how to get rid of machismo or this book by Marina Garcés)

  • Create real democratic alternatives to the oligopoly of big business, like consumer cooperatives that allow us to pursue our daily lifes without further enriching the richest people (for example, in the United Kingdom you can buy your electricity, phone service and food to cooperatives).

  • Learn to live, work, and keep contact with loved ones without depending on Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft. Think and talk more about using the internet in an ethical, ecological, safe and emancipatory way. Create more libre software and improve the already existing. Stop surveillance capitalism.

  • Create more sharing and support groups for LGBTI people in Portugal (like we did at SEIES in Setúbal and in rede ex aequo nationally). We have great laws protecting LGBTI people, but for us to be able to counter the shame of centuries of repression and hiding and finally live with the same freedom as cis-hetero people we need strong support groups where people can talk, meeting regularly in many regions.

  • Recover the human warmth we had before Covid-19.

  • Defeat 21st century fascism.

"This book is based on two assumptions of ours. One, it seems to us, is indisputable; the other, highly questionable. We refer to the beliefs that (a) in general, the survival of our society is threatened by an increasing number of unprecedented and, to date, insoluble problems; and (b) that something can be done to improve the situation. If you do not know which of these is indisputable and which questionable, you have just finished reading this book." — Neil Postman and Charles Weingartner in the introduction of Teaching as a Subversive Activity

To plot about all these issues, please contact me:
E-mail: tomas@tomasbarao.ptTelegram: tomasanjosbaraoMatrix.org: @umleaozinho:matrix.org