Tulane University

Engineering the Musical City: Urban Planning and Soundscapes in São Paulo

This talk will consider two cases that engage music performance as a strategy of urban transformation in São Paulo, Brazil: the SESC-SP network of leisure centers and the Virada Cultural street festival. The SESC-SP has become notable among musicians and audiences in São Paulo not only because of its size (it organizes over 5,000 live music events per year), but also for its efforts to promote leisure as an urban social right. The Virada Cultural, a twenty-four-hour event including hundreds of free performances, has become the city’s largest annual event since its 2005 creation. These cases illuminate how institutional and grassroots actors navigate the concept of music performance as an urban social right, even as arts policymaking may exacerbate social and spatial inequalities in the city.

This lecture will be presented by our newest Zemurray-Stone Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr. Daniel Gough, on a topic that will be a preview of sorts into his spring course offering in Latin American Studies.

For those interested in taking Dr. Gough’s course next semester, please see the information below or contact rtsclas@tulane.edu.

• R 3:30-5:30