BloomBars Presents Its First Mural Project: “Felipe’s Story”
The mural “Felipe’s Story” by DC-based artist Joel Bergner explores the world of an 11-year-old boy growing up in one of Rio de Janeiro’s shanty towns, known as favelas. “Felipe’s Story” focuses on the joy, resiliency, and rich culture of the people in the favelas, despite extreme violence, lack of opportunities and inclusion in mainstream society. This is the story of one boy—and the shared story of one billion, who live in urban communities known as slums, ghettos, shanty towns, and favelas. While their cultures, languages, and situations may be very different, children across the world share Felipe’s challenges and his needs as well as his joyful smile, his goals and dreams for his life, and his resilient spirit.
In 2009, Joel went to the City of God (Cidade de Deus), a favela made famous by the 2002 film of the same name, to live with Felipe and his family while he worked at the community-based organization CUFA. CUFA is a Hip Hop- based organization that runs community centers in favelas all over Brazil, providing favela residents with free classes in theater, break dance, computer literacy, graffiti art, sports, and more. It was co-founded by City of God resident MV Bill, one of the Brazil’s most famous rappers, whose songs are deeply social and political, often exploring the violent reality of youth in the favelas. Beyond his music, he has written books, made documentaries, and speaks to youth all over Brazil. His social-artistic work has been recognized by UNICEF and the Brazilian government, and he was appointed a Citizen of the World by the United Nations in 2004.
Joel became friends with MV Bill in 2007 while interpreting for the rapper in New York and DC, and became interested in favela issues. He accepted MV Bill’s invitation to teach English at CUFA and live in the City of God, where few outsiders have the opportunity to get to know. Through the many friendships that Joel made in several different communities, at CUFA and in his warm host-family, Joel had an eye-opening experience and learned a great deal, and wanted to share this with others in DC. He received a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities to create a mural about his experience.
The mural “Felipe’s Story” is a continuation of a series of aerosol murals that Joel created in the City of God that featured residents and focused on family dynamics. Felipe’s mother was deeply involved with the drug gang that controlled the City of God and many other favelas in Rio. She had a daughter with her boyfriend, one of the drug traffickers, who was later killed in one of the gun battles between police and heavily-armed young traffickers that are daily occurrences in Rio’s favelas. She then had a relationship with Felipe’s father, a police officer who became corrupt, and ultimately met the same fate as the previous boyfriend. Though she is no longer involved in a life of drugs and crime, her past trauma has left her with psychological issues and several bullet wounds, and Felipe and his sister have been raised by their elderly grandmother along with other cousins. Felipe has witnessed violence his whole life, and tells stories of violent deaths, of bodies being thrown into the sewage-filled creek that runs by his house, and of a friend of his who was killed by traffickers. Bullet holes are everywhere; on walls of the family house, the elementary school across the street, and the nearby CUFA community center.
Despite the oppressive violence, the social exclusion that favela residents face, and the extreme lack of job and educational opportunities, the City of God is a community where Joel found many fascinating and intelligent people, a strong and dynamic culture, and many uplifting and inspiring social forces, such as CUFA. On any given day, Felipe and the other children can be seen laughing in the tropical sunshine, playing soccer on the street, taking theater and dance classes, and studying their homework. There is a current lull in violence, as the community has been “occupied” for months by hundreds of heavily armed military policemen, part of a new government experiment to create a period of stability to allow for much-needed infrastructure and social projects. Whether this experiment can work in the long run remains to be seen, and the goal is daunting: there is so much work to be done in any given community, and there are currently 5 favelas being occupied out of the roughly 1,000 favelas in Rio. But for the estimated 80,000 residents of the City of God, this period of relative peace has brought relief and an opportunity to build their community.
“Felipe’s Story” is the latest work by artist, teacher, and youth counselor Joel Bergner, whose colorful and intensely- detailed public murals are on display in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington DC, Baltimore, Brazil, Peru, and more. He has done community-based work for many years with marginalized youth, refugees, immigrants, the homeless, and the mentally ill. He has worked with many organizations in cities across the US and abroad, and has drawn upon these experiences as inspiration for his artwork. His murals have covered topics such as Afro-Colombian culture and human rights issues, immigration in the US, the civil war in El Salvador, the history of communities in DC and Baltimore, and Afro-Brazilian spirituality and culture, among many others. He has led youth mural projects, collaborated with other artists, and directed a project that featured a series of murals by international artists. His art has been published in many publications and websites, including the New York Times and Time magazine, and he has been featured on the global news networks Al- Jazeera English and Voice of America. For more information on Joel’s work, go to www.joelsmurals.com.
