Capoeira Connections

This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME(Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)a collaboration of the Association ofAmerican Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Associationof Research Librariesand the generous support of Duke University.A portraitof the game of capoeira and its practice across bordersOriginating in the Black Atlantic world as a fusion of dance and martialart, capoeira was a marginalized practice for much of its history. Today it is globally popular. This ethnographic memoir weaves together the history of capoeira,recent transformations in the practice, and personal insights from author KatyaWesolowskis thirty years of experience as a capoeirista.Capoeira Connectionsfollows Wesolowskis journey from novice to instructor while drawing on her decades of research as an anthropologist inBrazil, Angola, Europe, and the United States. In a story of local practice andglobal flow, Wesolowski offers an intimate portrait of the game and what itmeans in peoples lives. She reveals camaraderie and conviviality in thecapoeira ring as well as tensions and ruptures involving race, gender, andcompeting claims over how this artful play should be practiced. Capoeira bringspeople together and yet is never free of histories of struggle, and these tooplay out in the games encounters.In her at once clear-sighted andhopeful analysis, Wesolowski ultimately argues that capoeira offersopportunities for connection, dialogue, and collaboration in a world that isincreasingly fractured. In doing so, capoeira can transform lives, createsocial spheres, and shape mobile futures.Publication of this work made possible by aSustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan grant from theNational Endowment for the Humanities.