Conscientizar, Organizar e Educar: meet the collective that promotes access to culture in Anchieta – RJ
Apart from having a library and literary festival, the group creates practical activities that promote the connection of children with the environment, such as planting trees and caring for animals
Credit: Disclosure
By: Dandara Franco – Lupa do Bem / Favela em Pauta
Conscientizar, Organizar e Educar Collective – the popular COE Collective – has been part of the history of Complexo do Chapadão, in Anchieta, since 2006. It has been working for almost 16 years to stimulate access to literature, art and education in one of the peripheries of Rio de Janeiro.
The journey began through a nuisance among a group of friends, who felt the need to rescue the importance of a cultural base in the community. Then, from the discomfort with the absence of collective social actions, the Paulo Freire Reading Room emerged as a popular library where the collective took place.
It was from this library that the strength for the creation of the COE Colletive emerged, which currently has a collection of around 3,000 books and is responsible for the Festa Literária do Complexo do Chapadão (FLICC), the first event of its kind in the region. The Festa has been taking place since 2016 and the third edition took place on the first weekend of October 2022.
For both projects, one of the main objectives is to promote peripheral culture in its most diverse forms. And, despite the lack of public investment in access to education, the project helps to increase opportunities for entry into higher education. “All the members of the collective have graduated or are in the process of academic training. A series of undergraduates, a master’s student, a doctoral student. I mean, what impact could public funding have in a place like this, right? As the recovery of people, of lives. Salvation from drug trafficking, from militias, from robbery”, protests Jocemir dos Reis, coordinator of the COE Collective.
The importance of carrying out and expanding actions
Jocemir dos Reis, from Chapadão (RJ), reflects how the Collective is a kind of living laboratory of what is possible to be done when there is purpose and popular encouragement.
In this sense, his daughter, Clara Sabino (25), who grew up alongside the COE and is now responsible for managing the projects developed by the collective, reported having experienced the power that free access to literature brings: “awareness, education and opportunities ”. Tools that, according to her, are made possible through the collective in the favela.
Even with the adversities, such as the fact that it is almost entirely maintained by the members themselves, the young manager reports the importance of articulating projects that are unique in the territory.
“With the library, I believe in the benefit of young people being able to have access to books, and the literary festa I think is a benefit for everyone who participates in this beautiful party, with music, theatrical performances, expressions, conversation circles and you have a bit of everything. Both from the peripheral culture and from the hegemonic culture. Occupying this space brings benefits to all the people involved, not just the young people”, says Clara.
In addition to the library and the literary festival, the collective accumulates experiences in the territory, such as the Projeto Agroecológica Mendes and Quintal Escola, courses in which young people carry out practical activities of planting, caring for animals and all carried out in a “living space” .
Follow the group’s work
COE’s initiatives articulate spaces for living, valuing memory, belonging, cultural production and sustainability throughout the territory. And, for those who want to collaborate with the project, just get in touch through the profiles: on Instagram, @coletivo_coe; on Facebook, Coletivo COE or you can send an email to coletivocoe@gmail.com.
The COE receives donations of books, furniture, records, magazines and also time contributions! If you want, you can be one of the collaborators who carry out activities in the space, just make a first contact and talk to those responsible.
“We are super open! You can contact us through our email to talk and understand the best way to contribute!” – COE Collective
