Enchanting the language

marginal poetry as a weapon against erasure and invisibility

Resumo

This article investigates the experience of young black and/ or peripheral with the word-poetry, analyzing their possibilities as an instrument of reexistence in a historical context of erasure and invisibilization. The text is the result of a master’s research carried out in 2023 whose initial objectives sought to understand about the involvement of these youth with poetry at the interface with the manifestation of the word in school life. Its character is qualitative and it was held in a sarau of marginal poetry that takes place in a public high school. Used as methodologies: participant observation, discussion group and individual narrative interviews. The interlocutors of the research were 5 high school students who are also poets. The results indicate that the word-poetry is experienced symbolically by young people as a “weapon” to face social problems such as racism, inequality and erasure. The production of words-poetry, in this sense materialize as a possibility of life production, in contrast with the production of death imposed by society to several socially vulnerable groups from a dispute of narratives and power. It is concluded that the marginal poetry, sung by black and peripheral youth, is a practice that points to possibilities of existence in hostile environments. She produces “reexistence literacies” (Souza, 2009), confronting stigmas and reaffirming authentic discourses. The production of the poetic word is configured as a social practice that allows the registration of these young people in society, affirming their identities and resisting hegemonic discursive logics.