A Beautiful Fight
A Beautiful Fight examines the potentials and limits of capoeira Angola to cohere a multiracial community committed to antiracist struggle. Capoeira, a musical fight-game that originated among enslaved Africans in Brazil, holds special significance for Black Brazilian activists as a spiritual and po...
I tiakina i:
| Kaituhi matua: | |
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| Hōputu: | Online |
| Reo: | Ingarihi |
| I whakaputaina: |
Michigan State University Press
2026
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| Ngā marau: | |
| Urunga tuihono: | ONIX_20260323T152922_9780472905102_2 |
| Ngā Tūtohu: |
Kāore He Tūtohu, Me noho koe te mea tuatahi ki te tūtohu i tēnei pūkete!
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| _version_ | 1869527776383467520 |
|---|---|
| author | Kurtz, Esther Viola |
| author_browse | Kurtz, Esther Viola |
| author_facet | Kurtz, Esther Viola |
| author_sort | Kurtz, Esther Viola |
| collection | Directory of Open Access Books |
| description | A Beautiful Fight examines the potentials and limits of capoeira Angola to cohere a multiracial community committed to antiracist struggle. Capoeira, a musical fight-game that originated among enslaved Africans in Brazil, holds special significance for Black Brazilian activists as a spiritual and political practice that affirms the value of Black lives, thus countering anti-Black violence sanctioned by the Brazilian state. However, many capoeira groups count more white practitioners than Black, especially groups of the politicized, Afrocentric style capoeira Angola, raising debates about appropriation of Black culture that resonate across the Americas. A Beautiful Fight addresses these tensions. Drawing on ethnographic research with a multiracial capoeira Angola group in Brazil’s Bahian sertão or backlands, Esther Viola Kurtz explores diverse group members’ understandings of capoeira’s spiritual and political meanings and considers how white participation impacts capoeira’s antiracist politics. A Beautiful Fight argues that white practitioners occupying space in capoeira divert attention from Black members’ concerns and reproduce racist and colonialist ideologies, albeit unintentionally. In this way, the book complicates claims that shared music and dance bridge differences and facilitate cross-racial unity, yet Kurtz proposes that capoeira still transmits knowledge and tools that, when used with intention, commitment, and care, can be wielded to collaboratively contest racism and imagine a more just world. |
| format | Online |
| id | doab-20.500.12854ir-174279 |
| institution | Directory of Open Access Books |
| language | eng |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| publishDateRange | 2026 |
| publishDateSort | 2026 |
| publisher | Michigan State University Press |
| publisherStr | Michigan State University Press |
| record_format | ojs |
| spelling | doab-20.500.12854ir-1742792026-03-24T05:57:35Z A Beautiful Fight Kurtz, Esther Viola Capoeira Capoeira Angola Brazil Backland Bahia Afro-Brazilian music Afro-Brazilian dance Antiracist resistance Cultural appropriation Cultural politics Racial politics Axé energy Ancestrality Racist ideologies Coloniality Whiteness Political economy Ethnomusicology African diasporic music and dance Critical ethnography Afro-Brazilian studies Afro-Latin American studies Black studies Dance studies thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AV Music::AVA Theory of music and musicology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies A Beautiful Fight examines the potentials and limits of capoeira Angola to cohere a multiracial community committed to antiracist struggle. Capoeira, a musical fight-game that originated among enslaved Africans in Brazil, holds special significance for Black Brazilian activists as a spiritual and political practice that affirms the value of Black lives, thus countering anti-Black violence sanctioned by the Brazilian state. However, many capoeira groups count more white practitioners than Black, especially groups of the politicized, Afrocentric style capoeira Angola, raising debates about appropriation of Black culture that resonate across the Americas. A Beautiful Fight addresses these tensions. Drawing on ethnographic research with a multiracial capoeira Angola group in Brazil’s Bahian sertão or backlands, Esther Viola Kurtz explores diverse group members’ understandings of capoeira’s spiritual and political meanings and considers how white participation impacts capoeira’s antiracist politics. A Beautiful Fight argues that white practitioners occupying space in capoeira divert attention from Black members’ concerns and reproduce racist and colonialist ideologies, albeit unintentionally. In this way, the book complicates claims that shared music and dance bridge differences and facilitate cross-racial unity, yet Kurtz proposes that capoeira still transmits knowledge and tools that, when used with intention, commitment, and care, can be wielded to collaboratively contest racism and imagine a more just world. 2026-03-24T05:57:32Z 2026-03-24T05:57:32Z 2026-03-23T15:16:43Z 2025 book ONIX_20260323T152922_9780472905102_2 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/112139 9780472905102 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/174279 eng Music and Social Justice open access image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/112139/1/9780472905102.pdf Michigan State University Press University of Michigan Press 10.3998/mpub.12771665 10.3998/mpub.12771665 aa7f6664-5117-41d8-90f8-c3af56526b92 9780472905102 University of Michigan Press 238 open access |
| spellingShingle | Capoeira Capoeira Angola Brazil Backland Bahia Afro-Brazilian music Afro-Brazilian dance Antiracist resistance Cultural appropriation Cultural politics Racial politics Axé energy Ancestrality Racist ideologies Coloniality Whiteness Political economy Ethnomusicology African diasporic music and dance Critical ethnography Afro-Brazilian studies Afro-Latin American studies Black studies Dance studies thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AV Music::AVA Theory of music and musicology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies Kurtz, Esther Viola A Beautiful Fight |
| title | A Beautiful Fight |
| title_full | A Beautiful Fight |
| title_fullStr | A Beautiful Fight |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Beautiful Fight |
| title_short | A Beautiful Fight |
| title_sort | beautiful fight |
| topic | Capoeira Capoeira Angola Brazil Backland Bahia Afro-Brazilian music Afro-Brazilian dance Antiracist resistance Cultural appropriation Cultural politics Racial politics Axé energy Ancestrality Racist ideologies Coloniality Whiteness Political economy Ethnomusicology African diasporic music and dance Critical ethnography Afro-Brazilian studies Afro-Latin American studies Black studies Dance studies thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AV Music::AVA Theory of music and musicology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies |
| topic_facet | Capoeira Capoeira Angola Brazil Backland Bahia Afro-Brazilian music Afro-Brazilian dance Antiracist resistance Cultural appropriation Cultural politics Racial politics Axé energy Ancestrality Racist ideologies Coloniality Whiteness Political economy Ethnomusicology African diasporic music and dance Critical ethnography Afro-Brazilian studies Afro-Latin American studies Black studies Dance studies thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JB Society and culture: general::JBS Social groups, communities and identities::JBSL Ethnic studies thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AV Music::AVA Theory of music and musicology thema EDItEUR::A The Arts::AT Performing arts::ATD Theatre studies |
| url | ONIX_20260323T152922_9780472905102_2 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT kurtzestherviola abeautifulfight AT kurtzestherviola beautifulfight |