Nordestina negotiations: Alternative femininities, gendered and musical self-production in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil

Abstract

This project follows the career trajectories of three women who were influential in the manguebeat movement of 1990s and early 2000s Recife, Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil. Karina Buhr, Alessandra Leão, and Renata Rosa have each contributed significant innovations to Recife’s music scene, both in their work with mangue-affiliated band Comadre Fulozinha, and also through more recent solo releases. Even so, I believe that some of the most significant contributions of these artists are not just musical, but simultaneously, social. While this thesis began as an exercise in canon correction aimed at re-centering the contributions of women in mangue, it grew to focus on the unique ways each of the artists mentioned here have worked to expand the possibilities for alternative femininities in Pernambuco, and in northeastern Brazil. Through careful manipulation of sound, images, and especially, through performance in multiple registers—including that of the voice—these artists continue to make space for new ways of being in the world.