Coletivo em Silêncio: the encounter that creates a political body and produces life

Abstract

This essay is an excerpt from a broader research, the thesis research that looks at the production of the political body as part of the manifestation of contemporary struggles. In this framework, a narrative of experiences is presented, based on my participant observation in a feminist collective of art and education, concerned with anti-punitive and de-incarceration agenda – Coletivo em Silêncio. The narrative also includes testimonies, poetry and interviews with women who were affected by the prison and justice system, women who were historically and socially stigmatized as people who don’t fit into the society and, therefore, can be discarded. This essay seeks to give visibility for practices of communication and artistic expression as strategies of resistance and, finally, set up spaces for those speeches to be resonated and heard.