The festival, organized by the Associação de Desenvolvimento Rural Integrado das Serras do Montemuro, Arada e Gralheira (Adrimag) in collaboration with the Junta de Freguesia de Manhouce and the municipality of São Pedro do Sul, positions itself as an act of cultural and community resistance in the interior of the country. This year, it particularly focuses on women and their ability to demonstrate resilience within communities, as indicated in the program.
The first day features a conversation titled ‘Women and Resistance’ between Isabel do Carmo, a physician, educator, and anti-fascist resister, and researcher Rita Rato, a former PCP deputy and current director of the Museum of Aljube – Resistance and Freedom in Lisbon.
Another discussion on ‘Literature, Resistance and Feminism’ will involve researcher Lorena Travassos, translator Joana Neves, and writers Gisela Casimiro and Madalena Sá Fernandes.
On the inaugural day of the two-day festival, the documentary ‘Women and Resistance’ will be screened, with editing by Sofia T. C. Gomes. Additionally, an enacted reading of the play “The Man with the Bicycle,” which addresses resistance to the dictatorship, written by playwright and lawyer Jaime Gralheiro (1930-2014) from São Pedro do Sul, will be presented.
On Sunday, the festival’s second and final day, a conversation titled ‘(r)Existir é Vencer’ will take place, featuring editor João Concha, writer Nuno Gomes, poet, translator, and researcher Ricardo Marques and professor Francisco de Almeida Dias.
Journalist Teresa Dias Mendes will also conduct an interview with photographer Homem Cardoso, known as ‘The Man with the Photography Machine’.
The program includes various other initiatives, such as a tribute to bookseller José Pinho (1953-2023), who supported the festival’s creation, the ‘Poetic Walk: Steps Around…’ along the Teixeira River, a folklore and singing workshop with the Manhouce Folklore Group, a ‘poetry duel’ between Nicolau Santos and Fernando Alvim, and children’s activities in collaboration with the Municipal Library of São Pedro do Sul, involving storytellers and illustration workshops.
The festival concludes with an “intimate and resistant” concert by Gisela João on Sunday night.
According to professor Marisa Araújo, who drives the festival, “making this rural adventure happen is, in itself, an act of resistance, madness, or both”.
For the coordinator of the Social Development Local Contract Project of São Pedro do Sul, led by Adrimag, “the context” in which ‘A Gente (Não) Lê’ emerges is crucial: “A literary festival in a village on a relentless mountain, where everything is far and difficult, is either a dream or madness. But going to Manhouce and being indifferent to it is impossible. Therefore, it makes sense to dream and realize a literary festival in a village where everything sings. According to Isabel Silvestre [the voice of the Manhouce Singing Group], even the stones sing in Manhouce”.
Marisa Araújo also emphasizes the festival’s assembly gestures by the village’s inhabitants: the women’s embroidery on the quilts decorating balconies and windows, the singing rehearsals, the preparation of trails by the river, cooking in iron pots, and baking bread in the communal oven. “Each of these ancestral gestures”, concludes the cultural promoter, “are also acts of resistance”.
The ‘A Gente (Não) Lê’ festival, offering free admission, is based at the Manhouce Primary School, which also hosts the ‘Livro Conduto’ book exchange initiative. Any remaining books will be donated to the local library.
