THE STREET IS A CLASSROOM
By Jessica Pires and Julia Bruce
This is the column Who Makes Redes, a compilation of the stories of people who build our organization and who work hard every day to do what we do best: actions and projects for residents of Maré. Learn about these stories, trajectories, experiences and the history of Redes da Maré itself - and how this work and the challenges faced since the pandemic have transformed them.
Lidiane Malanquini is from Cachambi, a neighborhood in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. But a large part of her professional trajectory was formed in favela territories, such as the Conjunto de Favelas da Maré. Here, this relationship began through a community articulation with the health centers, in the conflict mediation sector. Some time later, she was already taking part in the research on the drug use scene on Flávia Farnese street, a region very close to Av Brasil. From that look of hers that has the street as an important scenario, she tells how change comes from this space.
When I was taking the entrance exam, I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I wanted to change the world. I joined Social Service, I understood that the revolution was going to take a long time and I asked myself: what can I do here?” Lidiane says that she felt the people around her were very similar, they always did everything the same, and this discomfort and her appreciation for diversity and restlessness took her to places she would not have imagined.
By studying at a public institution, Escola Técnica Estadual Adolpho Bloch, in a different territory and with students from different regions of the city, she learned to circulate and understood the importance of diversity that she had not experienced until she was 15 years old.
In addition to participating in the school’s student body, Lidiane began studying Cultural Production and Community Communication at Viva Rio: “all this provoked me to discuss topics from the favelas and peripheries of Rio de Janeiro. I created my path at the university, I connected with the subject of public security, where I was a monitor of a course for police officers within the battalions, then I worked as a technician, coordination assistant, project coordinator, I did research during the period of occupation of the Unit of Pacification Police (UPP), always in the listening area of the police”. Over time, she came to understand that collaboration in this context of public security could be more powerful if she applied the theoretical and technical repertoire in actions with the residents of the territories in the daily life of the streets, later influencing the construction of the axis Right to Public Security and Access to Justice. Lidiane is a graduate, master and doctoral student in Social Work at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
It was in 2010 that Lidiane had her first contact with Redes da Maré, through the 1st Free Conference on Public Security in Maré, as a student who wanted to understand more deeply the context of Maré. The Public Security axis was created in the same period, but there was no fixed team, nonetheless staff from different sectors of the Redes were understanding the demands of the territory and thinking about actions for the axis.
At the end of 2014, she was invited to be a field researcher on the drug use scene at Flávia Farnese, whose project became the book “My name is not Crackhead: the open scene of drug use on Flávia Farnese street, in Maré, Rio de Janeiro” (2016), when she participated in activities with users, such as film clubs, and worked with drug abuse, among other activities on the street. “I got closer, even because it was my subject of study and provoked me a lot. I was field coordinator of the research 'The Occupation of Maré by the Brazilian Army'. In 2015, there was a militarized occupation by the armed forces in Maré and Eliana [Sousa Silva] asked me to go with her. That was when I first came into contact with the idea of police operations and with the shifts that the Public Security axis did. I started to participate in this shifts and thought how powerful that was, but that it needed to be systematized and the assistance needed continuity and follow-up. It was from the shifts that we organized and systematized the ‘Maré of Rights’ and ‘Eyes on Maré’ projects. What renewed in me was that change would come from the favelas and realize how much the protagonism of favela residents in reacting to violence is fundamental to changing this reality.”
Lidiane reinforces that in addition to the institutional space, the street is a fundamental place to demystify prejudices. She often says that Redes’ “breeds” contributed to her formation process, by dominating the historical process of Maré, and asks: “how do our knowledges that come from different trajectories meet and manage to build Redes?”.
The broad look at Maré's demands is at the heart of the organization's work, as well as in the trajectory of so many collaborators. After 7 years working in the public security area, Lidiane embraced, at the beginning of 2022, two important challenges. Now, she is an articulator in political advocacy, one of the working methodologies of Redes da Maré, in which knowledge is produced, as well as concrete actions and mobilization of residents to influence public policies and change the way the state acts. In addition, she also coordinates the Herbert Vianna Cultural Canvas, facility of the Municipal Department of Culture. “The Canvas is the street, it's a place that provokes me to think of ideas for valuing this space. The meaning of being at the Canvas is to think of the border as a living space and to reflect, from a public facility, on what cultural policy Maré wants, in addition to offering services.” May the street continue to provoke, mobilize and lead collective and personal inventions in Redes da Maré and in all those who are together with it!
