Por uma educação antirracista: teatro do oprimido, letramento étnico-racial e a transformação social de meninas negras

Based on the Theater of the Opressed (TO) – a theatrical methodology created by Augusto Boal (1989) – and a women’s movement conducted by Barbara Santos (2016) – the international network Mada(g)lena of TO –, this article is the result of an activist-action-research project led in a public school located in Duque de Caxias/RJ with 5th grader girls. The methodology consisted of an acting investigation laboratory in which TO games and theatrical techniques were used for the collective creation of a Forum Theater play related to oppression issues lived by this representative school group. Based on the daily lives and narratives (especially autobiographical ones) of these girls, as Paulo Freire said (2016) [1974] – who, other than the oppressed...? –, we analyze the social identities of race and gender, within the social and racial relationships in the school daily routine, supported by the role of the educator black movement and its esthetic-corporeal, political and identity knowledges, proposed by Gomes (2017). By joining Boal’s methodology and the concept of critical racial literacy, according to Ferreira (2015), we investigate the use of TO as a language tool to promote literacy in ethnic-racial issues. This paper presents the perceptions and challenges faced by the researcher in the field; the methodological challenges in proposing an activist-action-research while being part of the filed; the theatrical path of the participants and their voices; and the school community answer to the interventions made.