Who We Are: Afro Brazil Arts is a
non-profit, 501(c)(3) youth development organization whose mission is to
inspire achievement, leadership and community through Capoeira, a Brazilian
self-defense and dance. For nearly 25 years, we have motivated over one
million youth through performances and classes featuring Brazilian Capoeira,
dance and music, and in schools and community centers throughout the US and
Brazil. Our goal is to raise money to renovate our new space, where we will continue to engage and inspire children and young adults
through Capoeira.
Our Location: Our studio is located in the Clemente Soto Velez
Center, a building that has barely changed over the last 100 years. Renovating
our new space will take a lot of work.
What is Capoeira?: Capoeira
is a martial art developed by African slaves in Brazil in the 1700s. Players
participate in games that are accompanied by traditional Brazilian music and
folk songs. It teaches players constraint, strategy and how to be mindful of
their capoeira partner.
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Students
learn the following skills in our classes:
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Self-defense, fitness and mind-body
coordination – Students
learn kicks, acrobatics, evasive movements and other defensive skills to use in
their games.
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Life skills – They work individually, with partners,
and together as a community to build communication, teamwork and leadership
skills.
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How to play musical instruments – We teach students how to play the pandeiro (a type of tambourine), berimbau (a stringed instrument played
during Capoeira games), and a variety of percussion instruments as part of
their Capoeira instruction.
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Portuguese language skills and voice – Students learn traditional Portuguese
songs that are sung during games.
Our Impact: Many
public schools have done away with music, dance and physical education classes
because of budgetary constraints. But these types of extra-curricular
activities are important for children and help them be physically fit. We have
found that children are engaged by capoeira:
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Capoeira connects students
to a shared history: Many students feel a connection to Capoeira's Afro
Brazilian roots. It not only sparks their interest in the history of the
African diaspora in Brazil, but leads them to ask questions and explore aspects
of their own backgrounds.
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The martial arts aspect of
capoeira provides students with self-confidence that carries over into other
disciplines:
When a student finds that they can do a controlled cartwheel or when they feel
the support of the class following their lead on a song, they feel a heightened
sense of accomplishment, inner strength, and confidence that helps them tackle
other complex topics inside and outside of the classroom.
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Children learn to build
bonds with each other: Capoeira is a unique type of martial art where players learn
to be mindful of their capoeira partner and watch out for their well-being.
Because of this, children learn how to work with each other while maintaining a
competitive spirit.
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Why We Need Your Help: The Clemente Soto Velez
organization granted us the use of more space in the building. We want to use
this space to hold more community events, children and adult classes and to
host school groups who visit us to learn more about Capoeira and Brazilian
culture. This new space will need a lot of work in order to convert it into a Capoeira
studio. Because the building is owned by the city, we will need to employ union
electricians and apply for certain city permits. With your donations we will be
able to do the following:
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Hire a city certified
electrician to wire the new space: The wiring in
the space needs to be updated so that it can handle running the fans, air
conditioning, and sound system needed to hold classes in the room.
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Apply for all the necessary
permits to do our renovations:
Because the building is city owned, we have to
apply for electrical licenses and permits, and other construction permits.
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Refinishing the floors: Students practice Capoeira barefoot, and
so it is important that our floors are smooth and clean. We plan to install sustainable bamboo
flooring.
Our Budget: This is a projected budget we've prepared to give you an idea as to how we've planned to allocate the funds (budget is based on reaching our goal).
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Every dollar helps us update our space and provide more
classes to the community. As a thank you for your donation we have a series of perks that you may choose from. Among these perks, we provide the opportunity for you to sponsor a child to take Capoeira classes at our academy. We have also set up perks for corporate donors.
For more information on our organization, please go
to http://www.afrobrazilarts.org/
Information on our children’s and adult classes can be found
at http://newyorkCapoeira.com/