‘Twas in truth an hour Of universal ferment; mildest men Were agitated, and commotions, strife Of passion and opinion, filled the walls Of peaceful houses with unquiet sounds. The soil of common life was, at that time, Too hot to tread upon.
EPATU stands for Popular School for the Arts and Urban Traditions, but it is also Spanish for ‘Hey you’. The schools, developed jointly with the Venezuelan Ministry for Communes, are non-formal spaces for youth to learn rap, break dancing, graffiti, and DJ, and are an alternative to the consumerism, violence, and criminal life that young people are often exposed to. Instead, the schools focus on developing cultural, social, and collective awareness.
Translation:
Group: We are a School Male 1: We take on militancy and we learn to be rebels Male 2: Always inventing Male 3: From the grassroots Male 4: Because we base our knowledge on experience and invention Male 5: Producing Male 6: And generating a space for thought and discussion Female 1: Aiming for the inside (of ourselves) Male 7: And aiming for the endogenous Male 8: Inviting our people to investigate Male 9: To discuss, to activate, and to collectivise Male 10: Making art Female 2: Inclusive Female 3: Born from the people Male 11: What you don’t see in museums Male 12: Something you want to show. Male 13: The art of creating and of the collective with the word Male 14: Painting! Female 4: With the body, sound, and spirit Male 15: Accompanying traditions Male 16: Because rage is our ancestor Child 1: Blacks! Child 2: Indigenous! Child 3: Llaneros (inhabitants of the plains) Child 4: Gave rise to our arts Male 17: And they integrated them into one single movement Male 18: An inheritance transmitted through drums and Male 19: Decima poetry Male 20: The beats of Joropo (a Venezuelan dance) Female 5: And the feet of a dancer Male 21: That are based on urban expressions Male 22: That encourage respect for the original (inhabitants) Female6: For the social Male 23: For our roots, for the appropriation of spaces that belong to us Male 24: To achieve the demolishment of the system Male 25: That oppresses us Male 26: Making revolution Male 27: Communicating an alternative for advancing and constructing Male 28: We do it through communicating Child 5: (through) the people Female 7: (through) rebellion Male 29: (through) what isn’t sold.
Transcription and notes by Tamara Pearson for Venezuelanalysis.com
