ABSTRACT
Throughout his forty-year career as singer and activist, on countless occasions, João do Crato has employed the fact of being out of place. He was a rock singer in the interior of Ceará in the 1970s and 80s. He usually presents an exaggeratedly sinuous gender performativity for peripheral neighbourhoods where he militates and performs his music. He moves freely between diverse groups of popular culture and manifestations that embody the cultures of African matrices, in the region of Cariri, Ceará. This research examines João do Crato’s narratives and support from fellow activists to reflect on displacements concerning the reception of social markers expressed by the artist. The continuous action engaged in from the stage distinguishes João’s trajectory as an expressive form of lived experiences in the interior of Ceará, while modulating stereo- types concerning the immobility of an authentic popular culture and the immutability of oppositions between male and female in rural and peripheral areas. By treating the rural world and popular culture as scenarios of differences, João enhances the recognition of a place for himself and his audience based on the displacements he provokes.
KEYWORDS:
Sexuality; spatialities; ethnobiography; Brazilian Northeast; popular culture