books: a good reason to party

Lucky enough to be in Brazil again, participating in the Simpoesia poetry festival.

I love the way literary events are rarely stuffy here. Here's a few examples:
- a poetry launch I went to in São Paulo last year was in a pizzaria; people sat eating and drinking, moved around to chat to others, and if they wanted to went and bought the book from a table at the end of the room, but no enforced listening and obligation to clap politely
- Frederico Barbosa, a poet and director of the Casa das Rosas literary house that hosted Simpoesia, compèred the final reading as if it were a chat show (with cheesy loud music to fanfare the arrival of each new poet on stage)
- for the launch of a book about the samba singer and songwriter Paulo César Pinheiro, the author Conceição Campos sat at a table at the end of the room signing her book A letra brasileira de Paulo César Pinheiro, and talking to people individually, while a samba band, Samba de Fato, performed one song of Paulo César's after another (a photo of Samba de Fato below, at the end of the evening, having been joined by a guitarrist and percussionist who turned up with instruments, and by a woman from the audience who volunteered to sing a certain song with them)