WOMEN WHO READ WOMEN
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| Aida grew up in a family where women read. As a child, she received her first book and since then, she had the idea of opening her own bookstore. |
Confraria Vermelha (The Red Fraternity) located in Porto, is the only
feminist bookstore in Portugal. Not only is it a place to buy books written by
women, but it is also a space to pay tribute to feminine literature and talk
about it.
"Each text is an island." This phrase
was said in the last moments of the meeting, is a beautiful metaphor to
describe the Leitoras de Pandora reading club
sessions. It is late afternoon, in a quiet street in Porto and the participants
are arriving. The environment is more than informal, it is homely. Aida Suarez,
35 years old, owner of the Confraria Vermelha, the only feminist bookstore in
Portugal, wants to ensure everyone feels comfortable.
After all, it is here where they
will share opinions, experiences, occasionally one or two confessions and above
all, discuss books. Books, it’s always the books. That’s the passion (yes it is
a passion) of these women who get together every last Thursday of the month in
this place.
To have her own bookshop used to be an old dream of Aida, as old as when she learned how to read.
"I think that I wanted a bookstore since I received my first book",
says Aida. She grew up in a family of women. Women who read. This was her first
big feminist influence, cemented, much later, with trips to Barcelona and Madrid,
where she would come across feminist bookstores, which had existed for more
than 40 years.
Why not open one in Portugal too? "It's not
about taking advantage of the feminist cause visibility, not at all. I wished
the Confraria to be mainly a bookstore which would pay tribute to so many female
genius authors.” That’s why we don't only sell books on feminist themes. There
are various collections of books written by women – history, children's
literature, sexuality, philosophy, politics, travel, health or art – and a
library to consult them.
From Aida’s willingness to put her dream into
action, it only took a couple of years and a crowdfunding to give the project
its final push. The bookstore finally opened doors in 2015. On the bookstore’s
display window, Clarice Lispector, Virginia Wolf, the godmother of Confraria,
and Florbela Espanca greeting the passers-by and inviting them to take a peek
inside.
There are authors’ framed pictures
everywhere, small objects with book quotes, a turntable in the back of the room
with a Janis Joplin vinyl, coffee and tea machines, cookies on the table so
that nothing is discussed on an empty stomach.
Everything is ready, the group is forming. This
time, every reader brought a book that marked them. Aida initiated the
discussion with presenting 2 new books. Women
by Carol Rossetti and Las Chicas Son
Querraras by Irene Cicico and Sergio Parra. From a hand to hand, they
turned the pages and discussed the illustrations. The first to present her book
was Sara Riobom, who did not just come to talk about Maria Teresa Horta, but also
to read her work. By sharing an excerpt about the body, which is subjected to
various interpretations, respectively whether it's a man or a woman’s body, the
discussion focused on the way we perceive our own body. Maria Teresa is one of
the women who has been on the shelves for a longer time and Aida couldn’t
prevent herself from recommending the reading of Novas Cartas Portuguesas (New
Portuguese Letters).
Maria João Coelho who was attending the club for
the first time held the book “A Metáfora
do Coração” by Maria Zambrano. “It is a philosophy of the heart”, that is
how she justified her choice. The question followed “Why are women punished for
being emotional?”. “To act with the heart can be an absolutely rational
choice”, says Júlia Jardim from Minas Gerais, Brazil. There seems to be a
consensus around the group about seeing the need to interpret emotionality as a
strength and not as a weakness.
Marta Reis crossed the ocean to
revisit Alexandra Lucas Coelho. Vai
Brasil (Go Brazil) is the publication, travels are the motto. The choice
was simple, travel books are a big part of Marta’s life growing up. “I have
always seen my family travelling to remote places; I have always read books
about this theme. It is fascinating to travel through the words of another
person.”
Sara identified herself with Marta, a travel
blogger, she goes alone everywhere. “It is such a big pleasure, it is a bigger
availability for everything that is around us”, she assures. Aida, who just returned
from a trip herself, had her first solo travel experience not a long time ago.
“It was liberating!”, she confesses. “Every time I say I’m going to travel, I
always hear the same question: why are you going alone, jokes Sara.
Moments are shared; there was a general laughter
about a trip to Moscow where vodka was the only word understood and the only
salvation.
The Brazilian Júlia brought Harper Lee’s “Não Matem a Cotovia” (“To Kill a
Mockingbird”). There’s a discussion about childhood, the character’s growth,
the growth of each one of us. “The first time that she felt that everyone
wanted her to be less than who she really was, was at school”, says Júlia. The
second book that Harper Lee did not want to release is a target of negative criticism
describing it as a sloppier version of the first. “She wanted to be an author
of a big book, one unique memorable work”, defended Aida. There is herbal tea
break.
The herbal teas of Ana Hatherly, author and
friend of Helena Topa, brought with her two books, visibly marked by time and
by re-reads. 351 Tisanas and 463 Tisanas, two works that combine
loose texts without connection between each other. They are small infusions of
ideas, mantras, resolutions, and advices. Helena says that “they are like a
Japanese haiku” and she picks five or six to
read, ends up reading more. There are smiles across the room, they are taking
notes of the end of the sentences. Not everyone knew about them, it is the
surprise of the afternoon. “Every text of these is a small nature painting.”
Again, a metaphor that fits the moment.
The authors mentioned are described as if they
are friends. They leave a mark on life stages; help overcome the stages that were
not so good, they always come to them when they need it the most. That is
friendship, is it not? There’s more than talking about feminism, there’s talking
about devotion to literature.
“The Confraria is a feminist
project, in its creation, because we have by majority feminine authors. But men
are welcome, we already had some of them participating in the Club and the
conversation is always very good”. Explains the owner holding a book in her
hand.
There are one piece of news left to discuss. “Jane
Austen Reading Club”, which has already been adapted as a moving picture, is
the chosen one. “Jane deserves an opportunity, she is always portrayed as a
romantic author. But there’s another side that we have to explore here. She
will be one of our next authors!”
The desire to deconstruct ideas is one of the
mottos of these meetings. Beyond The Pandora Readers, there are other group
activities happening regularly. In tertulias “Ler para Conviver” (Read in order
to co-exist), the aim is to celebrate the birth of an author and to discuss her
work. And to prove that we can talk about everything, there are scheduled
reading sessions about...Harry Potter.
OTHER
READING CLUBS
Pandora Readers
is not the only reading club in Porto. “Conversas Para Lê-las” (Conversations
to read them) is another club that gets together regularly to discuss the
lesbian matter and the bookstore Flâneur also has its own reading club. In
Lisbon, o “Chá de Letras” (Tea of letters) is an event that invites the
participants to not only bring authors they admire, but also their own writings
to discuss. O Instituto Cervantes in Lisbon also organizes events where they
are read, the majority are Spanish authors.
Chosen
by: Badriah.
Translated by: Badriah.
Revised
by: LuÃsa.
When I saw a
report about Confraria
Vermelha on SIC, I knew I wanted to include it in this blog. Whether it
qualifies to be pop cult or not, it is a
question I leave up to the readers. For me, pop culture can be anything we make
it. In this article, we learn a lot about different authors and different books
which I thought was interesting. It was written in a way that made me feel like
I was part of the meeting. Confraria Vermelha for me is a great idea that
deserve to become a popular culture topic because it showcases works of women,
something that hasn't happened in the previous decades. I can’t help but think
of Florbela Espanca and her struggle to get recognize by her fellow male poets
and authors. You can read in her work how painful it was to her to not be able
to break into or get noticed in the literature scene that was dominated by men.
- Badriah.
