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Screen name:

Age:

45

Gender:

Female

Travel status:

Traveling soon

Hometown:

San Francisco

Currently in:

Natal, Brazil

Expert Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

My connection to the Northeast began in 1998. While living in San Francisco, I translated the subtitles for the film "Sertão das Memórias"- "Landscapes of Memory" by director José Araujo from Ceará, and became fascinated with this region. I studied the Literatura de Cordel and popular festivals of the Northeast as well at UCB, with the exceptional Candace Slater, which further piqued my interest. I have been living in the Northeast for four years now, writing, translating, playing music, surfing, doing community projects, documenting popular culture, meeting groovy, talented people and generally making merry. I can hook you up on night spots, music festivals and cultural events, great places to see Festa Junina, surf spots, community projects you can participate in or just find out about, and trips to go hiking, rock climbing, and appreciate the natural wonders of Rio Grande do Norte.

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Writer Bio: View Articles (1)

Jennifer Sarah Frota was born in El Centro, California in 1963. A freelance writer, translator, muralist, musician,and mother, she currently resides in Natal, Brazil. Her translations of Brazilian poetry have been published in various anthologies, and her own original poetry has appeared in the literary journals Letterbox, DUSIE press # 5, and Sibila.

Traveling Next:

Possibly Guiné-Bissau or San Francisco

Favorite places I've been:

Baja California, São Paulo, Brazil, little towns along the Tapajós and Amazon Rivers in the Amazon, Belem, Pará, Pium, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, towns along the coast in the Northeast of Brazil, Lyon, France, Domodosola, Italy, D.F. Mexico, Robert's Creek, Canada, New York, New York

Places I want to go to:

Shanghai, Mongolia, Guiné-Bissau, Cabo Verde, Mozambique, Morroco, Tunisia, Portugal, Granada, Spain, Poland--Krakow and Warsaw and everywhere else...

About me:

Working with youth all over the globe doing mural projects, music projects, documenting traditional cultures, aesthetic ethnography projects, bringing technologies for communities to document their own traditions, writing, playing music is the fuel that keeps me traveling and learning from people all over the world. Living the good vibes of positive exchange. I play the flute and am in a jazzy-roots band that plays Brazilian Northeastern music, and am studying the work of Brazilian geniuses like Pixinguinha and other composers of Chorinho, as well as traditional bamboo flute and rabeca (fiddle).

Profile URL:

http://matadortravel.com/travel-community/jenndjesus

Read more about JennDjesus

I'm fired up on:

writing, playing music, painting murals, surfing, listening to people who love to tell stories, translating great literature and poems, and the funny things people say at twilight when they are in a particularly good mood, or the things kids say in the hot sun when a homemade balloon flys by, or they see ladybugs, dancing to djumbai jazz...cooking fresh food picked from a garden...my kids!!!!!!!

Tunes I rock out to:

everything everything everything coltrane, monk, les mccan and eddie harris live at montreaux, ma rainy, victoria spivey, flavio guimarães, howlin' wolf, muddy waters, silveirio pessoa, clã nordestino,khrystal, renata rosa, luiz gonzaga, joão do vale, marceloD2,

Travel style:

low budget: by land when possible, by boat when not, by air only when absolutely necessary, by canoe, on horseback, on foot, by truck, by car, by bus,by train, by gypsy wagon, by bike, by motorcyle...

Quote:

"Tudo no mundo começou com um sim." Clarice Lispector
"Everything in the world began with a yes." my translation
"Lua morta, rua torta, tua porta." Cassiano Ricardo
"New moon, windy road, your door." my translation
"Por eso--agua en la piedra--fui mi vida cantando en la dicha y la dureza. Neruda

Sports I do:

Surf

Favorite artist(s):

too many to name

Favorite books:

too many to name

Who I'd like to meet on my travels:

You

I want to make a difference by:

Facilitating communities to organize and generate income through their art, music, popular culture manifestations and documenting their own stories, while documenting this process; and by treating people well, and staying on the red road.

Languages spoken, other than English:

Portuguese, Spanish, French

Why I travel:

To stay alive!!!!

Ideal place to watch the sunrise:

Over the ocean in Pium, Brazil.

Ideal place to watch the sunset:

On the cliffs at 9th street in Del Mar, California, or coming in from surfing and climbing over the dunes overlooking the valley in Pium, Northeastern Brazil.

Before I die I'd like to:

Skydive
Kiss Z.M.
Write 150 books
Publish 150 books
Travel with my kids to 7 places they've always wanted to go (each one).
Have a giant party with all of the people I love.
See my kids become adults.
Publish many many travel articles, which means traveling a lot.

Let's collaborate:

I need a photographer and a videographer for a project involving popular theatre put on by women her in the fishing villages of Rio Grande do Norte. Scheduled performances are Feb. 12, 2009, May 23, 2009 and there will be three more added for the first period of 2009.

Post New Comment

by Chris914 | 2008/04/15

I can only dream of having visited so many places in brazil...

by JennDjesus | 2008/01/10

Yes, I saw bossa nova and loved it as well. P.S. I love the quarters... Oh joy to whimsical. Yes, it is hot here, but we are in the Northeast and so it is dry dry dry dry dry stick crackle dry. When I went to Mossoró I felt I had arrived in El Centro, the town of my birth, in the California desert, on the border with Mexicali where my tia had relatives and would take us to rousing quinciñeros, bodas and the like...to my joy there were always guitars...

by Dana L. Brown | 2007/12/16

Oh how envious I am, don't you love that brasilian climate. I've never been there, but my imagination is swift to indulge... all the warmth and humidity. Lucky for us we have copious pg&e power and heated nightclubs where bart davenport gets all honeycut on the mic. Plus there is plenty of hot tea. Have you seen the film bossa nova? It's simply delightful.
I'm gluing quarters all around the side of my guitar and who the heck knows why. Brasil... Whistles: now that's where it's at.

DUNES, TUNES AND WHERE ARE THE WAVES?

By JennDjesus | Location: Brazil | 03/29/09 | Pics: 0

So now that the truth is out--that I am a RESIDENT of NATAL in the Northeast of Brazil--this, I realize, puts me in a very priveleged position to TRAVEL to a million little beach towns up and down the coast. So here it is, another personal revelation, I am announcing my plan, here and now, to...

3 comments | Send to Friend |

DUNES, TUNES AND WHERE ARE THE WAVES?

By JennDjesus | Location: Brazil | 03/29/09 | Pics: 1

So now that the truth is out--that I am a RESIDENT of NATAL in the Northeast of Brazil--this, I realize, puts me in a very priveleged position to TRAVEL to a million little beach towns up and down the coast. So here it is, another personal revelation, I am announcing my plan, here and now, to...

2 comments | Send to Friend |

WHAT?!!!

By JennDjesus | Location: Brazil | 03/26/09 | Pics: 1

Okay, coming clean with everything. Full disclosure.

I AM NOT TRAVELLING IN BRAZIL. I ACTUALLY LIVE HERE.

Phwew. I feel better.

For one, I have finally admitted it to myself. I am not travelling. I live here. Natal is my home.

My children live here. They go to school here. They have lots...

2 comments | Send to Friend |