Linn Da Quebrada | Batekoo | Resis’dance

Focused on communities and the environments they thrive in, Boiler Room Festival showcases different underground scenes in a multi-event programme featuring emerging artists from contemporary jazz, rap, bass and club.

For one of festival’s satellite events, Boiler Room and Somerset House Studios invite transgender female rapper, musician and performance artist Linn Da Quebrada from Sao Paulo. Linn performs alongside fellow Sao Paulo collective Batekoo and the London collective and Somerset House Studios Associate Artists Resis’dance.

As part of the evening's programme there will also be film screening of Bixa Travesty in which Linn espouses her convictions about feminism and her transsexuality.

FILM

Bixa Travesty (Tranny Fag) is a feature-length documentary picturing a Brazilian transsexual singer called Linn da Quebrada. Coming from a very poor region of São Paulo, she faces many prejudices, also for being black. Her funk music sounds like a "gun" against machismo. With a strong and daring presence on stage, she constantly seeks to discuss and fight paradigms and stereotypes.

In her songs, speeches and daily life, Linn introduces us to her tough life. The “transvestyte” (as she likes to spell it) is challenged in the streets. Facing prejudice, Linn moves away from the victim role and grabs her weapons. As she sings, “My black skin is my cloak of courage” and “she doesn’t want penis, she wants peace”. She is a super warrior in Brazil where – a country with one of the highest rates of violence against transsexuals in the world.

BIOGRAPHIES

Batekoo was born in Salvador (Bahia, Brazil) in 2014 as a party made by black promoters for the black marginalized community. Since its creation, Batekoo has the goal to empower urban youth all over Brazil, focusing on generating a safe space for the black LGBTQ+ community locally and internationally.

In a country where extreme right-wing/conservative politics along with homophobia & hate crimes are on the rise (every 19 hours, a member of the country’s queer community is murdered), Batekoo has become a counter-cultural movement. They have monthly events across Brazil taking over disused warehouses and carparks playing the diaspora of afro-centric music (ranging from Baile Funk to Dancehall, Afrobeats and Hip Hop).

Their ticket price for their events are affordable prioritise transgender people by giving them free access. Their line-ups are composed exclusively of black & LGBTQ+ artists.

Their raw & raucous energy has taken them beyond their own parties: from festivals such as AFROPUNK, to sharing stages with names such as Azealia Banks, Major Lazer, as well as having their own float in São Paulo City’s official Carnival street parade -which drew over 20,000 people in 2019.

Linn Da Quebrada is a Brazilian actress, singer and songwriter. She is also an activist for LGBTQ+ civil rights and campaigns against racism and violence against people of colour. Linn is among the most relevant artists of the current Brazilian LGBTQ+ music scene. She rose to recognition by using the clash of cultures, playing on taboos and deconstructing stereotypes with her very particular sarcastic style.

If a new dawn was on the horizon with Enviadescer (2016), Linn da Quebrada shined through in 2017 with the debut album Pajubá, produced with the financial support of crowdfunding. Since then, she has played all around Brazil with the album and performed five international tours amidst the release of Bixa Travesty, an award-winning documentary directed by Kiko Goifman and Claudia Priscila, starring and co-scripted by Linn herself.

Resis’dance are a women and non-binary events collective challenging gender norms in the music scene and creating safe spaces on the dancefloor. They organise events that fundraise for organisations like Black Lives Matter UK, Sisters Uncut, Latin American Women’s Aid, Joint Enterprise Not Guilty by Association, and many more radical organisations and campaigns whilst building political affinity on the dance floor.

Although their main aim is to fundraise for radical organisations, they also aim to teach, support and prioritise the voices of women of colour and working class women at all their events. They do this by making sure their events are accessible in prices, hosting DJ workshops, Safer Spaces workshops and discussions, and making sure most of their members, staff and line-ups are comprised of POC, women, non-binary people.