Feminist Lisbon Grafitti - Eliminating Violence Against Women

"Not shut!"

Pretty good grafitti stencils and posters for the International Day of Eliminating Violence Against Women (UN declaration for November 25). This stenciling and postering was an organized effort that appeared overnight in our neighborhood. We didn't see who did it. We did see similar stencils in some other neighborhoods, but the concentration here was impressive.

Look out, she's got a guitar!

These posters were on the front wall of a ruin right near our tram stop in Graca neighborhood. There's a community center devoted to art and creativity quite close by, and perhaps the posters came from there? I'm guessing - no idea actually.

I exist because I resist

I imagine that I see a wish for community action, a wistfulness and longing, besides the more conventional international protest iconography. A sort of underlying sadness. Does it relate to fado, the melancholy Portuguese musical style? I'd like to see and understand a little more about this.

We're going to dismantle patriarchy and capitalism (sorry for the bother)

A quote from Adrienne Rich was posted right alongside some poems in Portuguese. English is quite commonly used and understood here in Lisbon. Very useful language. I'm making it bigger because it's a bit hard to read in this small format. The wish for community so clear in this statement seems to fit well with the emotional tone of the other postings.

Quote from Adrienne Rich

Google didn't do too well with this

If one is touched, we all respond!

Gender is violence

Not only on what we could call the protest wall... also on utility posts and especially on the asphalt of street corners, where one walks to cross the street. You can't avoid seeing these stencils!

Well, I don't get the words, but I like the graphic.
Something about stamping on my heart?

If one is touched, we all respond

I want to be sad without guilt...Love speaks

Feminism is here to stay

"I disagree without agreement..." "Woman's scope"

I expect these poems are more subtle than Google can handle. At a certain point the translator bot fails to perform. The right-hand poem seems to start "Away with what I say, what I dream, what I think," but I can't get it any farther. The left-hand poem doesn't reveal itself in Google-ese.

We saw facebook postings about marches against violence toward women in Spain and Italy, otherwise perhaps the day passed without being marked very publicly. A very nice photo noted by my fb friend Francesco di Majo - a non-march that happened somewhere, perhaps in Italy. The image credit is missing. It might have been in Paris, where marches have been banned for the time being I believe. Anyway, it's touching, I think. A silent witnessing.

The stencils in Lisbon are another silent witnessing of a sad fact of life - violence - and a desire to overcome it, to make a better world. 

by Nancy