Quatro Quadras Soltas invited the senior community of the Bairro Alto neighborhood to co-create socially engaged music. Over the course of nine months, weekly music mediation workshops were held at two day centers: Santa Catarina and São Boaventura. 

In an area marked by the abrupt processes of gentrification that have profoundly altered the city’s identity, music emerges as a vehicle for the civic and artistic empowerment of the local community - a portrait of the neighborhood and its profound transformations, in the voice and soul of those who inhabit it. 

Starting with a mapping of the community’s musical repertoire and their memories of the neighborhood, various musical training exercises were developed. The process included writing and performing verses about the daily lives of the elderly, developing group singing techniques, exploring improvisation methods such as soundpainting, and gaining hands-on experience with professional stage performance.

The project concluded with a presentation in the small auditorium at the Centro Cultural de Belém - a performance in which the community shared their manifesto through original songs and video testimonials about the difficulties they face and the dreams yet to come. The voices of the protagonists, the city’s residents, resonated throughout the room in a tribute to Bairro Alto, an ode to those who still resist.