Memory activism : Black mothers between poetic and the deconstruction of the justice system

Prof. Dr. Tereza Ventura

Associate Professor Institute of Social Science Rio de Janeiro State University in Brazil.

This talk explores memory activism led by Black mothers in Rio de Janeiro, whose struggles for justice after the police killings of their children challenge dominant legal and state frameworks. Through murals, performances, and public demonstrations, these women transform mourning into resistance, confronting systemic racial violence. Their poetic and political actions dismantle official narratives of justice and memory, exposing the complicity between the state and necropolitical practices in neoliberal societies.