2/9/2014 The Madison Times

http://legacy.themadisontimes.com/news_details.php?news_id=1855# 1/3

Search... GO Place an Ad | Login | Register | Help | RSS | Contact Us | Home

CLASSIFIED LOCAL NEWS ENTERTAINMENT MIDDLESPREAD RELIGION

HEALTH MATTERS NATIONAL NEWS SPORTS OP-ED BOOK REVIEW

LOCAL POLITICS INTERNATIONAL NEWS WHAT'S UP Q&A COLUMNIST

LIFE LESSONS WITH DR. ALEX

GEE

MULTIMEDIA BLOGROLL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR BIZ SECTION

GALLERY MILWAUKEE COURIER

Print E-mail More

Panmela Castro: Brazilian artist brightens up Willy Streetby A. David Dahmer

March 21, 2012

(l-r) Melissa Morales and Eugenia Podesta of Vital Voices Global Partnership, Panmela Castro, Mother Fool's owner, Stephanie Rearick,

and Alberto Vargas, Associate Director of the Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Program (LACIS) at UW-Madison.

Panmela Castro's finished mural at Mother Fool's Coffeehouse

If you are going down Williamson Street on Madison's near east side any time soon, you're are going to see an amazing mural done by one of the most

2/9/2014 The Madison Times

http://legacy.themadisontimes.com/news_details.php?news_id=1855# 2/3

important figures in the Brazilian graffiti movement.

Panmela Castro, winner of the Vital Voices' "Leadership in Public Life Award" in 2010 and world renowned Brazilian grafiteira, was in town March 13

to paint a beautiful mural on Mother Fool's outside wall.

“This was my first trip to Madison and I really love the city and the lakes,” Castro tells The Madison Times. “I like the people and how they came up

and talked to you. They are very friendly.”

Castro was able to paint the mural in about three hours and then stuck around to mingle with the many onlookers who amassed on Willy Street. Vital

Voices Global Partnership, an international NGO based in Washington, D.C., partnered with Latin American, Caribbean, and Iberian Program (LACIS)

to bring Castro to Madison for this unique event.

Castro is a young multimedia artist from Brazil who uses graffiti and street art to promote social change and awareness. She has received numerous

awards and recognitions, including the Hutúz Award, the most important Hip Hop award in Latin America. In March 2012, she was honored at the

DVF Awards, supported by the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation to honor extraordinary women, in New York City.

“I've been doing the graffiti for seven years but I used to draw and paint paintings ever since I was a child,” Castro tells The Madison Times. “Art is

something that I've always loved and enjoyed.”

Castro realizes her vision with the human rights organization Comcausa and Grafiteiras Pela Lei Maria da Penha, a project that links graffiti and urban

culture to combating violence against women. Through this project, Comcausa carried out a campaign to educate disadvantaged women about the

recently passed Maria da Penha Law on Domestic and Family Violence against Women, a law named after a woman who was so severely beaten by her

husband that she was paralyzed for life.

“I have an organization in Brazil that I am the founder and president of called 'Rede Nami,'” Castro says of her urban art feminist network that promotes

women's rights through culture and the arts. “We used the graffiti in our murals and in our workshops to promote women's rights.”

Castro ventured into the slums of Rio de Janeiro to create murals that promote awareness about the existence of the Maria da Penha Law and to educate

women about their rights under the new legislation. “In this project we had graffiti workshops for young girls in the favelas (shanty towns) about the

Maria de Penha Law and against domestic violence,” Castro says.

In May 1983, biopharmaceutist Maria da Penha Fernandes was fast asleep when her husband shot her, leaving her a paraplegic for life. Two weeks after

her return from the hospital, he tried to electrocute her. The case da Penha filed languished in court for two decades, while her husband remained free.

Years later, in a landmark ruling, the Court of Human Rights criticized the Brazilian government for not taking effective measures to prosecute and

convict perpetrators of domestic violence. In response to this, the Brazilian government in 2006 enacted a law under the symbolic name “Maria da

Penha Law on Domestic and Family Violence.”

“The Maria de Penha Law is a relatively new law — 2006 — and it's our law against domestic violence,” Castro says. “In the past, we never had a

specific law against domestic violence. If a man did something to his wife or to his daughter, nothing would happen. But thanks to this, we have a law

that protects women in Brazil. And we need to promote it so women know their rights and men know that they will get in trouble if they do this.”

Castro uses her art to extend a lifeline to victims or witnesses who were previously too afraid to speak up but are now informed of their rights, unable to

ignore or avoid the messages that her murals portray about the importance of Maria da Penha and the law that has been named for her. Maria da Penha

herself has been featured in some of Castro's work.

“When I construct a mural and I see that other women like it and that it is important to them, this is a feeling that inspires me and keeps me going,”

Castro says.

Castro co-founded Artefeito, an organization that carries out social projects and uses art as an instrument of cultural transformation. Castro travels

internationally to share her vision through lectures, exhibits, and workshops hosted by the United Nations, the OSA Art Forum, the German Rosa

Luxemburg Foundation, the La Familia Ayara and the Caramundo organization. She believes that she can make the world a better place by using graffiti

to portray messages of positive social change.

“As an artist, I want to continue to go around the world making graffiti and to talk about my ideas and to talk about the ideas of different cultures,”

Castro says.

CLASSIFIED LOCAL NEWS ENTERTAINMENT MIDDLESPREAD RELIGION

HEALTH MATTERS NATIONAL NEWS SPORTS OP-ED BOOK REVIEW

LOCAL POLITICS INTERNATIONAL NEWS WHAT'S UP Q&A COLUMNIST

2/9/2014 The Madison Times

http://legacy.themadisontimes.com/news_details.php?news_id=1855# 3/3

LIFE LESSONS WITH DR. ALEX GEE MULTIMEDIA BLOGROLL LETTERS TO THE EDITOR BIZ SECTION

GALLERY MILWAUKEE COURIER

Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | The Madison Times, 313 W. Beltline Hwy, Suite 120, Madison, WI 53713 | Copyright 2009 | Designed by The Kente, LLC