Citizenship rhymes with creativity, boldness and irreverence. It also rhymes with painted faces, people and presentations on the street. This is the definition of the Loucas por Cidadania Project created by the Loucas da Pedra Lilás theatre group, Recife (PE). Street theatre, with presentations to hundreds of people, was the channel already used by the group to defend women’s rights. This method was also applied to this project to disclose that living without violence is a woman’s right. Without women’s rights, the rights are not human.

If on one hand art and culture were the project’s background, the multiplicity of trajectories brought even more color to the initiative. Domestic workers, teachers, sex workers, young students and feminists all participated in the course that formed the new group members.

It is this cultural soup, multifaceted and full of creativity, that rushed to the streets to inform the population about care services for women, about the importance of their rights and most importantly, to say No to violence through art. “With the project’s results we would like women to become irreverent and learn to be bold, have arguments and maintain eye contact”, explains Cristina, the coordinator.

And off they went onto the streets on November 25th, International Day of Non-Violence Against Women. With painted faces and heaps of pride, they prepared socio-political interventions in the centre of Recife. They were also in the mood to hit the streets once again, on December 10th, when the International Human Rights Day is celebrated.

Whoever thinks they have only influenced the population is wrong: their own lives were transformed. Maria (fictitious name) participated in the group without her father’s support whom emphatically prohibited her inclusion in this activity. Following her first presentation she received a pleasant surprise. “Her father wrote her a letter demonstrating comprehension and pride in her actions on the street. This resulted in tears of joy”, emphasizes Cristina.