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UBC's Department of French\, Hispanic a nd Italian Studies (FHIS) and the Consulate General of Portugal in Vancouve r are collaborating to organize a seminar with the Portuguese-Canadian writ er and playwright Elaine Ávila\, dedicated to Fado\, the popular u rban music of Portugal.
Fado is a musical genre encompassing music and poetry\, widely practiced by diverse communities\, notably in Li sbon. It represents a multicultural synthesis of Afro-Brazilian sung dances \, traditional local genres of song and dance\, musical traditions from rur al areas of the country brought by successive waves of internal migration\, and the cosmopolitan patterns of urban music from the early 19th century. In 2011\, Fado was declared by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Acclaimed Portuguese Canadi
an playwright Elaine Ávila is known for her sold out hit play\, Fado: T
he Saddest Music in the World. A tale of love and ghosts set in the ba
ck alleys and brothels of old Lisbon\, it tells the story of a young woman
confronting her country’s fascist past and her own identity\, interwoven wi
th the heartbreaking national music of Portugal known as Fado\, wh
ich means “fate.”
In her talk\, Elaine will discuss fado< /em> music as emblematically Portuguese\, world heritage\, transversal thro ughout the diaspora\, fascist propaganda and resistance to fascism.
The seminar will be followed by a debate.
This event will be held mostly in English and is open to the public\, bringing together studen ts from Portuguese language courses\, teachers\, academics\, and members of the Lusophone communities in Vancouver.
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Elaine Ávila (she/her)\, of Azorean descent\, was one of the first Fulbright Portugal Scholars at the University of the Azores. E laine writes plays based on untold\, true stories of women\, workers\, Port uguese immigrants and the climate crisis\, incorporating humour and music. Elaine is described as “a wonderful writer\, tremendously gifted\, and inno vative” (Suzan-Lori Parks)\, “fully engaged with the immense political\, cu ltural\, and aesthetic complexity of fado’s history” (Jeff Parker) \; her writing as “gorgeous…a piercing cry to the soul” (Katherine Vaz) and “bold\, intelligent\, forthright\, spirited\, compassionate…inviting\, wid e-ranging” (Caridad Svich). Her plays have been produced in over forty citi es/countries\, including: Panamá City\, Sintra\, Pico\, Costa Rica\, Paris\ , Peru\, London\, New York\, Lisbon\, Australia\, Los Angeles\, Edmonton\, Vancouver\, and Victoria. Best New Play Awards include: Jane Austen\, A ction Figure (Festival de los Cocos\, Panamá City)\, Lieutenant Nu n (Victoria Critics Circle)\, and Café a Brasileira (Disquiet International Literary Program in Lisbon). Her books are available from No Passport Press and Talonbooks. She has taught in universities from Portugal to lutruwita (Tasmania)\, China to Panamá. Currently on the Creative Writi ng Faculty at Douglas College\, she is the founder of the LEAP Playwriting Program at the Arts Club (the largest theatre in Canada) and co-founder of the International Climate Change Theatre Action\, now reaching 75\,000 audi ence members worldwide. She is currently under commission from the Lortel T heatre in New York\, a landmark off Broadway theatre\, to write her new pla y about the first female professor at the University of Minnesota\, who fou nded a remote research station at li:xwa:p/Botanical Beach\, BC enabling he r to be the leading expert on seaweed\, which has astonishing potential to help mitigate the climate crisis.
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The promotion of Portugu ese language and Lusophone studies is one of the central objectives of the MoU between the Camões Institute and the University of British Columbia (UB C)\, signed in 2022 and renewed in 2025.
