2024 ACE Artist in Residence

Mestre Jamaika was recently announced as the 2024 recipient of the ACE Artist in Residence. This program provides an artist the opportunity to reflect, relax, and create in the inspiring mountains of Alta, Utah. Capoeira is an art form that was developed and cultivated outside in nature and Mestre Jamaika will use his time at Alta reflecting on that and exploring capoeira movement inspired by the natural surroundings.

He will also use this time to reflect on our water, with the Wasatch mountains being the source. Our water crisis in Utah is one he cares deeply about since he’s lived here for 25 years. His community in Brazil is experiencing a water crisis that echoes Utah’s in some ways. His parents were born in “quilombos” (communities originating from settlements of Afro-Brazilians who were enslaved) where capoeira was formed. Mestre Jamaika’s grandparents were farmers, and as a young child he often walked with his grandma to get water from the river. Over the years, their land has been stolen and exploited by a billion-dollar industry that uses destructive monoculture farming practices, polluting and exhausting their essential water sources. Mestre Jamaika wants to highlight both of these crises and build awareness through his work, and his exploration of movement in nature at Alta can help him with that goal.