Manaus, Brazil

Vívian Oliveira, 44, singer

What did you have for breakfast today?

I had bread and coffee.

What do you see when you look out of the window?

I see our plants. I see our pineapple growing, our neighborhood, our cats in the yard. We have nine cats. Our babies. We are ten people and nine cats. 

What is your most important object?

(A loud noise is heard in the background) ... Sorry, that is the voice of the fruit seller who is moving through our district. And the dogs that sing along with him.

My most important objects are my phone, the laptop and the internet. Because of these three things we are still able to show our work. People want you to feel better in these times. We help them with that. 

What do you miss most?

I miss having people in our house. I miss the events, the music in our yard, the happy people.

On February 25, Brazil reported the first case of coronavirus. At the same time, the Brazilian president dismissed the pandemic as a "fantasy", compared it to a harmless flu and predicted that the country would get rid of this "flu" quickly. But the opposite happened: To date, over 130,000 infections and more than 55,000 deaths have been reported. Brazil is the second highest number of people who tested positive after the United States.

The virus is strikingly bad in the Amazon regions. Many Indigenous people are particularly at risk for infectious diseases because their immune systems are hardly prepared for them. The death rate among indigenous communities is alarmingly high: nine percent of those infected die from the disease.

The singer Vívian Oliveira lives in Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian Amazon. Here she talks about everyday life in the city and in her house, where she has been living with nine other artists for a year.

"At the moment I can hardly focus on my art. I don't compose anything, instead I use the time to take care of our plants or to read. I just started "1984" by George Orwell. "Animal Farm" – "A Revolução dos Bichos" in Portuguese – I've already finished. It's so real! We can see how some things are happening in our world as well, how some animals gain advantage at the expense of others, how they exploit and lie. This is what we see with our government today or with Donald Trump in the United States.

Our president doesn't help the people. That's why we see more and more people dying from COVID-19. Indigenous people are particularly affected. They often live far away from Manaus, and if they are sick they have to come here for treatment. But it can take two to three days from their villages to the city because they have to travel by boat.

There is no curfew in Manaus. Just the recommendation to keep your distance and stay at home. But people don't obey it, every time I go out I see a lot of people in the streets. Of course, most of them support our President Jair Bolsonaro, they voted for him because they were disappointed with Lula da Silva and his party after it became clear that he was involved in corruption, and when Bolsonaro says it is not important to stay at home, then people simply won't do it. Because most of them believe him. That's why so many people are dying now.

The infections are still increasing. Nevertheless, the government has decided to reopen the shops. We in the "Vila Vagalume" are afraid of opening too early. We have decided not to open our house yet. It's just too dangerous for us, for our friends, for our customers.

The Vila "Vagalume" is the house where I and nine other artists moved to a year ago. We are singers, an actress and painter, a percussionist, a guitarist. We thought it was a good idea to live our art. Our goal is to change people's attitudes towards us artists. The time in isolation shows just how important art is: people watch films, listen to music, read books to distract themselves.

It is difficult for artists in Brazil, and especially difficult in Manaus. Most people here don't recognize art as a real job. They think we just don't want to work. And we are far away from the other big cities, from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo in the south of the country. This geographical isolation of Manaus only makes it more difficult for us.

The villa consists of two houses, in between we have a large courtyard. Events usually take place there. Our plants also grow there: pineapple, tomatoes, basil, cabbage, a few plants for tea. We sell some of them, the others we use at home. When we moved here we set up a restaurant, we sell drinks, organize exhibitions, theater plays and concerts. We offer singing classes, stretching and yoga classes and we have the soil in our garden with the plants.

Since I was a child I know that I am a musician. But my parents didn't see any perspective in it. Until I was forty, I worked in the Manaus industrial zone. But at the age of forty, in 2016 that was, I decided to quit. Since then I've been a singer in the band "Grammophone" and composer. I am a black woman and an indigenous woman. With my music I hope to help my people. I use my voice to convey a message to show what the situation of my people is like. This is art for me: a way to give minorities a voice, to understand why we suffer. My music is a political message for equality and non-violence.

Music is the most important thing in my life. Today I live on it and I never regretted this decision. I am happy because I live in this house today and can simply live my art. That is my contribution to society.

Today, during the isolation, we rely on the internet to continue showing our art. It became vital for us to survive: we are now showing events online that we used to perform live in the house. We have a weekly calendar for stretching and yoga classes and concerts.

Still, we have no idea how to survive. We are all constantly thinking of ways to make money and pay our bills. This month our money is only enough to buy food and pay for the Internet. We cannot pay other bills because we cannot open the villa.

That's why I can't compose anything at the moment. I'm just trying to get through this time. I am happy and at the same time I am worried. I don't know what will happen to this house, to us, to this pandemic. I heard on the news that normal life will not return until next year. We're only halfway through this year – we have to be creative to survive.

Many of the people who come to the villa regularly support us today, they send us money or food. Our means are enough to buy food and pay for the internet so that we can continue. It is no longer enough for the rent, we have to talk to the landlord and find a solution.

In isolation, I and my roommates had to learn to understand each other. We talk to each other more and I think our friendship has grown. Because we have to constantly think about how we can continue to live in this house in the future – even if we can't really work right now.

We are currently preparing a show with theater and music that we can show online at the end of June. It will contain a theater intervention and traditional Brazilian music. It helps our mental health to be creative in these times. We want to help people during isolation. And convey the message to them: everything will be fine."