Jarid Arraes

From the end of the 1960s, he had also produced more than 200 works of cordel literature.

With international recognition, he was also one of the founders of the Brazilian Academy of Cordel Literature in Rio de Janeiro.

He founded the Centro de Cultura Mestre Noza and the Associação dos Artesãos do Padre Cícero, with the objective of coalescing the artists of Juazeiro do Norte for the organizing and valorizing the activity of the city's artisans.

Arraes' father, Hamurabi Batista, is a popular poet, cordel writer, woodcutter and sculptor.

With a vast collection of more than 250 packets, he brings in his works a strong commitment to history and political struggle involving historical personalities and various racial issues.

He works with the Centro de Cultura Mestre Noza and the Associação dos Artesãos do Padre Cícero, where he is the director of the latter.

Jarid grew up with depictions of traditional Northeastern culture going to the Centro de Cultura Popular Mestre Noza.

Along with cordel literature, her influences also include authors such as Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Paulo Leminski, Manuel Bandeira and Ferreira Gullar.

As she was growing up, however, it became clear to her that access to works of literature could be precarious, and thus this motivated her to research and learn about women that made history not just as authors and poets, but from a wide range of fields, principally Black women, whom she realized were not highlighted and covered in schools and the media.

Jarid Arraes (born 12 February 1991, Juazeiro do Norte) is a Brazilian poet and writer.

She is the writer of such books as As Lendas de Dandara, Heroínas Negras Brasileiras em 15 cordéis, Um buraco com meu nome, and Redemoinho em dia quente.

Arraes lives in São Paulo, where she created the Women's Writing Club (Portuguese: Clube da Escrita Para Mulheres). To date, she has more than 70 publications in the cordel literature style, including the biographical collection Heroínas Negras na História do Brasil.

Arraes was born in 1991 in Juazeiro do Norte, Ceará.

During her childhood, Arraes grew up with a strong connection to literature, being most acutely influenced by family.

She is a descendent of Mestre Noza, considered one of the city's greatest artists and a pioneer in cordel literature.

Her grandfather, Abraão Batista, was a poet, woodcutter, sculptor, ceramist, engraver, and teacher.

In 2011, at the age of 20, Arraes began to publish her works on the blog Mulher Dialética.

Soon she began to collaborate with blogs like Blogueiras feministas and Blogueiras Negras.

Arraes lived in Juazeiro do Norte until 2014, and in that year participated in collectives around the region such as Pretas Simoa (Grupo de Mulheres Negras do Cariri) and FEMICA (Feministas do Cariri), which she helped establish.

In 2014, she moved to São Paulo, where she came to be part of the NGO Casa de Lua until it closed.

In 2015, she created the free project Clube da Escrita Para Mulheres, creating periodic meetings with the objective of encouraging women who write or who want to start writing.

In July 2015, Arraes published As Lendas de Dandara, her first prose book that in one edition had illustrations by Aline Valek.

Two years later, she became a columnist for Revista Fórum, where she wrote the blog Questão de Gênero until February 2016.

At Revista Fórum, she also worked as a journalist and wrote materials about issues related to human rights, such as feminism, anti-racism movements, LGBT rights, among others.

In less than a year, the book was completely sold out and it was republished in December 2016 by Editora de Cultura.

The book was born out of the necessity to reclaim the story of Dandara dos Palmares, known as the wife of Zumbi dos Palmares, and had the potential to mix legend and fantasy with the history of the quilombola struggle against slavery in Brazil.

She has also made kids books in the cordel style, such as "A menina que não queria ser princesa", "A bailarina gorda", and "Os cachinhos encantados da princesa".

In June of that year, Arraes launched the cordel collection and book Heroínas Negras Brasileiras em 15 cordéis with Pólen Livros, with biographies written in cordel style and features prominent Black Brazilian women such as Antonieta de Barros, Aqualtune, Carolina Maria De Jesus, Dandara dos Palmares, Esperança Garcia, Eva Maria do Bonsucesso, Laudelina de Campos Melo, Luísa Mahin, Maria Filipa de Oliveira, Maria Firmina dos Reis, Mariana Crioula, Na Agontimé, Tereza de Benguela, Tia Ciata, and Zacimba Gaba.

The book is in its third edition being published by Companhia das Letras.

She hosted several book launch events in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

The book posted record sales and completely sold out copies.

Arraes also published an anthology of poems called O golpe de 2016. The work, done in 19 cordel illustrations, recounted the impeachment of then-president Dilma Rousseff.

A poet engaged with the Sociedade dos Poetas Malditos, she used the artistic field to make tools for creating social consciousness.

In 2017, the club became a larger collective of members and writers.

In July 2018, she launched her first book of poems, Um buraco com meu nome, published by Ferina, with which she became a curator.

She also drew the illustrations in the book.

The book was first presented at the Festa Literária Internacional de Paraty (FLIP) that year.

The label Ferina, part of Pólen, was launched in 2018 with the purpose of publishing Brazilian women authors and has been noted for their diverse range of authors, including Black, Indigenous, and Transexual authors.

These include, Jaqueline Jesus, Márcia Wayna Kambeba, Cidinha da Silva, and Heloísa Teixeira.

In October 2018, Arraes' book As Lendas de Dandara was translated into French and released in France by publisher Anacaona under the title Dandara et les esclaves libre.