Lua Preta

TRANSCRIPT

MENTALCUT
Okay, so I will start. Okay, I will start. My name is Mentalcut. I was born and raised in Poland. I'm a DJ and music producer. I met Luzia nine years ago or ten years ago. We have been making music together for the last, oh my god, seven years. Yeah, since 2016. Yeah, and it was a great journey so far, I guess. 

LUZIA
Okay, so me. My name is Luzia Viegas D'Abreu Avelino. I was born also here in Poland and I'm an MC in our duo Lua Preta.

MENTALCUT
Lua Preta means Black Moon. 

LUZIA
Yes, the Black Moon. 

MENTALCUT
Black Moon is like a thing in nature. It happens very rarely in nature. Just like it is very rare to meet a black girl in Eastern Europe. That's the connection between the name and the reality.

LUZIA
My parents wind up here in Poland for studies. My father was studying studying law and my mother microbiology. 

MENTALCUT
International students in the '80s in Poland were...

LUZIA
They were more privileged. You have to remember, my parents came to Poland to studies because there was one of those 10 people that had very high degree in the Angola that could open the doors to study abroad in the '80s. But it was a hard time for the students abroad because here in Poland it was a big type of the racism. For me, I have my friends in school, in the kindergarten also. I could never feel that I could have some situations in the racism and even in the school. Nothing of this. 

But I was too young and to understand it and to feel it, but for sure the racism was there and this has some situations in my family also. 

I remember one day that we were at some party and I came back to home earlier with my mother and my father came back some two hours later without some teeth. Yes, he had some broken his jacket, broken his t-shirt. He always wanted to have some nice shoes. He came back only with some socks. Because, yes, he was speaking with some friends and someone has attacked him there, for no reason. And he was fighting alone with some three white persons. They just have a problem for him. They doesn't tell him why, they just started to fight him. 

But when I was five years, my parents took me back to Angola. I remember for the first time when there was not any white people, there was only black people, and they was like, "Who are you? Why are you speaking so strange? Do you understand me?" They were speaking to me like some stranger like, not from another country, but another planet. I was feeling a little bit strange, but I didn't know why because “You are looking like me. You are a black girl. I'm a black girl. Why are you asking me those strange questions?” And why are you asking why I'm speaking different? I don't know. That's me. 

MENTALCUT
You didn't have any Angolan friends. All your friends were Polish. 

LUZIA 
I was used very much to Polish language and I think for some time I was very miserable because I like it to play in the snow, I like it to ski. I like it to even eat some one kind of the ice cream that I loved. But for some time I was feeling lonely and I didn't know... want to go out from home.

My mother was like, "Go, you have to speak here, to know this. Have to know this place. This is your time here. Just play... play...  play."  But those years were strange. I didn't like those years. 

MENTALCUT
Your mother was like, "Just go out and hang out with those people you meet on the streets." But in Poland, it's much different.  You just don't go out and hang out with people you meet on the streets.

LUZIA
It was like, “But I don't know them, mother. My friends are there in Poland. I know their names and where they are living. Yeah, not going just to hang out with these strange kids.”

LUZIA
I had this little nickname. It was "Polakina...."

MENTALCUT
Yeah, you were called "Polakina preta?”

LUZIA
"Polakina." Yes, it's a Polish girl. And I was like, "Okay, maybe I'm from Poland, but I don't know if I'm Poland. I don't feel like I'm Poland from my heart." But yes, this was my nickname. And most quite, in the few months, I remember that everyone knew my nickname, even if it doesn't know me. But that's not my name. I'm not one of them. I'm not one of these nicknames. I'm just Luzia. But, of course, you are a child, you want to have some more friends. So I was like “Okay, let's do this.” In the end, I finally feel this. All of my friends are also black. I know what they are speaking to me and they are with me. We are quite the same. 

When I was 15, I came back to Poland to finish high school first and then to finish studies. I don't remember if my parents were informing me that we are leaving in Angola.

MENTALCUT
 Of course, they didn't tell you. 

LUZIA
I don't remember that they told me that they are leaving the country. They were just like, "Surprise !" They were like, "Yeah, it's time. You have to go back to Poland." I was just like, "Why? Now I have to go back to Poland. Why?" I don't remember crying, but I remember that I was fighting sports, that was maybe type of crying.

So then I was a teenager to start high school. It was strange and difficult, but yes, from the few years, I always was the one that, you know, they always blame me for something that I didn't do. Like, I don't know, stealing – that it was me. But if something was broken and I was a little bit near,  the first idea was that I am doing this. Yes, stealing. 

MENTALCUT
I think that's why they called you a troubled kid, because you were standing for yourself, right? 

LUZIA
They were talking to me a troubled kid, but maybe for this, that when I finally captured that, they're doing everything for me to maybe sometime misbehave. But in the end, I was fighting for myself. “Maybe I'm for another country, but it doesn't mean that I have to do something bad for you. I am here for you. I want to know you. I have to have some fun. If I can show you some kind of music, or even show you some kind of the food in my home.” 

And then when I invite them to my home, they have seen my house. They have seen my culture. Then, finally, those strange situations was starting not involving me. They was like, “No, Luzia is gold. Luzia is our girl.” Finally! But it really took some time. They really had to know me. They were not a problem to stay with us, to eat some food together. And this was the point when this has finally stopped in some way.

MENTALCUT
Yeah they had to get to know you better to get rid of stereotypes. 

LUZIA
Correct.

And the plan was to come back to Angola, but life have another plans for you. And now I'm living is for something about 20 years straight in Poland.

I don't remember the time when my parents will sit with us and they never told me what is the racism in Poland, and how people can look at you, but more like you have to feel yourself. There was like more like you have to figure out on your own. That here in Poland is a better life for you. Have more opportunities than in Angola or if you even finish a high school or studies in here in Poland, you'll be on the very good place with the high salary work. But they were more like working on you on the meaning that you are always Lucia Avelino. And this is something more important than what they are speaking or looking at you, because anyone can look at you, but if you are not scared, you'll be good. This was more like them speaking to us how to handle this all of the situation. 

You have to remember always that I have spent here something about another five or six years. I was quite like in home. The staring at me – was I was just like used to this. It was funny for me that when I was buying something in store the woman was like shocked that, “Wow! You can speak in Polish! This is very good Polish.” And I was like, “Oh, thank you. Thank you You appreciate me.”

MENTALCUT
But I think because you were Miss Poland. 

LUZIA
Aha! Aha! 

MENTALCUT
She was like Miss Exotica or something. Miss Exotica of Poland. Like the most exotic girl. It was after college. 

LUZIA
It was after college. After I graduated. I don't know how I find myself there, but it was like I was with some girls from....

MENTALCUT
International beauty contest.

LUZIA
It was international beauty contest and I have won the Miss Exotica Photo.  I think, but it's like, “Okay! let's start this!” And it was here in Poland, in Warsaw, from the year 2012. Yes, this was 2012. And then I started to work for this company which I win this contest. And this was perfect for me, because like it was TV also, but I was there more to speak something more about the idea of the contest that we are here to show you something more that maybe we are from another country than Poland but we live here. We speak Polish. We have our friends. And this was the start of this. And it was some television, some magazines....

MENTALCUT
Present weather forecast.

LUZIA
Sometimes the television wanted to me to present a weather forecast, so to show them that are some black girls that speak perfect in Polish. It was after communism. It was much better. It was different. Because, I think, that people were more used to it to the people of color... or just of the black people. 

MENTALCUT
Yeah, I think that in the 90s Poland was very open to America. Because we felt like United States saved us from the Russian occupation and stuff like that. So most people were very open to diversity. But when you want this beauty contest, yeah, you could show the diversity of Polish society.

LUZIA
I think that this was to show them that. It doesn't have to be afraid of us. 

MENTALCUT
We met a few years later when you were working for this beauty contest company.

LUZIA
That's right. 

MENTALCUT
And like two years later we started making music together. 

LUZIA
Yes, and for real, from the moment, I was like, "Yes, we're a couple. This is nice. This is nice couple. We like the music." I remember that when we were a couple, officially, my post on the Facebook was: "Blame music for this." And then that we would start to do music together. It was just like: “Blame music for this.” 

MENTALCUT
So music was the reason we got together. 

LUZIA
That's right. Yes, music was the reason that we got together. 

MENTALCUT
I could say something about it. For me, even when I was a little kid, music was always like a safe haven for me. Like a place where I could get away from all the struggles of everyday life. And when I met Luzia, I felt that it was really similar for her. But what's more, Luzia also created her own identity when we started making music together. It was like a combination of two identities -- Angolan and Polish. And I think that is what she meant when she said that we should blame music for bringing us together.

LUZIA
Yes, I think that. The reason why I have this, yes, "blame music for this," because when I met Jakub, he knew the same style that I already knew from Angola. I could speak about Angolan music or some influence of the Angola under another music. He really knew about what I'm speaking about. He was the first person in my life who really could respond me back from this music, even just showing me some example of some music. It was like, "Wow, you really knew this? I don't know. This is crazy. This is crazy. This is crazy." Yes, so this is like blame music for this. 

MENTALCUT
But you were not a vocalist? 

LUZIA
I then was not a vocalist. I was not. My mother earlier was speaking to me, "You have to start to sing." And I was like, "I will not start to singing. Never! No way! I will not do this. Never!" 

MENTALCUT
And you didn't expect what happened?

LUZIA
Yes, and I really didn't expect this. We were just couple. We were just couple, just who likes music a lot. 

When we met, Jakub was making music from some 15 or 18 years already.

MENTALCUT
And I asked to Luzia to record short vocal phrases for my DJ sets. I didn't plan to make real music, like real songs then. But it evolved, I guess, over time.

LUZIA
Because one day he just asked me, “Lucia, I need some woman voice. Can you, I don't know, shout something? Or can you say 'eh!' just 'eh!.” So okay, shout no problem. And then it started to evolve to doing more. But I was always just like, “I don't know, singing. This is not for me. I can dance, I can dance you all night. But me singing? Never!”

MENTALCUT
I was always fascinated by electronic music from different parts of the world, but my background is European electronic music, maybe hip-hop. So when we met, and when we started making music together, it was about connecting my background and your background. And your background was Angolan music -- like kuduru music. So most of our stuff is about me mixing African electronic music and European electronic music.

LUZIA
African... a little bit of Brazilian. Yes.

MENTALCUT
And this perspective of Luzia's, her perspective of black girl in Poland is such an unusual thing. So much different than anything else in the music industry. And that's why we didn't ever want to make music like somebody else.

LUZIA
That's right.

MENTALCUT
The concept of our EP called "Polekinia Preta" was to present the perspective of black woman growing up and living in Eastern Europe. I think it was the first one of such kind of Polish music history. 

One of the songs is called "Nuemia". When we invited Lucia's mother to sing in this track, it was like connecting two different worlds. Because it was my beats, my European electronic music, and her vocals coming from São Tomé Princípe. So I think that's the perfect example of connecting dots from African world and from Poland. 

LUZIA
What I wanted to say more is like, she is singing this song in Forró. 

MENTALCUT
This language is from São Tomé Princípe, an island which was colonized by Portuguese, and they banned this Forró language. And her mother is singing in this language. Her mother was born in São Tomé Princípe, her father in Angola, but they both grew up in Angola.

LUZIA
Correct, correct.

MENTALCUT
So the story she sings in this language is kind of similar to your story in Poland. Yeah, you're the girl, and everyone is talking bad about you. But you don't care about this. 

LUZIA
Yeah, and she is singing that there is a girl, that yes, the people are telling bad words about her, spreading a word about her but she's doing what she can. The words that what she is telling there in this song there, you hear it like a little bit like a spell. I don't know how, but then when we mixed it together, it was like, “My god! This is Europe, but not Europe.” You think that you maybe know this rhythm, and the music, what she's speaking to you, you don't know. But this is all the time is connecting together perfectly.

What I can say is that maybe Poland is my home. Angola also is my home. But the real home, what I hear feel inside, is this music – whether I can give it to you, or even make it the music for you. This is my most real home-home. So I think that music is the place where I feel calm, and I can focus on something, and can feel safe – when, in my heart, I don't feel Polish, and I don't feel Angolan. 

MENTALCUT
Yeah, perfect.