“EM CADA ENCRUZILHADA UM ALGUIDAR” PARA “ALIMENTAR A ALMA” E “FIRMAR O CHÃO DA ESCOLA”

Culture, understood as a way of life, is constituted through the daily cultivation of meanings, knowledge, practices, and memories that sustain communities. This text presents dialogues woven from the cultural practice of samba in the Baixada Fluminense, particularly focusing on experiences within the Escola de Samba Acadêmicos do Grande Rio (Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro). During a rehearsal, a woman from the community states, “Grande Rio is my home.” Her narrative reveals a sense of belonging, care, and security, while also highlighting the course of her arrival in the territory as a place that welcomed her and enabled her to become a samba practitioner. This account, along with others, seeks to problematize how cultural identities within the context of samba schools are constituted through an interweaving of community, territorial, and ancestral ties. As part of an ongoing and unfinished research process, this text aims to broaden the debate on samba schools as protagonists of educational modes that occur as culture. This becomes evident as we interpret educational contexts and their processes as events linked to everyday acts of invention. These reflections seek to foster dialogue on the cultural practices of samba schools and their intersections among identities, knowledge, and community belonging.