UF students stage exhibit about struggling Brazilian fishing community

December 2, 2009

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — By the time the sun rises at 5:30 in Icapuí, Brazil, many of the residents are fishing for lobster in increasingly depleted waters.

Yet life goes on in this northeastern Brazilian community of 16,000: Afro-descendants perform ancestral theater, elderly residents tell traditional ghost stories, Pentecostal women strive to fit their new religious practices into their lives and, despite having few viable alternatives, students drop out
of school.

Nine University of Florida students documented these and other stories on their recent one-week trip to Icapuí as part of the Florida FlyIns program. They’ll debut their work in an exhibit, “Brazil in Words, Pictures and Sound,” at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Reitz Student Union Gallery, second floor.

The opening is free and open to the public. The exhibit will remain on display through Dec. 19. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the annual Florida FlyIns-College of Journalism and Communications program, which showcases the work of journalism, telecommunication and communication students.

The Florida FlyIns class, taught by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and professor John Kaplan, covers a region in a different Latin American country each fall. Besides Brazil, the program has traveled to Costa Rica, Ecuador, Belize, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Peru and the Bahamas.

“We have a talented group of student journalists ready to share their insights,” Kaplan said. “At the show, they’ll be sharing their diversity as well as a lot of heart.”

Florida FlyIns students have won many honors, including first place from the Florida Magazine Association for in-depth reporting and top awards in the William Randolph Hearst journalism competition.

For more information on the Florida FlyIns program or to see work from previous years, visit www.internationaljournalism.com.