There Will Be Worlds Within Me:

The Black Trans Woman Macumbeira in the Scenic Experience ORI — The Meaning of (Re)existing

Abstract

This article investigates the scenic experience ORI: the meaning of re-existing as a territory of Afro-centered performance within Afro-Brazilian cosmologies, articulating the epistemologies of macumbas with the movement of a Black trans woman. The research adopts a theoretical-practical approach, grounded in Onisajé’s contributions to Black Terreiro Theater, reflecting on how the corporeality of Black performers can poetize the knowledge and ritualities of Afro-Indigenous terreiros on stage. Concepts such as body-canvas, spiral time, and corpoflor are mobilized, understood as forces of transfiguration and healing. The study shows that terreiros of African matrix, even when crossed by colonial tensions, constitute spaces of legitimacy and reception for trans and dissident bodies. Based on the artist’s lived experience, the analysis demonstrates that trans presence in performance and in terreiros is political, denouncing religious racism and reaffirming that trans bodies are guardians of ancestral knowledge.