Between verses and voices of cordel: systematizing sustainable communication

Abstract

This article presents a formative action of an extensionist nature developed within the context of the Teaching Internship discipline of the Postgraduate Program in Information Science (PPGCI/UFRN), linked to the discipline "Information, Society and Democracy" of the Library Science course at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. Its objective is to report on the experience of using cordel literature in the classroom as a way to combine knowledge and political awareness, based on the practice of protest in public spaces. Theoretically, the proposal focused on the use of cordel literature as an informational, educational, and political support, articulating academic knowledge, based on cordel, in an interdisciplinary process of critical training. The methodological approach used was based on a Real-World Experiment structured in three interdependent moments: the reading and discussion of articles on the history, aesthetics, and social function of cordel; the holding of a formative workshop given by invited cordel-librarian writers, who shared their trajectories, techniques, and experiences; Finally, the collective creation of an original cordel (a type of Brazilian folk poetry), written, published, and distributed at a public hearing in the Natal City Council, interacting with different voices. As a result, we had the demand for the appreciation of librarians and school libraries, and the inclusion of the librarian position in municipal public service examinations. It is concluded that the extension activity strengthened critical skills and broadened the repertoire of possible mediations between information, culture, and democracy.