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Research conducted by the social organization Poiesis in the literary scene of the peripheries of São Paulo showed that young women lead the reading group, 70% of the public in the eight units of culture factories analyzed between January 2024 and June 2025.
O percentage is higher than the national average of women readers (61%). The survey also shows that the monthly average per library in 2024 was from 197 loans, with interest in the manga, black literature, LGBTQIAPN+ and indigenous, as well as contemporary classics and bestsellers.
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The study, which analyzed reading habits of frequents of the libraries of culture factories in Brasilândia, Capão Redondo, Diadema, Iguape, Jaçanã, Jardim São Luís, Osasco and Vila Nova Cachoeirinha, shows a diversity that challenges stereotypes. In the shelves of these territories of the capital, metropolitan region and southern coast, the Japanese sagas of One Piece and Junji’s horror tales share space with Dostoevski and Shakespeare.
According to the study, it is possible to note that the literary taste in the peripheries is neither homogeneous nor predictable.
In the territories of Brasilândia, Iguape and Jardim São Luís, the manga appear among the most read, according to the survey. Authors like Dostoevski Fyódor (White nights), Virginia Woolf (Orlando) e William Shakespeare (Macbeth and Othello) are also at the top of the lists of Iguape and Capão Redondo, which reveals the interest in contact with different cultures and complex themes, such as identity, prejudice, mental health, philosophy and politics.
The research showed that works by racialized and peripheral authors, with titles such as Rei de laata, by Jefferson Ferreira, and Water eyes, From Conceição Evaristo, they circulate intensely in Osasco and Jaçanã.
“This richness of choices reflects the collective curatorship model of libraries, where 38% of the collection is renewed monthly from the suggestions of the visitors, which favors the representativeness of black, indigenous voices and LGBTQIAPN+,” he says.
Female protagonism appears in literary choices, with the largest number of searches for works such as Sister outsider, from Audre Lord, Song for Big Boy Linar, of Conceição Evaristo, and All about love, by Bell Hooks (Pseudonym of Gloria Jean Watkins)showing interest in empowerment narratives that echo the realities of these readers.
“The choices of readers show how culture factories are strategic equipment to expand access to the book. The diversity of the collection, with narratives that represent different experiences, highlights the power of these audience that finds programming connected to their realities,” noted the artistic-pedagogical coordinator of libraries, Ifé Rosa.
According to the research, the readings coexist with best-sellers as The midnight library, Matt Haig, one of the most sought after books in Brazil in the first half of 2024; and Diary of a banana, by Jeff Kinney, comic series with over 15 publications; Also preferred in the territories of Jardim São Luís, Brasilândia, Iguape, Diadema, Osasco, Vila Nova Cachoeirinha.
Cultural actions
The culture factories of the North and South Zone of São Paulo, Diadema, Osasco and Iguape – Program of the Secretariat of Culture, Economics and Creative Industry of the State of São Paulo managed by the Institute for Support for Culture, Language and Literature (Poiesis) – These are free access spaces that collaborate in the expansion of cultural knowledge through various artistic and formative activities.
Besides making available the books, Libraries of culture factories develop cultural actions that integrate literature into daily life in an accessible, affective and transforming wayespecially for an audience mostly from the public school system.
There are also creative workshops, conversation wheels, mediations, artistic productions and debates depart directly from the literary collection, expand the cultural repertoire of visitors and insert the book into the center of experiences lived in these spaces.
“By connecting programming with the collection, libraries promote access to different genres and literary styles in a playful, critical and affective way. This practice helps to break symbolic barriers in access to the book and strengthens reading as a language of personal, creative and citizen development,” said the senior artist analyst of Senior Libraries of Culture Factories, Izaias Junior.
The spaces are also poles of community articulation and peripheral cultural centers. Partnerships with public schools, centers for children and adolescents (CCAS), Psychosocial Care Centers (CAPS) and local collectives expand the impact of these equipment that, contrary to the elitization of many culture spaces, reaffirms the right to access to book and reading.
