Belita Cermelli is the founder and director of the Casa Azul Association, which organizes Flip – the International Literary Festival of Paraty. Born in Paraty, she has a degree in Physics from the School of Education at the University of São Paulo – USP. She taught Physics and Mathematics in São Paulo and Paraty, coordinated the Project for Revitalization of the Public Spaces of Borda d’Água in Paraty from 2000 to 2002, and was technical secretary of the Paraty World Heritage Seminar held in 2001. She is one of the creators of the International Literary Festival of Paraty – Flip, of which she was the executive director from 2003 to 2013, when she took over the general direction of Flip’s Educational Program, which includes Flipinha (the Flip for children, their educators and families), FlipZona (the Flip for young people) and the Casa Azul Community Library (a member of the National Network of Community Libraries). Since 2018, he has served on the Advisory Board of the LEQT Network – Quality Reading and Writing for All. In 1986, he began practicing Tai Chi Chuan with Professor Wong (Moy Gin Ying), a precursor of Chinese martial arts in Brazil, where he arrived in 1959. Since then, Belita has been practicing Tai Chi Chuan under the supervision of Professor Wong, deepening her knowledge of the classical texts, applying the acquired knowledge to the different areas of life, and acting as an instructor of this art that is understood as “meditation in movement”, “the art of long life” or, as Professor Wong teaches, “the art of contentment”.

Organization of literary festivals with local roots / Community actions and networking / Tai Chi Chuan: from classic texts to practice