Year in Review: 1999 From January 2000 edition of the ICAF newsletter, O Angoleiro The Connecticut group's goals this past year have been to become better organized, come together more as a group, interact more with other groups, and establishing our group as an integral part of Middletown and the Wesleyan University campus. Beginning with spring 1999, the group held two workshops during the semester and threw a huge party with Wesleyan's samba band, Sambatucada. There were a few communication and organizational difficulties in the spring, but as the year has progressed we've been able to work together more and focus on specific ways to improve. In September, we divided group responsibilities more specifically than before and worked hard to make the last two workshops more organized. Group members now share administrative responsibilities, in addition to taking care of the instruments and keeping the space clean. This has allowed everyone to become involved in the various aspects to keeping the group strong. A really great development in our group has been that three of our members- Maarten, Alex, and Dylan, decided to start a research tutorial on Capoeira Angola through Wesleyan University. They created a syllabus that included books and articles on Capoeira, quilombos, the berimbau, and Candomble. In December, each wrote extensive papers on their research and we're looking forward to having a seminar on what they've learned. In addition, at the beginning of the semester, everyone in the group wrote short papers on our experiences in capoeira, what brought us to the art, and how it has changed our perspectives and expectations. Aside from all the reading and writing, several of us were able to attend the Women's Conference in Philadelphia, Deraldo's conference in Boston, and the Zumbi Day Celebration in Washington, D.C. These events introduced some of the newer members to the larger circle of angoleiros and angoleiras. Participating in the conferences was a fun learning experience in several ways-meeting and taking workshops with several Mestres, playing with angoleiros from other places. Those who attended brought back lots of great energy and ideas to the group in CT. Playing with students from other groups is always exciting and a good learning experience since Middletown can be a little isolated at times. However, for our last workshop we had a few people come up here for the weekend, which was really fun! In the past few months we've really been able to pull ourselves together by keeping a regular class schedule in one space, working together to make the past few workshops very successful, and getting to know each other better with dinners/get-togethers. One of our most recent developments has been creating a group website, which is still under construction. In the coming months it will feature some archived photos of our group, papers written by members, and links to other Capoeira Angola groups. Another goal for next year is fixing up our training space so there is better ventilation and to eliminate some of the leaks. We're also trying to involve more Middletown residents in the group and possibly linking our group to a mentoring program with local middle and high school students. Although we are a young group and had a few difficulties at the beginning of the year, we are learning from those mistakes and constantly pushing ourselves to make the group stronger and contribute as much as possible to the larger capoeira community.