Born in Campo Formoso, on June 25, 1921, poet Tude Celestino de Souza would be completing one hundred years of birth, now on June 25th. He was raised in Ilhéus, which gave him much of the inspiration for the initial phase of his literary work, permeated by rural references, influences from cordel, suddenly and singers from the interior of Bahia.

A self-taught poet, having completed formal studies only until the 4th grade, he is the author of the trilogy O Ás de Ouro, the most emblematic poem of his work, a fictional saga in three phases, with a matte language, typically sertanejo and eivada with tragic features, which narrates the trajectory of a subject affected by the feeling of revenge and which also gives its name to his only book, which would have a second edition published shortly before his death.

Tude Celestino marked his poetry with themes related to bohemia, love and, above all, the northeastern reference, as he is most remembered; his work, however, still contemplates a remarkable trait of versatility, including the still unpublished fescenino poems.

Despite the first influence, based on the Northeastern theme, blindness, which affected him due to the influence of diabetes, was a relevant influence for the character that his verses later assumed, giving him a certain strength and capacity for abstraction and non-visual contemplation of the relationship time-space.

It was, however, during the 1940s, in the then Santo Amaro do Ipitanga , where he established himself at the time of the deployment of Salvador Air Base and Dois de Julho International Airport, coming to act as an airport agent, that he fully assumed his irrefutable vocation of poet, establishing himself as the cultural reference of the municipality that welcomed him as an illustrious citizen.

Declared by poet and journalist Jehovah de Carvalho as a “sacred being of impossible repetition”, given the exuberance, invaluable literary value and elaboration of his work, Tude has always remained in evidence in the region, having his name linked to much of the cultural turmoil and social in force until the end of the 1980s, when, due to complications from diabetes, he put an end to his literary production - but not his respectability among the people of that place, above all, because of the memorable soirees he hosted in the cultural space Ás de Ouro, reference of the local bohemian at that time, when, through A Noite Poeta - official event promoted with the encouragement and participation of the municipal government, always counting on the presence of important names of letters in Bahia -, the poet enjoyed the prestige of nominating the Tude Prize Celestino de Souza de Poesia, who, in annual editions, highlighted and encouraged local literary production, giving visibility to the municipality as a cultural axis in the state.

It was made, in a joint initiative of various segments of the community of Lauro de Freitas, based on the suggestion of the historian Gildásio Freitas in tribute to the 20th anniversary of the poet's death, the attribution of his name to the local Culture Center, former headquarters of the festivals in his honor, making it the Tude Celestino Culture Center – CCTC.

Despite the wide influence of cultural actions by the poet Tude Celestino as maintainer of the city's image as a cultural hub in his time, today, the relevance of his work is hardly known, hence the importance of actions such as the ATiTude CelesTina Movement and, more specifically, the ATiTude Project.