Other Decembers, I have dreamed of the turning of the year and gone to great lengths to envision the future, to plan for it, to make intentions manifest.
This last day of December, I am welcoming the glossy dark.
There is certain relief in surrendering to it, letting it be.
I don't mean dark as in despair.
I mean dark as in unlit.
In my name, which has Persian roots, there is the word shab - which means night.
Maybe then, I am surrendering to some part of myself. some true nature that a long, curious, difficult, emotional, stony year has wrought.
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I look back and see there was solace - in gathering together in our virtual community circles, in a special session with my friend Sonia, from Capileira, Spain to celebrate summer, a vestige of the dream of Write Journey Embody, the creativity workshops which were meant to have happened in June , (and might yet manifest in 2021, I have hope!) in the rivers of dance and poetry that met and became the short film, apprentice, for the project Kanto Cuentos, and then Mei ek bar pathar thi, once i was stone, fui piedra, a solo play in progress I shared a few weeks ago, about the strange fierce journey of the year.
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I was especially moved by all things Bryan Stevenson said about equality and justice, by the article that my friend Sunny Dooley wrote about the impact of Covid-19 on Navajo communities, a story that starts from the beginning of this America, by the posts, "the view from my window," that friends, faraway and close, wrote during the early days of Covid, by the shock of George Floyd's last eight minutes, and by the outpouring of humanity in revolution, in solidarity, in response, by Eddie Glaude Jr's words during election limbo, by these old episode of Rito y Geografía del Cante which felt like getting to the heart of an old true song, that which still sings...
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In the glossy dark where 2021 lives right now, there are pockets of light - I see more community circles (the next one will be on January 9), workshops made of memory to compile family stories, series of sessions with women of color to develop their own solo plays indigenous to spirit, embodied, sounded and to create a Faraway is Close blog. I will share more when the more makes itself known to me.
For now, this last day of December, I write to share the dark, to thank you for sharing this year with me, to send wishes made of hope, made of mystery, made of a turning of all our gazes onto the necessity of change, guiding us into open-hearted revolution, and into upending old narratives of race and place and ushering in new ones of truth and reconciliation.
In solidarity
Shebana
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As always, I'd be glad to hear your responses, thoughts, fragments,
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If my offerings resonate, if they have been a source of inspiration and connection, please consider contributing so the work may continue to grow, drawing us all deeper into writing, journeying embodying the story only we can tell, the light that lives us...
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STORY CONSULTANT
FOR CREATIVE PROJECTS
there is a story only you can tell
only you know your vision.
how I hope to help is work with you to nurture it
so it can grow greener, excavate it if it has gone underground,
or catalyze it into form if it is still vapor....
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Faraway is Close - Shebana Coelho
| cell 609 651 5840 | PO Box 715 Tesuque NM 87574 |
farawayisclose.com | shebanacoelho.com
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