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Shebana Coelho | Faraway is Close

News of workshops, performances, travelogues, sudden ah-has or ah-nos

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from Isla Martillo Argentina: Penguin inspired greetings for 2026

December 31, 2025 Dear all: I am sending penguin inspired greetings for the New Year from a place I was a few days ago, Isla Martillo, off the coast of Ushuaia, in Argentine Tierra del Fuego where I had been many years ago, a place that calls itself the end of the world, the beginning of everything. On this island, there are two types of penguins, Gentoo penguins with orange beaks and Magellanic penguins which are black and white. What are penguin inspired greetings exactly? Well, they're...

December 1, 2025 Dear all: I heard someonecall for ‘magnetic local’ storiesthe more magnetic the betterand I know they meant welleven quoted so-and-sofamous by way of contextbut I swearthe minute I heard‘magnetic local’the rant would not rest... A poetic rant, one of two just published in Panorama: a journal of place (PSST: hey my friend N, yes You, check out your ‘Alas, Alack’ in ‘magnetic locals’) The second poem came upon me suddenly, one day in Sevilla: Have a read, have a listen and if...

November 14, 2025 Dear Friends, Well, a month into being in Peru and this nomad has gone and committed… to a new writing community/blog: Creatively Engage with Ancestral Nature. What kind of ancestor am I after anyway? Whose? It has something to do with a deep longing to be tree and sing stone, to invoke the cave of shadows, the storydark…[Yup, I don’t know what that means either. But I feel it in my teeth.] And how I know I've committed is that I cannot seem to stop writing: about following...

October 17, 2025 Video from a garden in Peru. Who knew I'd be here? Not me! Last time I was here: twenty years ago at the start of adventures, leaving cities behind + the story of a poncho from the Altiplano and dancing in a store in Pisaq....plus Inca sites, parrots, eucalyptus trees and broken words. The phrase: 'shab e safar, ye raza' keeps recurring, the mystery of journeys into nights of not knowing. why did europeans kill indians? why did they come from so far away just to end up...

"In a time when the world feels fractured and hearts feel far apart, we gather around the most ancient fire of all: Story." Tomorrow (Thursday, Sept 4), I’ll be reading a 7-minute personal story as part of Stories of Love and Resilience: Courage is Contagious a powerful first-time live event created by Cara Jones. When:Thursday, September 4 ~ 12pm PST / 1pm MT(live online) Where:Online - Zoom link here A limited time replay will be available. "8 humans. 7 minutes each.No filters. No advice....

read this email in your browser welcome again to a proper name If you've been receiving my updates over the years, shukriya, thank you! I’m now properly naming this space. Olé. Welcome again to: Faraway is Close : story-journeys that dissolve borders I'm testing out a new platform called Kit and trying on structure for size —jaja, don’t laugh — I’m actually quite tidy. How does a nomad shape the wildness of creative journeys? She tries. She tries!From Mongolia to Bombay, from poems to plays,...

read this email in your browser welcome again to a proper name If you've been receiving my updates over the years, shukriya, thank you! I’m now properly naming this space - olé - as: Faraway is Close : story-journeys that dissolve borders I'm testing out a new platform called Kit and trying on structure for size —jaja, don’t laugh — I’m actually quite tidy. How does a nomad shape the wildness of creative journeys? She tries. She tries!From Mongolia to Bombay, from poems to plays, from silence...