COLONIZATION (noun)
1.the act of taking control of an area or a country that is not your own, especially using force, and sending people from your own country to live there. as in the colonization of the ‘New World’ (Oxford Learner’s Dictionary)
THE GOOD MANNERS OF COLONIZED SUBJECTS
- IN SPAIN -
The Audacious Dream begins here.
The first seed of a tree, planted in the soil of Cadiz, with the hopes of spreading its canopy around Spain and around the world.
Join this mysterious and powerful journey about unraveling the roots of colonization.
An invitation to play
I came to Spain in February to study flamenco. Unexpectedly - beautifully, I was invited to present my solo play, The Good Manners of Colonized Subjects, in English, at the University of Cádiz, at a conference called “Exploring India Identities through the colonial relationship,” organized by the Asociación Española de Estudios Interdisciplinarios sobre India (Spanish Association for Interdisciplinary India Studies) on September 20, 2022 @7pm.
The setting
Imagine that - India in Iberia the place that funded the whole enterprise of colonization. In fact, Cádiz was the embarkation point for Columbus second voyage. Imagine the happenstance of this and the impact, which has already been seen when I shared excerpts of the play with multi-national students at the university….and when the play was performed Sept 20.
About the play
The Good Manners of Colonized Subjects is my solo play. I call it the truest thing I do, and that I’ve done.
The play begins in India and ends in Spain.
The scenes are made of poetry, dance, song drawn from Spanish flamenco and Indian classical dance.
The story starts in India, and travels through history, myth, & memory to excavate the ripple effects of European colonizations on an Indian woman.
It offers interactive anecdotes that root out how colonization - historical, emotional, cultural - continues to live in us.
It explores art and fear - inviting fear in to have tea and being frozen even when the dancers come calling...
It ends in my story of liberation through flamenco and indigenous encounters in faraway places.
And, what I feel is an important part of decolonization: choosing a new point of origin. One you choose yourself. And for me, that’s in what I call the prehistoric cave of shadows. What I imagine to be those caves like Altamira in the North of Spain
Performed in English with strands of Spanish, Urdu, Portuguese, Konkani. (coming in 2023: a Spanish version...)
It was previously presented in 2018 & 2019 in theater and nature spaces in the US mainland, Hawaii, American Samoa; featured in NuWorks 2019 at the Pan Asian Rep Theater, in New York.
mera nam my name
mera nam my name
LISTEN TO THE OPENING POEM
This is what I call the audacious dream - to present the play in Spain, to bridge the disconnect between those who were colonized and those who come from a legacy of colonizers.
A new YOUTUBE CHANNEL WITH SCENES FROM THE SPAIN INCARNATION OF THE PLAY
We have now created a new incarnation of the play - in English - with
live music by gitana flamenco singer Coral de los Reyes
an interactive section with anecdotes from being in Spain (an Indian in Iberia) and other nuances that show how colonization lingers
a new ending connecting the Pani of Sanskrit and the Pani of the Spanish Roma, the water in common between India and the south of Spain.
All to deepen the impact of a visceral awakening… one that gets to the root of the ripple effects of colonization - and liberation.
“I was looking at the reaction of some of the Spanish students and they were going “my God, I'm used to looking at the world from this lens where Europe is the center of the globe.” And suddenly they started realizing that there was these other cultural connections happening outside of their sphere. Something changed in the way that they thought about the world.”
— Professor Maurice O’Connor, University of Cádiz
What People Are Saying About the Performance
“The performance was unique, how Shebana told the story, the movements, and the interaction with the audience. I could not imagine how beautiful it would be to combine music and dance from two cultures so far apart.
— ANA MARIA CRESPO GOMEZ
Asociación Española de Estudios Interdisciplinarios sobre India
“It was very moving…everyone was enthralled. When Coral stepped out and starting singing it felt like something erupted inside me! One of my students said he is still looking for words to express what he felt...”
— Dr. MAURICE O'CONNOR
Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Cádiz
Veo las mentiras de los colonizadores, huelo las especias y los inciensos que se llevaron, escucho las voces que callaron con sus lenguas, me sabe a verdades que fueron oprimidas, y puedo sentir las espadas con las que lo hicieron.
— J. TOSSO, student
Being from a country which throughout its history has always been at the edge of being occupied and destroyed, I could feel each and every word she was expressing.
H. AVAGYAN, student
next - under a tree
we want to tour this new version to different English-language, cross-cultural studies departments of Spanish universities, accompanied by creativity workshops for participants to create their own choreopoems - so that one story inspires another, one excavation of colonization leads to more unearthing about what oppresses, what liberates.
Ideally, we would love to perform outdoors - under a tree, near a river, a field, the ruins of a stone house - because the play is about the beauty of meeting nature and your true nature, that healing encounter, and the memory of root, stone, cave, tree..
The Workshop - “Sharing good manners…”
A guided experience - facilitated by Shebana Coelho-for students to create choreopoems that excavate what oppresses and embody what liberates.
Drawing on my solo play, The Good Manners of Colonized Subjects, and source materials that inspired the play's shape and content, I'll guide participants through an immersive journey - in words, silence, movement, sound - to understand their own colonizations and write and embody them in metaphor, movement and sound.
The workshop is made up of 5 sections.
1) THIS PERSON, THAT HISTORY: a song of self and deconstructing history to see how colonization arrived in the place where you live and also, inside you.
2) REAL MYTHS: personal anecdotes about everyday colonizations in your life and finding and embodying a myth story that resonates with the oldest stone inside you.
3) WHO vs. WHAT: the human fragmented, in conflict between art and fear.
4) ORIGIN STORY: one that reclaims you, the place from which you begin again.
5) Sharing Good Manners: sharing excerpts from the group work in progress
The WORKSHOP DURATION is flexible. Ideally, each section would be 2 hours. Or if there is an opportunity to be artist in residence for a week, we could do 2 hours a day over 4 days and present WORK IN PROGRESS session on the fifth day. Or you may prefer to focus just on one section, depending on what you are teaching. Contact me to chat at whatsapp +34 602 656 384 or via email
Your Support
We invite you to support this excavation of colonization with your felt body sense: explore the art, read this site, watch some videos, share it with folks, meditate on what you see and if you feel moved:
book a performance - we’d be glad to hear from you.
donate to support our journey
write to us with responses, suggestions
~ Shukriya, Gracias - Shebana and the Good Manners team
All donations are TAX-DEDUCTIBLE thorough our fiscal sponsor, Ecologia, Inc a verified non-profit. Donate online via paypal/credit/debit card or via check. CHECKS may be made out to Ecologia with "Good Manners" on the memo line. Please mail your check to ECOLOGIA, PO Box 268, Middlebury, Vermont 05753, USA.
why this play, why now
For me, this re-versioning is all about Unearthing a new Creed. It is my response to all that is breaking in the world. I wrote about it at length here and I suspect I will keep writing about it for a while. Read about all my plays here.
other ways to help
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Spread the word
Tell everyone you know or don’t know. Share this page link with friends who may be able to donate. Send it out to your email list. If you need more media, we got plenty. Be in touch!
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Connect
Do you have a blog or podcast? Or other ideas to help spread the wordt? Please reach out personally to Shebana at the contact page
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Enjoy the poetry
I’ve loved putting these videos poems together. And the SoundCloud poems as well. Enjoy…