LIBERATE YOUR CREATIVITY
by engaging with fear and writing about it in story, scenes and poetry
using the language of the senses
invoking elements of nature
..all so you are free to ACT ON YOUR PASSION
for your storyjourney
your any journey
the thing you've been afraid
to do but you sense
will bring you
joy
CREATIVITY
IS A LIFEFORCE
That’s the core belief at the heart of my work
My first memory of dance was a memory of dread. (the whole story is in the new issue Stance on Dance)
You might already have seen what I do every time fear arrives (hint: tea is involved)
that my primeval ancestor was a worrywort
and how all this kept me frozen for years and years and years in a limbo of longing, scarcity,
along the way I saw how I’m not alone
how fear is a shapeshifter
to each her own!
in my story journey, I began to engage with fear using every bit of story poetry song drama plus
envisioning, smelling, tasting, touching (see the plays, the writing, the workshops)
using the language of the senses
invoking nature scapes
creating for the full bodied love of it
And then I began to see that this creative way of transforming fear is what I'm here for.
What I have learned about fear and and its antidote. CREATIVITY,
is for anyone who is not doing
what they really want to be doing in this one human life
there are ways to engage fear, to untangle it, to play with it, to befriend it
so you are free to ACT with passion
to create what you love
COME AS YOU ARE
You don’t need any previous experience in creative writing - this is not about getting storycraft right or wrong, it’s about liberation! Every thing that is called technique, every HOW TO do this and that exists so you learn what you need from it, to employ it in your story in a way that serves your liberation to be who you are and do what you love.
- Regina Meredith Fitiao, MFA Local Artist, Amerika Samoa
It's not often that we get to experience a masterpiece but yesterday it was so quiet in the auditorium--you had us all enthralled!. So here is my testimonial: Shebana's performance was so touching that it felt like I was with her in every moment. She has an amazing way of telling a poetic story through gestures postures and movements that makes the audience feel every word, practically taste every word, anticipating what is to come next. Brilliantly crafted, suitable for any age, and mesmerizing to be sure."
~ Joan Logghe, Santa Fe Poet Laureate 2010-2012
Writing teacher for over thirty years
Shebana Coelho is one of those people whose natural grace and intelligence can't help but inspire the rest of us to shine brighter. Her natural voice in writing and open heart mixed with imaginative powers make her a fine teacher of writing.
FIVE ONE-on-ONE SESSIONS (70 min each session)
SESSION ONE: HELLO FEAR, MEET METAPHOR
Inspired by songs of self from ancient places, we set our intentions for mystery and clarity at play in the world of figurative language, metaphor, simile. Fear is, fear is like, I am, I am like. Never mind if you don’t know where the journey will end up. At the start, everything is nourished by the dark. [poetry]
SESSION TWO: FEAR AS FICTION
Create a story and myth about who fear has been, and who you have been with fear and who you would be without fear. We’ll create characters, plot, settings. Is it an adventure, a romance, a fantasy, sci fi? Let’s tell a story to free yours. [fiction]
SESSION THREE: A DIALOGUE WITH FEAR
making a scene with you and fear, make fear the drama queen! or vice versa (drama)
SESSION FOUR: AT PLAY IN THE FIELDS OF CREATIVITY
writing and visualizing landscapes of memory that reveal fear and freedom (memoir)
SESSION FIVE: INTEGRATE & ACT
We’ll read out loud excerpts from all we have written, EMBODY them and CHOOSE small STEPS for you to ACT on your PASSION
write the book
take the course
go on the journey
start the business
whatever is calling you
PLUS three 30 minute check in sessions, once a week for 3 weeks after session five - to keep the momentum and motivation going
ABOUT ME
PHOTO BY HU RONG
I’m a writer, filmmaker and performance artist, originally from India, once based in New Mexico, now in Spain.
Some awards that have really supported my work are Fiction Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts (I went to Tierra del Fuego after getting it!), a Fulbright grant to Mongolia (the heartfelt adventure of my life in the yag hodoo, the countryside) and a CEC ArtsLink theater project award (that summer in Ramallah, Palestine with Ashtar theater was such an awakening)
While working on my play, The Good Manners of Colonized Subjects, I discovered precisely what I had already sensed - that I come from a class of Indians specifically created as part of British education policy to be 'Indian in blood/colour but English in intellect/morals.'* That really affected me and it has since inspired my art-making, to unmask colonizations of all kinds, and share experiences that liberate a felt body sense of creativity.
I live following what calls. Right now, I study flamenco in Spain and soon, I’ll be working on a new play in Ireland called “the body becomes the poem,” a project funded by the Creative Mobility initiative of the European Union.
Since 2012, I have facilitated creativity workshops in New Mexico, Zuni pueblo, Palestine, Mongolia, American Samoa, and Spain. I call all my workshops Faraway is Close, inspired by my love of journey and because many of us believe that creativity is out of reach, distant, but really it’s really right here, under the kind and it emerges when guided playfully, kindly and nurtured with kindred spirits.
*see Minute on Education by Thomas Babbington Macualay
BLOG ENTRY
Shebana is engaging and generous...She has a magical way of guiding the body, mind and soul of people who work with her in a way that opens them to deep levels of themselves and the story they want to tell.
~ Caroline LeBlanc, Albuquerque
PRICING
PHOTO BY HU RONG
$1050 for five one one one sessions of 70 minutes each AND three 30 minute check in sessions.
SIGN UP before October 5
and for being one of the first to try this new offering, receive it all for
$1050
750 USD
Payment via PAYPAL (shebana@gmail.com or ZELLE (at writeoutloud13@gmail.com)
If this is beyond your means but it speaks to you, please write to me and I’ll hope to find a scholarship for you
If you want to sponsor a scholarship, please also be in touch.
whether you choose to go on this journey with me or not, I hope you do go.
because your passion is worth your devotion
because the story you unearth will grow you, shelter you.
because the world needs you to live that truth.
yes, you.
it’s the revolution we’ve all been waiting for - your step, your story, one small step, one dance at a time to create a network of resonance and healing
in service, in story. in creativity
SHEBANA
EXPLORE
THE WEB PAGE:
& Youtube Channel for the THE GOOD MANNERS OF COLONIZED SUBJECTS
PODCAST:
Faraway is Close: a podcast from Shebana Coelho
fear is tetrapod