Wherever I Go Will Be an Exile

Specifications
Title Wherever I Go Will Be an Exile
[Pra onde quer que eu vá será exílio]
Author Suzana Velasco
Collection Dramaturgia
Language Portuguese
Page count 88
Cover Guilherme Ginane
Format Softcover
Size 13 x 19 cm
Year 2021

Laila prepares a last meal. Ana and Aslan abandon their house in ruins. Rosa and Ana grow closer, separated by a wall. Kalu can no longer stay, Aslan no longer wants to leave. Deniz wonders about unknown lives. Different spaces and times witness these character meetings and the conversations pushing them forward. They migrate because they must, but also because they wish to feel at home.

Suzana Velasco, journalist and researcher of migrant representation, sheds an affectionate light on her characters’ lives. Despite the horrors of wars and inequality, these people, through their memories and fantasies, propose new ways of living.

Joining Editora Cobogó’s Dramaturgy Collection, Wherever I Go Will Be an Exile is one of 14 plays created by authors in the Núcleo de Dramaturgia Firjan SESI’s [Firjan SESI Playwriting Center] fifth class (2019), under the guidance of playwright and director Diogo Liberian.

At first, I thought the explosion was always next door. Later, we learned to feel distance: neighborhood bomb, downtown bomb, distant bomb, faraway bomb. It wasn’t just the volume, but also the different lengths. Distant bombs buzzed, like an out of tune instrument; closer bombs were fast and deafening. At first, I could only sleep through the sound of very distant bombs. In a few months, I had grown used to the neighborhood noise. But I only really slept when the house across the street turned to dust. It was the same day they found my father’s body. Today, he would have missed even the fractured stone sidewalk, where he had to maneuver the pram like a race car, he would have missed the perpetually late bus driver’s bad mood, dad said he was racist. I think he was just rude. We miss even what we hate.

About the author
Suzana Velasco is a journalist and writer and holds a doctorate in International Relations from PUC-Rio. She has worked for 12 years at O Globo, where she was a reporter and a Culture assistant editor. She’s the author of Imigração na União Europeia: Uma leitura crítica a partir do nexo entre securitização, cidadania e identidade transnacional [Immigration in the European Union: A critical reading through the nexus of securitization, citizenship and transnational identity] (EDUEPB, 2014). Her doctorate research focuses on migrant representation, questioning how migrant experiences exceed modern political categories.

About the collection
The Dramaturgia collection has, since 2012, published writing by Brazilian and international playwrights. The books help in building a memory of current theater, making a new record in the contemporary theater scene. In 2015, Cobogó also launched Dramaturgia Espanhola, the Spanish collection, and, in 2019, Dramaturgia Francesa, the French collection, and Dramaturgia para Crianças, for children. Over 50 authors have been published, with 80 titles.