Estefânia Surreira is the guest artist at the 2024 edition of the Azores Birdwatching Arts Festival. From November 19 to 22, the program will reach all the schools in the municipality of Lajes do Pico. In addition to visiting the schools with her book “O Canto da Serra-Mãe,” the storyteller will lead a creative writing and oral narration workshop, open to the general public, at the Dias de Melo Municipal Library.

“The book makes you fly high in the air, flapping your wings, with the little Snow Bunting,” explains the author, framing her program around the birdwatching and nature conservation festival theme. “She wanted to discover the world and dive into the unknown. She ventured out and left the distant lands of the Arctic to land on the top of the Serra da Estrela. In her quest for adventure, she meets another bird, the Pied Starling, who introduces her to a new species: humans.”

Estefânia Surreira created the reading mediation project “Turtles Can AlsoFly” because it was the title of one of the movies in her life and because she believes that they can fly (when no human being is around, of course). She learned to read and narrate stories aloud, discovering that they become real in the magical moment of sharing them with others. With the one who listens. With those who allow themselves to be entangled in the long strands of words that we unravel from books, from our imagination, from our voice, from our body. She discovered the incredible power of stories and learned that it is possible to rescue tales, memories, and affections and share them with those who know that turtles, on the other side of life, also fly.

Terry Costa, artistic director of MiratecArts and programmer of the Azores Birdwatching Arts Festival, admits that “for every guest artist we embrace on the mountain island, I hope it encourages creative talents from our land to invest more in what is ours, to develop our island stories and themes, be it through writing, music, dance or painting – any art we can present.”

To follow the festival, with the Municipality of Lajes do Pico as its epicenter and partner, and keep up to date with all the activities, visit the official Facebook page: Azores Birdwatching Arts Festival.

From Press Release

Translated to English as a community outreach program from the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute (PBBI) and the Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures Department (MCLL) as part of Bruma Publication and ADMA (Azores-Diaspora Media Alliance) at California State University, Fresno, PBBI thanks the Luso-American Education Foundation for sponsoring FILAMENTOS.