i’m excited to share i was awarded the Jadin Wong 2022 Fellowship by @aaartsalliance. this award means so much to me. this was the third year i applied!! receiving support for my own voice from my own community is something i do not take for granted. receiving support as a Filipina-American during a time when my Motherland and our diaspora are afraid of the silencing, violence, and uncertainty that’s coming with Marcos as president.. is something i do not take lightly. we are at a tipping point. when i was younger i was taught the magic of shapeshifting. following rules, obedience, discipline, productivity would keep me safe in a white man’s world. my body, my experience. my uprooting, my traumas. i felt, at times, powerful in becoming anything a person wanted and powerless when that people pleasing turned against me or my body. i still struggle through this deeply fluid sense of self, knowing there is much to learn from the survival of those in betweens. the filipina-american narrative - one of many mini-migrations, un-rooting, re-rooting - is one so easily commodified, made small, and erased. there’s so much richness to our culture and our stories. so much to say. colonialism continues to this day in the mind, thus embodied in practice. i speak myself small and then claim by proving what my body can do. i wonder what it would look like if i just lay her still for a while. and be. reclaim by simply being. unlearn to learn again. maybe this fellowship can help with that - i know my community will be by my side. i am grateful to the panelists @philschan @parijatdesai @marisahamamoto @annie_heath @_blind_spot_ for giving my visions a chance to see the light! i am looking forward to what’s coming and to what can rest. thank you to my friends, family, colleagues, directors, and mentors. thank you deeply my kapwa and collaborators @breathemelani @ragepaige__ @michelleluna_p @cheng_moves slumbrt @treyalam @hermosaherbosa @ani_malayaworks @jaycarlon @pjinmotion @ericmannnn @elisepacicco @adrian.hoffman @pazdanz who have held and are holding my imagination. my @billtjonesarniezaneco fam. my ancestors who visit me every so often. salamat. 🤎 onwards~~