OLONGAPO DISCO: Archiving Joy Across the Diaspora (2022)An autoethnographic communal installation, sound archive, and visual portal of joy within the Pilipinix communities of Olongapo, Philippines and San Diego, CA. This work asks artists and community the following question: What are the joy technologies from Olongapo, Philippines and San Diego, CA that we need to remember and create to survive and thrive?
We are creating a communal archive of Pilipinx joy technologies including funk, disco, fashion, dance, and environmental/political/social activism from Olongapo and San Diego from 1950 to the present. We generate artistic joy centered solutions to community problems within South East San Diego which are informed by our collective joy archive. This project heals intergenerational trauma as participants visually, sonically, and kinesthetically integrate historical experiences of joy and struggle. Despite centuries of systemic oppression through colonization, war, and militarism that our community has endured, our work builds an altar of resilience. This work honors and remembers my dad, Ricardo Duero Tolentino, and his Joy. We honor and remember the joy of our ancestors who created spaces for us to dream today. They knew in their sacrifices and their dreams that, WE ARE FREE. We choose to honor our ancestors through this work when we love life, don’t take things too seriously, and generously just LIVE with community. Olongapo Disco is a place of freedom building. A place of remembering. The disco is where you let your worries go and you let yourself dream. You put on your best clothes and you know in that moment of a song, your body and your spirit is free and you are FLY. Covered in your ancestors FUNK, you are it. You’re on a soul train to freedom and there’s no stopping you. This project began in 2022 and is ongoing. Creative Director: Babay L. Angles Performers: Sound Henge, S.O.U.L Line Dancing, Bay Terraces Community Senior Center Dancers, T.Rexico, Amon, House of Tastea, Time 2 Rock, Babay L. Angles Choreographer: Sierra Duarte Make Up: Patty Miranda Seamstress: Angela C. Bajet Costume Design: Babay L. Angles Archivists: Stacey Uy, Julie Choo, Jules DeGuzman Photography by Angela C. Bajet Advisors: Maureen Abugan, Aurerose Piaña, sára abdullah, N. Pelonia, Pedro Vidallon |