WORKS
OLONGAPO DISCO: dreaming joy Across the Diaspora
(2024)
Olongapo Disco: Dreaming Joy Across the Diaspora - June 2, 2024, San Diego, CA
by Babay L. Angles / Angelica Janabajal Tolentino / Ifadoja Oyajokun
This year, through a series of public workshops, local artists/activists/community members created a community sculpture/creature that transmutes intergenerational grief into healing and joy. We explored the archive of BIPOC ancestral joy/grief technologies including rhythms, myths, processions, garments, dance, ritual, and environmental/political/social activism and more to inform and design individual creatures and a large collective creature. Artists and community collaboratively designed an artistic joy centered creature to address a community problem within South East San Diego and beyond, answering the question: “What are the diasporic ancestral joy technologies within San Diego that we need to remember and create to survive and thrive?”. This project helped heal intergenerational trauma as families will visually, sonically, and kinesthetically integrate historical experiences of joy and struggle. Despite centuries of systemic oppression our community has endured, our work will build a mobile altar of resilience.
Ritualists/Movement: Alicia Arellano, Samuel Briseno-Jimenez, Esther Choi, Corinne Canavarro (Lead Choreogaphy Assistant), Patricia Miranda Sime, Samantha Ortega, Khue Tran, Alex Vo
Fabrication: Antonia Davis
Dreamers and Builders: Esther Choi, Aubrielle Duncan, Jules de Guzman, Allize Jimenez, Haven Ongoco-Rittershofer, Magdalena Ramirez, Oren Robinson, Khue Tran, Tara, Alex Vo
Community Culture Bearers and Musicians: Daunté Fyall, Omo Aché, Camilo Zamudio
Olongapo Disco Team:
Jackie Taylor (Community Resouces & Communication Manager), Aurerose Piaña (Ancestral Connection & Rest Consultant), Leeza Jackson (Communications Strategist), Jules de Guzman (Graphic Design / Altar Construction / Community Connection Consultant), Allizé Jimenez (Altar Creation / Community Connection / Gender Justice and Distability Access Consultant), Angela C. Bajet (Costume Design & Photography), Haven Ongoco-Rittershofer (Land Researcher), Miko Aguilar (Marketing Coordinator)
Fiscal Sponsors: Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation
Supported by: Arts and Culture Commission of San Diego, Far South / Border North Collaborative, A Reason To Survive
Videography by In Sage Production
by Babay L. Angles / Angelica Janabajal Tolentino / Ifadoja Oyajokun
This year, through a series of public workshops, local artists/activists/community members created a community sculpture/creature that transmutes intergenerational grief into healing and joy. We explored the archive of BIPOC ancestral joy/grief technologies including rhythms, myths, processions, garments, dance, ritual, and environmental/political/social activism and more to inform and design individual creatures and a large collective creature. Artists and community collaboratively designed an artistic joy centered creature to address a community problem within South East San Diego and beyond, answering the question: “What are the diasporic ancestral joy technologies within San Diego that we need to remember and create to survive and thrive?”. This project helped heal intergenerational trauma as families will visually, sonically, and kinesthetically integrate historical experiences of joy and struggle. Despite centuries of systemic oppression our community has endured, our work will build a mobile altar of resilience.
Ritualists/Movement: Alicia Arellano, Samuel Briseno-Jimenez, Esther Choi, Corinne Canavarro (Lead Choreogaphy Assistant), Patricia Miranda Sime, Samantha Ortega, Khue Tran, Alex Vo
Fabrication: Antonia Davis
Dreamers and Builders: Esther Choi, Aubrielle Duncan, Jules de Guzman, Allize Jimenez, Haven Ongoco-Rittershofer, Magdalena Ramirez, Oren Robinson, Khue Tran, Tara, Alex Vo
Community Culture Bearers and Musicians: Daunté Fyall, Omo Aché, Camilo Zamudio
Olongapo Disco Team:
Jackie Taylor (Community Resouces & Communication Manager), Aurerose Piaña (Ancestral Connection & Rest Consultant), Leeza Jackson (Communications Strategist), Jules de Guzman (Graphic Design / Altar Construction / Community Connection Consultant), Allizé Jimenez (Altar Creation / Community Connection / Gender Justice and Distability Access Consultant), Angela C. Bajet (Costume Design & Photography), Haven Ongoco-Rittershofer (Land Researcher), Miko Aguilar (Marketing Coordinator)
Fiscal Sponsors: Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation
Supported by: Arts and Culture Commission of San Diego, Far South / Border North Collaborative, A Reason To Survive
Videography by In Sage Production
OLONGAPO DISCO: Archiving Grandmother medicine Across the Diaspora
(2023)
Olongapo Disco 2: Archiving Grandmother Medicine Across the Diaspora June 25, 2023, San Diego, CA
Work in progress, "Batya't Palu-Palo," an autoethnographic performance ritual and sound archive of Grandmother Medicine within diasporic BIPOC communities of Kumeyaay Territory. Through series of workshops: We asked artists to create work answering the following question: What are the ancestral joy and resilience technologies that we need to remember and create to survive and thrive? This work honors and remembers our grandmothers, chosen, biological, and the land. We utilized somatic exercises and ritual to listen to herbs, flowers, water, and recreated the act of public washing of garments to conjure our grandmother’s movements, songs, tears, laughter, gossip, and wisdom.
Visionary: Babay L. Angles
Artists/Ritualists: Allizé Jimenez, Kara Nepomuceno, Haven Rittershofer-Ongoco, Jules De Guzman, Angela C. Bajet
Sounds by: Woostalila, Rogelle Zamoro
Visual Flyer designed by Miko Aguilar @we.the.studio
Videography: IN SAGE PRODUCTION
Honoring: Eduvigis Pangan Janabajal and Consuelo Duero Tolentino.
Work in progress, "Batya't Palu-Palo," an autoethnographic performance ritual and sound archive of Grandmother Medicine within diasporic BIPOC communities of Kumeyaay Territory. Through series of workshops: We asked artists to create work answering the following question: What are the ancestral joy and resilience technologies that we need to remember and create to survive and thrive? This work honors and remembers our grandmothers, chosen, biological, and the land. We utilized somatic exercises and ritual to listen to herbs, flowers, water, and recreated the act of public washing of garments to conjure our grandmother’s movements, songs, tears, laughter, gossip, and wisdom.
Visionary: Babay L. Angles
Artists/Ritualists: Allizé Jimenez, Kara Nepomuceno, Haven Rittershofer-Ongoco, Jules De Guzman, Angela C. Bajet
Sounds by: Woostalila, Rogelle Zamoro
Visual Flyer designed by Miko Aguilar @we.the.studio
Videography: IN SAGE PRODUCTION
Honoring: Eduvigis Pangan Janabajal and Consuelo Duero Tolentino.
OLONGAPO DISCO: Archiving Joy Across the Diaspora (2022)
OLONGAPO DISCO: ARCHIVING JOY ACROSS THE DIASPORA (2022) San Diego, CA
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.
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 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.
Photography by Angela C. Bajet
Visionary: Babay L. Angles
Artists/Archivists: Julie Choo, Stacey Uy, Jules De Guzman, Angela C. Bajet, Sierra Duarte, Patty Miranda
Performances by: House of Tastea, New Style Hustle, Time 2 Rock
Sounds by: A-Mon, Soundhenge, T. Rexico
Honoring: Ricardo Duero Tolentino
This project began in 2022 and is ongoing.
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.
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 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.
Photography by Angela C. Bajet
Visionary: Babay L. Angles
Artists/Archivists: Julie Choo, Stacey Uy, Jules De Guzman, Angela C. Bajet, Sierra Duarte, Patty Miranda
Performances by: House of Tastea, New Style Hustle, Time 2 Rock
Sounds by: A-Mon, Soundhenge, T. Rexico
Honoring: Ricardo Duero Tolentino
This project began in 2022 and is ongoing.
WALANG HIYA 2019
Walang Hiya 2019
Queens, NY
This project was developed and supported by Walang Hiya NYC in 2019.
“Walang Hiya” -- From wala (without), -ng (adjectival suffix), and hiya (shame). Conjuring joy in ritual for a free AF future. We are Pilipinx shapeshifters of the diaspora who will cut and love you shamelessly. This Pageant/Procession/Ritual was the culminating event to an 8 month long arts fellowship which transmuted intergenerational trauma into collective wellness. It featured work and public workshops featuring international Piliipinx artists, musicians, writers, embodied practitioners, researchers, herbalists, psychologists, educators, etc. The procession/rituals took place at several locations within Jackson Heights, Queens and ended at the Unisphere which was the site of the World's Fair. Excerpts of this work also featured and performed at the Little Manila Walking Tour, Brooklyn Museum, Columbia University, The New School, and the Babaylan Conference in Ontario, Canada
Ritual Performances, Art, and Sound by: Walang Hiya NYC, Rhea Endoso, Fran Delfin, Rose Piana, Rose Generoso, Bomba Brown (aka Babay L. Angles), Khokhoi, Sad Clowns, Gigi Bio, Trishia Frulla, Sining Kapuluan
Mga Walang Hiya NYC IG: @walanghiyanyc
About Walang Hiya NYC
Walang Hiya NYC was a group of 13 shapeshifters of the Pilipinx diaspora who created ritual and artistic practices to transmute systemically inserted colonial shame into ancestral, communal and individual spiritual, mental, emotional, physical wellness and joy. We were inspired by the ways in which colonized resilient peoples of the diaspora utilized song, dance, ritual, and procession to keep our spirits alive throughout history.
We asked:
How can both festival and funeral procession be utilized as a vehicle for collective mourning and rebirth?
How can we Pilipinx of the diaspora, dig through the contradictions of our deeply embedded histories of pain and resilience to imagine futures and myths of haunting, scandalous, and erotic joy?
We imagine a future of magic cross-cultural spiritual connections, searching for the bridges between Voudoun, Ifa, Santeria, precolonial Pilipinx practices, Catholicism, Hinduism and our intuitive diasporic Pilipinx practices in the kitchen, in the water, in the earth, at the karaoke machine, in the strip club, and at the Palenke.
We dig. We conjure. We process. We are future. We are here. We share our rituals in community to continue to grow our practices, selves, and each other.
Queens, NY
This project was developed and supported by Walang Hiya NYC in 2019.
“Walang Hiya” -- From wala (without), -ng (adjectival suffix), and hiya (shame). Conjuring joy in ritual for a free AF future. We are Pilipinx shapeshifters of the diaspora who will cut and love you shamelessly. This Pageant/Procession/Ritual was the culminating event to an 8 month long arts fellowship which transmuted intergenerational trauma into collective wellness. It featured work and public workshops featuring international Piliipinx artists, musicians, writers, embodied practitioners, researchers, herbalists, psychologists, educators, etc. The procession/rituals took place at several locations within Jackson Heights, Queens and ended at the Unisphere which was the site of the World's Fair. Excerpts of this work also featured and performed at the Little Manila Walking Tour, Brooklyn Museum, Columbia University, The New School, and the Babaylan Conference in Ontario, Canada
Ritual Performances, Art, and Sound by: Walang Hiya NYC, Rhea Endoso, Fran Delfin, Rose Piana, Rose Generoso, Bomba Brown (aka Babay L. Angles), Khokhoi, Sad Clowns, Gigi Bio, Trishia Frulla, Sining Kapuluan
Mga Walang Hiya NYC IG: @walanghiyanyc
About Walang Hiya NYC
Walang Hiya NYC was a group of 13 shapeshifters of the Pilipinx diaspora who created ritual and artistic practices to transmute systemically inserted colonial shame into ancestral, communal and individual spiritual, mental, emotional, physical wellness and joy. We were inspired by the ways in which colonized resilient peoples of the diaspora utilized song, dance, ritual, and procession to keep our spirits alive throughout history.
We asked:
How can both festival and funeral procession be utilized as a vehicle for collective mourning and rebirth?
How can we Pilipinx of the diaspora, dig through the contradictions of our deeply embedded histories of pain and resilience to imagine futures and myths of haunting, scandalous, and erotic joy?
We imagine a future of magic cross-cultural spiritual connections, searching for the bridges between Voudoun, Ifa, Santeria, precolonial Pilipinx practices, Catholicism, Hinduism and our intuitive diasporic Pilipinx practices in the kitchen, in the water, in the earth, at the karaoke machine, in the strip club, and at the Palenke.
We dig. We conjure. We process. We are future. We are here. We share our rituals in community to continue to grow our practices, selves, and each other.
WALANG HIYA, MAY DATATING PA (2018)
JOY from William-Douglas R Ramonal on Vimeo.
Walang Hiya, May Datating pa (Without shame, There is home, there is more to come): A ritual for Joy and Decolonization
2018
New York, New York
This project was developed and supported by Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Public Performance and Action Fellowship in 2018. It was shown in New York, NY at the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics. I am excavating the role of joy within the fragmented and maladaptive Pinay psyche in its process of decolonization. I am asking, where am I from, what/who am I fighting, and from where can I draw strength as a Pinay? My family is from Olongapo, Philippines. I grew up in San Diego, CA and Okinawa, Japan. I am creating ritual and movement to reflect on the ancestral memory of these heavily militarized spaces where the Pilipinx body was maimed, manipulated, policed and sexualized. I ask, how can we heal? What happens when the Christian rituals and spaces, capitalistic dreams, casinos, streaming television, dysfunctional familial patterns, and clutter are no longer enough? I ask where do we draw strength? Is there room for joy in the fight for decolonization. What boundaries must be drawn in order to cultivate joy? How can we draw upon intuitive ritual, indigenous Pilipinx (T'boli) movement, and the Babaylan to liberate ourselves and community? I am fascinated with the ways, despite this Pilipinx intergenerational trauma, we resist through legend, myth, horror, joy and remix.
2018
New York, New York
This project was developed and supported by Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Public Performance and Action Fellowship in 2018. It was shown in New York, NY at the Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics. I am excavating the role of joy within the fragmented and maladaptive Pinay psyche in its process of decolonization. I am asking, where am I from, what/who am I fighting, and from where can I draw strength as a Pinay? My family is from Olongapo, Philippines. I grew up in San Diego, CA and Okinawa, Japan. I am creating ritual and movement to reflect on the ancestral memory of these heavily militarized spaces where the Pilipinx body was maimed, manipulated, policed and sexualized. I ask, how can we heal? What happens when the Christian rituals and spaces, capitalistic dreams, casinos, streaming television, dysfunctional familial patterns, and clutter are no longer enough? I ask where do we draw strength? Is there room for joy in the fight for decolonization. What boundaries must be drawn in order to cultivate joy? How can we draw upon intuitive ritual, indigenous Pilipinx (T'boli) movement, and the Babaylan to liberate ourselves and community? I am fascinated with the ways, despite this Pilipinx intergenerational trauma, we resist through legend, myth, horror, joy and remix.
May Malas Sa Loob, Pero May Datating Pa (2018)
May Malas Sa Loob, Pero May Datating Pa (There is wickedness within, but there is something more to come.
New York, NY
2018
This work was developed and supported by Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative and Gibney Dance 4.0 in New York, NY from 2017 - 2018. This multi-disciplinary performance ritual featured movement, sound, lighting, and installation directed and performed by Babay L. Angles.
This ritual performance excavates the horrors and pains of my specific fragmented and maladaptive Pinay psyche in its process of decolonization. I am continually asking, where am I from, what/who am I fighting, and from where can I draw strength as a Pinay? My family is from Olongapo, Philippines. I grew up in San Diego, CA and Okinawa, Japan. I created ritual and movement to reflect on the ancestral memory of these heavily militarized spaces where the Pilipinx body was maimed, manipulated, policed and sexualized. I am reflecting on the ways Pilipinx continue to hold a mind numbing colonial mentality and historical amnesia as reflected in the hours of horror on TV looped and streamed in our homes displaying game shows filled with women shaking their clad hips as the poor are put on TV to dance and sing to American pop songs. I ask where do we draw strength? I am fascinated with the ways, despite this colonial mentality, we resist through legend, myth, horror, and remix.
The Aswang was a legend created by Spanish Colonizers to control the Pilipinx population and destroy strong feminine leaders within Pilipinx pre-colonial society. She is a shape-shifting mythical creature who will eat your children and bring bad luck if you are “sinner.” She is still very much present on Pilipinx TV today, many people providing first hand accounts of being possessed by her. How can we use this “malas,” this fighting spirit that continues to live within us, to disrupt the horrors, shame, chaos, and homelessness of our experience, and simultaneously decolonize the psyche and put the Self back together again?
Questions of Exploration: What are myths and legends that exist in your family? How do they invoke fear and strength? How can Pilipinx resist colonial mentality and historical amnesia within the context of the United States? How can the abilities to remix, adapt, and mimic be sources of resistance? What cross cultural connections can be built from excavating the Pilipinx colonial experience?
New York, NY
2018
This work was developed and supported by Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative and Gibney Dance 4.0 in New York, NY from 2017 - 2018. This multi-disciplinary performance ritual featured movement, sound, lighting, and installation directed and performed by Babay L. Angles.
This ritual performance excavates the horrors and pains of my specific fragmented and maladaptive Pinay psyche in its process of decolonization. I am continually asking, where am I from, what/who am I fighting, and from where can I draw strength as a Pinay? My family is from Olongapo, Philippines. I grew up in San Diego, CA and Okinawa, Japan. I created ritual and movement to reflect on the ancestral memory of these heavily militarized spaces where the Pilipinx body was maimed, manipulated, policed and sexualized. I am reflecting on the ways Pilipinx continue to hold a mind numbing colonial mentality and historical amnesia as reflected in the hours of horror on TV looped and streamed in our homes displaying game shows filled with women shaking their clad hips as the poor are put on TV to dance and sing to American pop songs. I ask where do we draw strength? I am fascinated with the ways, despite this colonial mentality, we resist through legend, myth, horror, and remix.
The Aswang was a legend created by Spanish Colonizers to control the Pilipinx population and destroy strong feminine leaders within Pilipinx pre-colonial society. She is a shape-shifting mythical creature who will eat your children and bring bad luck if you are “sinner.” She is still very much present on Pilipinx TV today, many people providing first hand accounts of being possessed by her. How can we use this “malas,” this fighting spirit that continues to live within us, to disrupt the horrors, shame, chaos, and homelessness of our experience, and simultaneously decolonize the psyche and put the Self back together again?
Questions of Exploration: What are myths and legends that exist in your family? How do they invoke fear and strength? How can Pilipinx resist colonial mentality and historical amnesia within the context of the United States? How can the abilities to remix, adapt, and mimic be sources of resistance? What cross cultural connections can be built from excavating the Pilipinx colonial experience?
A Prayer: Body as Ritual in South East (2017)
A Prayer: Body as Ritual in South East
2017
Excerpts of this work has been supported and featured at Mosaics 1, 2, and. 3 by Artists Building Community, Gibney Dance 4.0, and Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Public Performance and Action Fellowship 2017 & 2018. This work falls within a series of studies/improvisational street freestyle/sketch pieces in sites of hope and struggle in South East San Diego. Intentions were to dance, dream, and momentarily transform ugly, painful, or desolate areas of South East San Diego. This particular study is my attempt at finishing and revisiting the altar my father (Ricardo Duero Tolentino) built. As a Pinay, I am time traveling through altar making, prayer, and movement. I'm seeking ancestral knowledge and revisiting the stories of past, present, and future. Learning and reimagining through the stories I've heard in homes, streets, store fronts in South East San Diego, islands of Okinawa, Japan, classrooms of our high school students in Oakland, CA and Gompers Preparatory Academy in South East San Diego, and future versions of ourselves. It is a meditation on the absurdity and contradictions of survival and joy of the self while living within heavily militarized cities in the Philippines, Okinawa, and South East San Diego. Audre Lorde states, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” This improvisational piece is an exploration of self-preservation, communal preservation through movement and somatic practice within San Diego. It is inspired by The love conjure/blues Text Installation-Altar Film by Sharon Bridgforth and Omi Osun. It is also particularly inspired by Maureen Abugan and Nat Ridley organizers of the Mosaics Project within South East San Diego, poetry by Nayyirah Waheed, and the work ethic of my Auntie Doring. As an artist, I am seeking to answer questions, of how/why do we return home wherever we are? How can the places I call home, my body, Okinawa, Imperial Ave, Skyline Drive shift and change? What intergenerational patterns sustain communities of color and which patterns do we need to let go?
Dancer: Babay L. Angles
Film: Angela Bajet & Babay L. Angles
Sound: A Prayer: Body as Ritual in South East by Babay L. Angles
2017
Excerpts of this work has been supported and featured at Mosaics 1, 2, and. 3 by Artists Building Community, Gibney Dance 4.0, and Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Public Performance and Action Fellowship 2017 & 2018. This work falls within a series of studies/improvisational street freestyle/sketch pieces in sites of hope and struggle in South East San Diego. Intentions were to dance, dream, and momentarily transform ugly, painful, or desolate areas of South East San Diego. This particular study is my attempt at finishing and revisiting the altar my father (Ricardo Duero Tolentino) built. As a Pinay, I am time traveling through altar making, prayer, and movement. I'm seeking ancestral knowledge and revisiting the stories of past, present, and future. Learning and reimagining through the stories I've heard in homes, streets, store fronts in South East San Diego, islands of Okinawa, Japan, classrooms of our high school students in Oakland, CA and Gompers Preparatory Academy in South East San Diego, and future versions of ourselves. It is a meditation on the absurdity and contradictions of survival and joy of the self while living within heavily militarized cities in the Philippines, Okinawa, and South East San Diego. Audre Lorde states, "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” This improvisational piece is an exploration of self-preservation, communal preservation through movement and somatic practice within San Diego. It is inspired by The love conjure/blues Text Installation-Altar Film by Sharon Bridgforth and Omi Osun. It is also particularly inspired by Maureen Abugan and Nat Ridley organizers of the Mosaics Project within South East San Diego, poetry by Nayyirah Waheed, and the work ethic of my Auntie Doring. As an artist, I am seeking to answer questions, of how/why do we return home wherever we are? How can the places I call home, my body, Okinawa, Imperial Ave, Skyline Drive shift and change? What intergenerational patterns sustain communities of color and which patterns do we need to let go?
Dancer: Babay L. Angles
Film: Angela Bajet & Babay L. Angles
Sound: A Prayer: Body as Ritual in South East by Babay L. Angles
Dreaming in South East Series (2016 - 2018)
Dreaming in South East Series
San Diego, CA
2016 - 2018
A series of studies/improvisational street freestyle/sketch pieces performed with Babay L. Angles and Angela C. Bajet from 2016 - 2018 in sites of hope and struggle in South East San Diego. Our intentions were to dance, dream, and momentarily transform ugly, painful, or desolate areas of South East San Diego through intuitive movement and deep listening. Excerpts of this work has been supported and featured at Mosaics 1, 2, and. 3 by Artists Building Community, Gibney Dance 4.0, and Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Public Performance and Action Fellowship 2017 & 2018.
San Diego, CA
2016 - 2018
A series of studies/improvisational street freestyle/sketch pieces performed with Babay L. Angles and Angela C. Bajet from 2016 - 2018 in sites of hope and struggle in South East San Diego. Our intentions were to dance, dream, and momentarily transform ugly, painful, or desolate areas of South East San Diego through intuitive movement and deep listening. Excerpts of this work has been supported and featured at Mosaics 1, 2, and. 3 by Artists Building Community, Gibney Dance 4.0, and Betty's Daughter Arts Collaborative Public Performance and Action Fellowship 2017 & 2018.
Dreaming in Bedstuy (2017)
Dreaming in Bedstuy
Brooklyn, NY
2017
“Dreaming in BedStuy” was a project shown at STooPs 2017 on August 5, 2017. It used movement and sound that honored the loss, resistance, and hope of its residents. Movement was informed and accompanied by this soundscape created by recorded audio from interviews asking BedStuy residents the following questions:
What or who have you lost/gained in BedStuy in the past ten years?
What are the current problems/patterns we see in BedStuy?
What does daily resistance, look, sound, feel like in BedStuy?
What does freedom look, sound, dream, and feel like in BedStuy?
Movement practices included the cypher, call/response, hand clapping games, and social and street style dances such as breaking, Whacking, Hip Hop and Contemporary improvisational movement and flocking. In a moment where our bodies as people of color have been marked as dangerous, hypersexual, or invisible, this work used movement to witness and testify our stories of struggle and resistance, and imagine new stories and narratives for our community.
Brooklyn, NY
2017
“Dreaming in BedStuy” was a project shown at STooPs 2017 on August 5, 2017. It used movement and sound that honored the loss, resistance, and hope of its residents. Movement was informed and accompanied by this soundscape created by recorded audio from interviews asking BedStuy residents the following questions:
What or who have you lost/gained in BedStuy in the past ten years?
What are the current problems/patterns we see in BedStuy?
What does daily resistance, look, sound, feel like in BedStuy?
What does freedom look, sound, dream, and feel like in BedStuy?
Movement practices included the cypher, call/response, hand clapping games, and social and street style dances such as breaking, Whacking, Hip Hop and Contemporary improvisational movement and flocking. In a moment where our bodies as people of color have been marked as dangerous, hypersexual, or invisible, this work used movement to witness and testify our stories of struggle and resistance, and imagine new stories and narratives for our community.