Poet & Performer

I understand ‘poet’ as an orientation; it is the way I relate to the world.

Poetry is my mode of making meaning. It is an interpretive lens for my observations and experiences that also enables me to access and share a level of honesty that stretches the possible of the everyday. It thus serves as a vehicle for radical permission, and a foundation for interpersonal and collective liberation.

Poet

I have been a poet since 14, when I first began to examine my Filipina American identity.

Previous work has explored the mythos of the American dream and immigrant inheritance, diasporic interpersonal and transgenerational psychodynamics, and a queer, feminist, anti-oppressive take on systems of power both intimate and international.

Current work explores themes of loss, return, recovery, and the re-parenting of self.

Spoken Word Artist

I came up as part of the influential Asian American and youth spoken word communities at the turn of the 21st century, which built on and responded to the Black American and Jamaican oral tradition that also birthed hip-hop. I belonged to isangmahal arts kollective, co-founded Youth Speaks Seattle, was a participant and coach in Brave New Voices (2000-2009), member of Pinay Sa Seattle and writer-in-residence at Seattle Arts and Lectures and Jack Straw Productions.

In these roles, I performed in, organised and hosted a range of performance events across the greater Seattle area, and US cities including New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Austin. These included guerrilla poetry, workshops, writing circles, plays, youth and adult open mics, poetry and hip-hop showcases and slams.

Hip-Hop Femmecee

With my knowledge of and love for hip-hop nurtured in the Seattle performing arts community, I became an emcee in 2006, performing as half of 1st Quarter Storm.

With my partner-in-rhyme Rogue Pinay, we were a regular feature at the Ladies First women-centric hip-hop events at Hidmo.

I published a solo project, the Parabola EP, in 2023, of previously unreleased songs recorded from 2010-2018.

For the Mothers and Seattle were also recorded in Nottingham in 2010. I am featured on tracks by Rogue Pinay and Gabriel Teodros.

Published Poetry

(2018) Mapache. Feral Feminisms Open Access Feminist Online Journal.

(2016) Ancestor Portrait. Red Sky: Poetry on the Global Epidemic of Violence Against Women.

(2013) Selection of poems: Liminal, Manila, Holy Train, Bangka. Coal Feminist Review /Femficatio Literary Magazine. “Dampen to Bend: Anthology Mapping Transport and Transition”

(2013) Selection of poems: Things You Can Learn From Cats and Bedlam. Uncommon Core: Contemporary Poems for Learning and Living. Red Beard Press.

(2007) Selection of poems: Paradise Revisited, Tribu, Iceberg. Mixed Up Anthology.

Self-Published Poetry Pamphlets/Chapbooks

Common Sensuality (2004), Suprapersonal (2007), and Pilipinapoems (2011)

Awards and Residencies

  • Writer-In-Residence with Seattle Arts and Lectures (2005-2007 and 2008-2009)
  • “25 Best Emerging Artists Under the Age of 25” by New World Theatre, 2000
  • Seattle Poetry Slam Finalist 2007 and 2008
  • Seattle Poet Populist 2007 Finalist
  • Nuyorican Poets Café Slam Finalist (April 2008)
Performance of Manila, My Manila (2011) – Nottingham, UK

Performance, Panel, and Workshop Delivery

Conferences and Festivals: APIA Spoken Word and Poetry Summit (2001, 2007); Brave New Voices: National Youth Poetry Slam (2000-2009); Bumbershoot Music Festival (1999, 2005, 2007); Burning Word Poetry Festival (2005, 2007); “Herstory of Women In Hip-Hop”, NOW NW Women of Color & Allies Summit (2007); Filipina Women Unite! (2007); Pagdiriwang (2007, 2008); New World Theater “Intersection” (2000); Speak Truth to Power (2007); Spicy Words and Voices (Palabras y Voces Picantes) (2007); Washington State University, FASA Conference (1999)

Performance Venues: Bindlestiff Studio (San Francisco), Experience Music Project (EMP, Seattle), Fremont Arts Abbey (Seattle), Judson Memorial Church (NYC), Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center (Seattle), New World Theatre (Massachusetts), Nippon Kan Theatre (Seattle), Northwest Asian American Theatre (Seattle), Nuyorican Poets Café Slam Finalist (NYC), Moore Theatre (Seattle), Regency Theatre (San Francisco), Richard Hugo House (Seattle), Seattle Art Museum, Seattle City Council, Seattle Poetry Slam, Town Hall Seattle, Vera Project (Seattle), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Youngstown Cultural Arts Center (Seattle)

Educational Institutions

College and University: Bellevue Community College, Central Washington University, Edmonds Community College, Evergreen State College, Old Dominion University (North Carolina), Seattle Central Community College, Shoreline Community College, South Seattle Community College, Washington State University, Western Washington University, University of Michigan, University of Massachusetts, University of Washington

High School/Youth: Aki Kurose Middle School (Seattle), Asa Mercer Middle School (Seattle), Bay View High School (Whidbey Island), Center School High School (Seattle), Cleveland High School (Seattle), Chief Sealth High School (Seattle), Ellensburg School District (Yakima), Franklin High School (Seattle), Garfield High School (Seattle), Ida B. Wells School of Social Justice (Seattle), Kellogg Middle School (Shoreline), King County Juvenile Detention Center, McClure Middle School (Seattle), Nathan Hale High School (Seattle), Orion Center for homeless youth (Seattle), Powerful Voices, Rainier Beach High School (Seattle), Roosevelt High School (Seattle), Sea-Mar Youth Treatment Center (Seattle), Seattle Young People’s Project, The Service Board, Shorecrest High School (Seattle), Summit K-12 (Seattle), Tyee Educational Complex (Tukwila), Washington Asian Pacific Islander Families Against Substance Abuse (Seattle)

El Dia

poet, femmecee, teaching artist

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