Ailene Quizon Ignacio
she/her
Ailene Quizon Ignacio is a pinay from HiFi: a daughter, partner, friend, and loved one that strives to be the most honest, open, courageous, kind-hearted and loving person she can be.
Contributors
listed in alphabetical order
Andrea Mackey
she/her
Andrea Mackey is a 2nd year MPH student at UC Berkeley, community organizer with KmB Pro-People Youth and a community health worker with International Pre-Diabetes Center. She brings over 5 years youth empowerment and youth leadership development, having equipped elementary to college FilAm and Tongan youths in California with the knowledge and skills to be lifelong learners, act on their own behalf and to act as agents of social change. She is currently the Program Coordinator with I4Y to assess the impact of COVID-19 on Youth Experiencing Homelessness and an Ethnic Studies High School Educator with Pin@y Educational Partnership.
Caroline Calderon
she/her
Caroline Calderon is a queer Pinay from Los Angeles, CA. She currently works for the Little Tokyo Service Center building affordable housing and advocating for community ownership. When she’s not working, you can find her at home writing poetry and songs for the people or curating playlists for the homies. Read all her thoughts on community development and planning on IG @thatflypinay.
Elaine Dolalas
she/her
Elaine Dolalas is a Historic Filipinotown based writer, podcaster with This Filipino American Life (TFALpodcast), and independent curator. Elaine is happily trying to figure out the secret of life through writing, volunteering, and most importantly avoiding cleaning her room, much to her husband TFALpodcast producer Mike’s chagrin.
Garveaux SibulbOro
he/him
Garveaux Sibulboro is a Filipino American filmmaker in Los Angeles, where he professionally directs and edits commercials for TV and online. He graduated from UC Davis with a BS in Design and from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts with an MFA in Film & Television Production. He’s proud to contribute to the movement of FilAm creatives shifting the western media landscape with their own voices and narratives. He would also totally love to help you make your next music video.
Jessica Tsae-Ni Lin
she/her
Jessica Tsae-Ni Lin is a first generation, queer, Taiwanese Chinese American artist. Her middle name roughly translates to “rainbow” or “colorful,” which aptly describes her style and personality. Jessica’s art and life calling focus on the intersection of body positivity, mental health, decolonization, and radical self-love.
Justin Ricafort
he/him
Justin Ricafort is a Filipino-American writer, film maker, and game designer whose work bridges community, advocacy, and modern myth making. Justin graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a Film/Media major and an Ethnic Studies minor in 2018. During college, he was a Programming Intern at Pacific Arts Movement’s San Diego Asian Film Festival and was promoted to Guest Services Assistant Coordinator. In 2019, Justin was selected as part of Visual Communcations’ 2020 Armed with a Camera Fellowship as one of ten Asian-American fellows set to write and direct their own short film projects.
Karen Joyce
they/siya
Karen Joyce is a Filipinx musician, mental health advocate, and zinester residing in Tongva Land (Los Angeles). They created their zine project name “Yellow Stained Blue” to represent an AAPI person with mental illness. They create art and write about trauma, healing, and identity. Karen wants to remind others that “It’s Okay to Not Feel OK” and hopes that their art and music will inspire others to embrace their vulnerability and humanness. Their latest zine, “Stage Fright: How to Deal with Performance Anxiety”—talks about performance from a decolonizing, anti-capitalist lens, and features insight & advice from women, queer, and non-binary musicians-of-color.
Kateri
she/her
Kateri is a multi-disciplinary teaching artist who empowers others through music. Her work often embodies themes of overcoming shame, religion, spirituality, and the FilAm experience. Her album “Psalms for Inside Times” explores overcoming the long-term effects of trauma. Lirio is a 2009 Paul Anka Endowment recipient and Graduate Fellow at Longy School of Music. Her thesis is centered around integrating the arts in California core curriculum, arts and media literacy, and visual and performing arts standards.
Kathy Sanchez
she/her
Kathy Sanchez is a poet and creative writer from Gardena, California based in Washington state.
Kirby Marquez
he/him
I am a poet and spoken word artist who seeks to combine my love of words with my professional experience as a voice actor and a mental health professional. In my content, I explore ideas of love, mental health, cultural identity, and music/pop culture. Poetry is the medium that reached me and begged for me to share my story.
Krisha Algoso
she/her, they/them
Krisha Algoso is an Oxnard native and Filipina in STEM who aspires to become an educator in marine biology and mentor to high schoolers and college students from underserved and underrepresented communities. By day, she works towards earning a Master’s in Biology at Cal State LA. By night, she sings to the stars and writes of love, heartache, friendship, and the landscape of her life.
kuno stars
he/him
Of and about the things I love, or have loved (and in some cases still love)… these are pieces of me that are yours to have.
Leanne Libas
she/her
Leanne Libas is a young Disabled Asian-American who strives for representation and diversity. One of her goals is to help bring the disability and Asian-American communities together so they can collaborate. Leanne has been involved with multiple organizations such as the Dayle McIntosh Center, Cal State Fullerton’s Pilipinx-American Student Association (CSUF PASA Kaibigan), the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network (ASAN), Youth Organizing! Disabled and Proud (YO! Disabled and Proud), and Traktivist. Although she has been an advocate for 6 years, she continues to push her boundaries to stay connected to her roots.
Madima
she/her
An LA Artist with deep Texan roots, Madima fuses Americana with Soul-Pop in her own writing. She brings a certain twang to her bluesy vocals and melodic compositions. She believes we’re all just our stories in the end, and hopes to uplift others while she tells hers. Madima’s first EP, “Call Girl”, is available to stream everywhere now.
Linda Reyes
she/her
Linda Reyes is the daughter of Filipino/Chinese/Burmese immigrants and was born and raised in unceded Tongva territory (Los Angeles). Her parents met as next-door neighbors in Historic FIlipinotown. She does arts organizing with Tuesday Night Project in Little Tokyo + community development with LA Más in Northeast LA. Everything she does/creates tries to call in her ancestors, is situated in community, and is rooted in a strong sense of place. Linda loves mohinga, Rothko paintings, and Baduizm.
Morena Espiritual
they/them
Moréna Espiritual is a non binary educator and performance artist exploring gender, sexual liberty and ancestral memory in cyberspace and some place near you. They have taught their craft internationally, from colleges in the U.S. to places like Ecuador and Canada. Currently they co-organize an Afro-centered art platform with extension in Bogota, Colombia called Azabache Arte and their performance piece “The Retrocurrence” is on display in “CYBERHEALING” for the Latinx Project at NYU, becoming their second exhibition feature. You can also listen to their first single “bebecit” available now on all streaming platforms
Nicole Dizon
she/her
Nicole Dizon is a first-generation Filipina-American writer/producer from Baldwin Park, California. After she graduated with a Film and Media Studies B.A. from UC Irvine, she freelanced as a Production Coordinator on A Distant Peak and as production support staff for Truth Be Told, Timeless, Stuck in the Middle, and more. Her short documentary on overseas Filipino workers premiered at the Asian World Film Festival in 2018 and was selected as a semi-finalist for Starz and Wrap Women: Telling Our Stories in 2019. Last year, she produced “Fruit Fly,” which premiered at the Women’s Comedy Film Festival in Atlanta.
Nura The Poet
he/him
Fire in the sky I’m about to sky dive don’t know what I’m doing falling through the night sky
Sophia Bautista
she/her
Sophia Bautista is entering her fourth and final year at UCLA. Her work has been published in Heritage Magazine, Westwind, Pacific Ties, and Flyes, Cockroaches and Poets. She is a winner of Fresno State’s Andrés Montoya Undergraduate Poetry Prize. Her debut book “Liberty’s Graduating Class,” an examination of Filipino-American identity within the vortex of empire, is set to be published through New Degree Press in Spring 2021.
steady
she/they, they/he
Stephanie Sajor and Eddy M. Gana Jr., also known as Steady, are spoken word artists and community organizers based in Los Angeles. They are founders of Sunday Jump, a community open mic series in Historic Filipinotown, and are activists of KmB / Pro-People Youth, a progressive grassroots organization. Since meeting at UC Irvine, they have performed their poetry, facilitated workshops, and delivered keynotes on the radio, television, and stages across the nation. As organizers, they believe that the arts serve as an important avenue for personal growth, developing community activists, and ultimately, greater social change. They are also married.
TiDo
she/her
I go by TiDo or 杜雪玲. (she/her). I am a 2nd generation Chinese American by way of Viet Nam. To survive in capitalism, I teach; I try to teach liberation. To upend capitalism, I organize with CCED. I cry over spilt compost. I smile with doggos, hikes, books, and gardens. I don’t just laugh at flatulent humor; I greet my parents with it. I learn and unlearn all in the service of my, yours, our liberation.
The Publications Team
listed in alphabetical order
Jaynese Poole
she/her, they/them || Assistant Stage Manager
Jaynese ‘Ladybug’ Poole from South Central, Los Angeles and Compton, California is a poet, dancer and screenwriter. She has been working with Street Poets Inc., performing spoken word, organizing community events, and holding safe spaces for youth throughout Los Angeles County and beyond.
Stephanie Sajor
she/her, they/them || Co-Director
Stephanie Sajor is a writer, graphic designer, and web developer from Los Angeles. As ½ of Steady and Co-Director of Sunday Jump, she has performed in venues across the nation and facilitates multidisciplinary workshops for youth and adults. She has BAs in FIlm & Media Studies and Political Science from UC Irvine.
ysabelle inigo
she/her, they/them || Social Media Assistant
ysa has been writing ever since she could pick up a writing utensil but has only just begun to share her words in public spaces in 2020. a self proclaimed “meaningfully connected introvert” their work is rooted in the journey of self, healing, connection, leaning into duality ~ moonlight & shadows.