Category: Community

Faith and Fortune

6/13/2022

Kwentong Bayan Collective at the Faith and Fortune exhibit (AGO). Photo credit: Melanya Liwanang Aguila.

Thanks to the curatorial team, Adam Levine, Ana Barajas, Bianca Weeko Martin, Gillian McIntyre, and Tahnee Pantig for inviting us to collaborate.

Jo SiMalaya Alcampo and Althea Balmes of Kwentong Bayan Collective were honoured to serve as community consultants (along with many other artists, academics and community folks from the Filipino and Latinx communities) for the exhibition, Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire.

The exhibit brings together more than 200 works of art from Latin America, the Philippines and Spain made between 1492 and 1898. It runs from June 8-to-Oct 10, 2022 at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Kwentong Bayan Collective member Althea Balmes contributed to the Exhibition Audio guide. Her piece is entitled "The Philippines" and it accompanies a map of the country that is presented askew for a reason. Listen here.

Kwentong Bayan Collective at the Faith and Fortune exhibit (AGO). Photo credit: Melanya Liwanang Aguila.

Together While Apart

2/27/2022

Thank you to Megan who added colour to colouring page! Megan’s mom is a migrant care worker and community organizer.

Kwentong Bayan Collective is honoured to contribute to Together While Apart an exhibition of interactive colouring pages and original stories based on experiences that women and gender-diverse people have faced during the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Together While Apart
Workers Arts and Heritage Centre
March 5 – April 2, 2022
(Extended to May 14th)
More info

Home is in the Body

12/1/2020

Kwentong Bayan Collective contributed to the book, Home is In The Body featuring 2SLGBTQIA stories & artwork from across the Filipinx diaspora. Althea and Jo contributed interviews, and Jo wrote the closing text for the book.

Please contact Anak Publishing for more info

Re-Imagining Stories of Care Work

3/1/2019

Image: Archival photography + Projection art by Kwentong Bayan Collective, 2019

Please join us for Re-Imagining Stories of Care Work - a collaborative storytelling and audio-visual art performance about the invaluable contributions of migrant caregivers to Canada’s social, economic, and political past, present and future.

Collaborative storytelling by Caregiver Connections, Education & Support Organization (CCESO) and audio-visual art performance by Kwentong Bayan Collective (Althea Balmes and Jo SiMalaya Alcampo) With support from Karen Ancheta, Storyteller/Facilitator and Leon Aureaus, Artistic Director, Carlos Bulosan Theatre. Presented by the Myseum Intersections Festival.

BALIKBAYAN Exhibition

1/8/2018

BALIKBAYAN
Solo exhibition by Kwentong Bayan Collective
at the Workers Arts & Heritage Centre (Hamilton)
runs January 24 - April 21, 2018

Reception: Feb 9
Artist Talk: Feb 10

BALIKBAYAN features a visual timeline of the history of caregiving in Canada by racialized women, and Balikbayan boxes that contain migration and labour stories.

Visit http://wahc-museum.ca/event/kwentong-bayan-balikbayan for info about the Caregiver Gathering Series. From February to April, WAHC will be a space for care workers to socialize and engage in creative arts that share stories of care, work, and migration.

Diasporic Intimacies Book Launch

11/6/2017

Diasporic Intimacies: Queer Filipinos and Canadian Imaginaries is the first edited volume of its kind, featuring the works of artists, activists, scholars, and frontline community workers who reflect on the contributions of LGBTQ Filipinos/as to Canadian culture and society.

Jo SiMalaya Alcampo's work is featured in this collection. Jo will speak at the book launch on:

November 17, 2017
Urban Space Gallery
401 Richmond Street
6:00 pm - 10:00 pm

This celebration will feature performances, reflections, and community dialogues.

Kapwa Playshops with Musagetes

8/10/2017

Thank you to the Musagetes community for inviting Kapwa Collective to facilitate a series of Kapwa Playshops this weekend in Guelph. We will create handmade seedballs containing wildflowers, and plantable paper out of recycled materials and seeds.

We will invite the community to plant these offerings in the Mashkiki Gitigaan (medicine garden in Anishnaabemowin) - "a medicine and pollinator garden that Musagetes staff, Elwood Jimmy and Chelsea Brant have been building and growing with the support of many community members through their donation of time, seeds, and plants.

The Mashkiki Gitigaan is the foundation for a variety of summer workshops/talks/walks/knowledge gatherings/community circles throughout the city, "centering art, ecology sustainability, relationship-building, collaborative learning, restorative and trauma-informed practices, and Indigenous & land-based teachings."

Philippine Inquirer article

7/13/2017

It was a pleasure speaking to Walter Ang writer for the Philippine Inquirer about my work in the community. Maraming salamat/Many thanks for sharing the journey! - JSA

Image from "Singing Plants Redux" at the Subtle Technologies Festival 2017

Seed Bombs & Singing Plants

5/27/2017

Seed Bombs & Singing Plants
Subtle Technologies Festival
Co-Presented with Evergreen

Featuring the work of
Jo SiMalaya Alcampo
Amy Desjarlais (nee Tabobandung)
Ester Dulawan Tuldague
& Members of Kapwa Collective

Sunday June 25th, 2017
11:30 AM to 1 PM

Chimney Court in the Children’s Garden
at Evergreen Brick Works
550 Bayview Avenue, Toronto
Admission is free. All are welcome.

In celebration of National Aboriginal Day and the radiance of the Summer solstice, Jo SiMalaya Alcampo and friends will facilitate an all ages seed bomb playshop followed by a performance that features the Singing Plants installation as a live instrument. The afternoon’s activities will include traditional prayers, chants, and a participatory jam session with singing plants and indigenous instruments.

PROGRAMME:

11:30-12:00 PM
Native Wildflower Seed Bomb Playshop with Kapwa Collective
This playshop will feature a hands-on demonstration on how to create seed bombs, an age-old agricultural practice now used for guerrilla farming. Participants will combine seeds, clay and compost into small balls perfect for tossing in places in need of native wildflowers!

Singing Plants (Live)
12:00-1:00 PM

Amy Desjarlais (nee Tabobandung), Michele Perpaul, and Jen Maramba will open the event with songs from the Sacred Water Journey album.

Ester Dulawan Tuldague will share a solidarity statement and talk about the Hudhud, one of the songs that the plants sing. It is a epic chant indigenous to the Ifugao People.

Jo SiMalaya Alcampo will introduce the Singing Plants and will invite them to play with us!

Kapwa Collective members will engage the audience in an interactive activity that embodies the elements of wind, water, air and fire; and introduce us to the rhythms of Isinay gongs.

Kapwa Collective will then invite Jo, Ester, Amy and the audience to join in a group jam session with singing plants and indigenous instruments.

Hilot Means Healer (2017) Public Reading

5/21/2017

Please join Cahoots Theatre on June 18th for a pay-what-you-can reading of HILOT MEANS HEALER by Jo SiMalaya Alcampo. Directed by Nina Lee Aquino. Immediately following the reading, guests and community members are invited to stay and enjoy refreshments to celebrate the end of Cahoot's incredible 30th Anniversary season!

Sunday June 18, 2017

HILOT MEANS HEALER
2:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M.

CAHOOTS End of Season Party
4:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.

Space is limited, so please RSVP here.

Location:
The Ernest Balmer Studio
(Tapestry/Nightwood)
9 Trinity Street, Studio #316
3rd floor in Toronto's Distillery District

Wheelchair accessible space with freight elevator access from 15 Case Goods Lane.

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