The Museum of Contemporary Art presents Jo SiMalaya Alcampo: Singing Plants, as part of the Art of Propagation performative speaker series that aims to broaden perspectives on art and culture through acts, thinking and projects of cultivation, fermentation and propagation.

Jo will introduce us to the Singing Plants – keepers of indigenous knowledge, stories and memory. These banana plants respond to human touch with songs – the Hudhud chant of the Ifugao people – and sounds of bamboo instruments and gongs indigenous to the Philippines.

March 14, 2018
7 PM - 9 PM
Henderson Brewing Co., 128A Sterling Road
Free event

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.

I am honoured to share Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory at the 4th Annual Asinabka Film & Media Arts Festival. Celebrating Indigenous Arts in unceded Algonquin territory.

August 19-23, 2015
www.asinabkafestival.org 
twitter: asinabkafest

Thank you to Jennilee Austria for writing about HILOT MEANS HEALER for The Philippine Reporter. Here's a link to the article. 

Maraming salamat / many thanks to the community of artists, healers, and critical thinkers for helping me grow my play. - JSA


(Photo: Jo SiMalaya Alcampo, Playwright-in-Residence with her dramaturge and Cahoots Artistic Director, Marjorie Chan.  Courtesy of J. Austria)

LIFT OFF! Festival at Cahoots Theatre
All events are free and held at Cahoots Creation Studio





FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2015 @ 8pm
Cahoot Theatre presents 
a free public reading of HILOT MEANS HEALER 
By Jo SiMalaya Alcampo 
Playwright-in-Residence, supported by Diaspora Dialogues

Set in World War II in the Philippines, Jo’s interdisciplinary historical drama about one family’s attempt to heal soul wounds born from atrocities and occupation, through the touch of plants and the hope found in the garden of a healer.
 
& 

SUNDAY, JUNE 21, 2015 @ 7 pm
Storytelling by Hot House Play Creation Unit playwrights
Theme: "Shaken Roots"

Jo SiMalaya Alcampo is joining a group of Diaspora Dialogues authors for a day of readings at the secret Heritage Room, a crypt-like space underneath the Metropolitan United Church, as part of Doors Open Toronto.

They’ll read excerpts from their works, as well as selections of works that have been censored or banned, both at home and abroad, and speak about underground writing.  Gain access to this secret subterranean space and experience works — formerly or currently — buried by repressive governments, schools, and religious organizations the world over.

Readings all day, from 11 am – 4 pm. Check out DiasporaDialogues.com for the full list of authors.

When: Saturday, May 24
Time: 11 am – 4 pm
Where: Metropolitan United Church, 56 Queen Street East
Cost: Free!

Labour + LOVE is a celebration of Caregivers featuring storytelling, spoken word, and musical performances.

Kwentong Bayan in collaboration with CCESO (Caregiver Connections) will present stories from their comic book combined with live illustrations and audio soundscapes.

Special guests include Mahlikah Awe:ri, Lishai, Haniely Pableo, PANTAYO, Zak’isha Brown & Randell Adjei.

Kwentong Bayan: Labour of Love is a community based comic book project, created by Toronto-based artists Althea Balmes (illustrator) and Jo SiMalaya Alcampo (writer) in collaboration with caregivers and supporters, about the real life stories of Filipina migrant workers. Caregivers share how they resist the exploitative structure of the Live-in-Caregiver Program, while creating a community where they can care for their well-being.

Sunday May 11, 2014
2 pm - 5 pm
Beit Zatoun, 612 Markham Street
$5-10 PWYC admission, no one turned away at the door.
Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible ramp at entrance, washrooms are not accessible

Co-presented by Beit Zatoun.  Co-sponsored by Neighbourhood Arts Network, Another Story Bookshop, and FADO Performance Art Centre

This event is part of the 29th annual Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts, taking place from May 1 - 15, 2014 at various GTA locations.  For more details on this year's program, artists, and festival partners, please visit www.mayworks.ca

I am honoured to be the new Playwright-in-Residence for
2014 - 2015 at Cahoots Theatre Company supported by Diaspora Dialogues.   Over the next year, I will develop my historical drama "Hilot Means Healer" set in WWII in the Philippines.  There will most certainly be Singing Plants.

I am grateful to Carlos Bulosan Theatre for helping me grow these stories in their Play Creation Unit.  Maraming Salamat/Many thanks for the community love and support. I look forward to creating interdisciplinary art together.  - jsa

i accepted an invitation to present my installation, Singing Plants Reconstruct Memory at the KAPWA-3 Conference on Indigenous Knowledges in the Academe to be held at the University of the Philippines in Baguio City from June 28 to 30, 2012.

KAPWA-3 will convene scholars from diverse Philippine universities and Schools of Living Traditions, cultural workers and artists who are actively involved with preserving Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP) in their lifeworks.  There will be international discussants from Japan, Thailand, Mongolia, the USA and Canada whose research points to the importance of IKSP in formal education.

i will be journeying with a group of Filipino-Canadian healers, artists, and critical thinkers from Toronto: Aimee Gomez, Jennifer Maramba, Christine Balmes, and Kristen Sison.  we are committed to sharing the learning process with our communities.  so in truth, you will be journeying with us. 

peace/katahimikan
jsa

maraming salamat / many thanks to Kidlat Tahimik, Dr. Katrin de Guia, and the Heritage and Arts Academies of the Philippines (H.A.P.I.) team for their support.

learn more about our kapwa journey