May 2021 Program Updates

May 2021

CIRCA Pintig Program Updates Report

Introduction May is a busy month for our community. Not only have school programs wrapped up, celebrations for AAPI have been underway. This report shares some updates regarding programs for CP. Community partnerships and collaborations have kept us busy along with the excitement of having Louie on board as our Artistic Director.

Mentorship Program This academic year, we mentored a total of six undergraduate students from the University of Michigan and UIC. A big thanks to Angela Ebreo, Ph.D. and Rooshey Hasnain, Ed.D. for partnering with us. The students learned about CPs process for collecting community stories and we met regularly to prepare them for their creative arts and social justice research projects.

Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) At the University of Michigan, we mentored three students: Olive J., Zekai Z., and Sockhna D. During the course of their internship with us, they supported our plans for cataloging our productions for the past 30 years, 30 for 30, initiated outreach to CP members and supporters, created a survey, and conducted interviews. Below are their final posters:

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DHD 400: Capstone Scholars At UIC, we also mentored three students. Here is the introduction to their project:

“We are students from the University of Illinois at Chicago, currently working on a research project with CIRCA-pintig for our DHD 400 capstone project. Our names are Isabel Guillen, Alan Palacios, and Aena Patel. Our goal is to learn more about artists with disabilities and learn more about what their art portrays and what it means to the artist themselves. We would like to see the perspective of one's art through this lens and we are hoping to learn more about people and their art. Our main topic focuses on “ what is the story behind the artwork and the artist?”

We hope to open the doors to learn more about different artists and hear about their work and story.”

Similarly, they pursued contacting individuals to interview and created a survey. The scholars ultimately wrote an article about artists with disabilities, information we can add to our website to build awareness and support for mental health and individuals with disabilities .

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Racial Healing - Community Workshops In response to the rise in Anti-Asian hate, we are conducting monthly workshops for our community members:

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Racial Healing and the Subversion of Hate: An interactive conversation on confronting the impact of racial violence and the role of the arts in subverting the culture of hate against Asian Americans 3rd Thursday of Each Month, 7:00-8:30 pm CDT April 22 - Session 1: “You don’t belong here, Go back to where you come from!”

May 20 - Session 2: Policing the Asian Body: Regulating ‘Otherness’ as Threat to White Privilege June 18 - Session 3: Interrogating the Asian Body in Western Storytelling: The Politics of Representation July 16 - Session 4: Pursuing a Counter-Narrative: De-racialising the diasporic body August 20 - Session 5: Is theatre Political or pure contemplation?

September 17 - Session 6: Re-thinking Drama as Resistance in the Era of Anti-Asian Hate October 22 - Session 7: Creating Inclusive and Participatory Healing through the Arts & KAPWA psychology November 19 - Session 8: Sharing our Creative Expressions DECEMBER 10 - International Human Rights Day Showcase - Monthly Beat

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CIRCA STEAM Launched this month, with workshops starting in June, we are excited to delve into programming with families and children. The lessons include training educators, parents, and community members, along with facilitation of STEAM and integrated arts with preschoolers to school aged children. This program will also foster Jr. ATORS for our new generation of CIRCA youth members. Weekly meetings and training with Tita Ging, Louie, and Gigi Carunungan have been occurring. Our community partnership with Planovate has us training early childhood educators in NY. Bonnie Mallonga, Ph.D. is the COO for the Future of America Learning Center.

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Additional Community Collaborations ●

Invitation to speak as a social justice panelist at the Illinois Theatre Association’s Innovate Conference 4/30/21

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● AAPI Celebration for TRILOGY

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● Chicago History Museum AAPI Virtual Event in Collaboration with the Filipino American Historical Society - Saturday, May 29th. We’ll be presenting a reading of JOURNEY FOR JUSTICE ● GoFundMe for Rizal Center attended a meeting held at Seafood City for organizers for saving the Rizal Center. Tito Jerry and Tita Sally were there along with other community members to discuss updates regarding the case. Rose Tibayan is working on a documentary to tell the story about what has happened and fundraising efforts are in place to continue the fight in hopes of regaining control over the Rizal Center after the abrupt takeover in 2017. CP as an cultural organization is involved as we were in talks of having programs at the center back in 2017. ● AAP(I BELONG)

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● May Monthly Beat: Saturday, MAy 29th at 6:30pm CDT Featuring Lani A. Montreal’s Panther in the Sky, Community & Workshop Creative Response "I am a settler. I take care of you." Rephrasing the phrase - Go back to where you came from! ~ Melanya Liwanag Aguila #pintig30yearsanniversary #stopasianhate #queerpinaypowertruth #stopaapihate

● Piyesta Pinoy Program plans - CP will be supporting by having CIRCA Youth film introductions to the line-up 10

● Community Pantry Kwentuhan

● ENERI Communications 3.1 feature ● ENERI Communications 3.2 feature ● The Talk with Rose Tibayan feature Additional News: ● Accepted into the Ed.D. program at University of the Potomac, began in April 2021 ● Chosen to be a CLC Fellow for Summer of 2021, updates regarding the project will be relayed soon!

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