2020 Lakbai Diwa, Diasporic Spirit Reflections
Streets of Diwatas
Bonifacio Street & Lapu Lapu Street
October 24, 2020
Diasporic Spirit Dance Ritwal
Yerba Buena Gardens & Sundays Streets Undiscovered SF
October 24-25, 2020
YERBA BUENA GARDEN FESTIVAL
Kularts’ Lakbai Diwa Ritwal
A few weeks ago, Yerba Buena Gardens was one of the presentation sites of @kulartspresents ' and Artistic Director Alleluia Panis' living dance prayer Lakbai Diwa Dance Ritwal. YBG Festival is honored to have been a part of a spiritual and inspiring project.
Watch highlights from the beautiful project in Kulart’s video.
JO CRUZ
Streets of Diwata Organizer
LAKBAI DIWA: STREETS OF DIWATA | Happy Filipino-American History Month! For the last two months, I have been working intimately alongside Alleluia Panis and the Kularts Team (Hana Sun Lee, Wilfred Galila, and Tino Lagahid) to help produce a multi-disciplinary public project called Lakbai Diwa as the Production Organizer. It's been a humble honor and privilege to be a part of this project and phenomenal team of Pilipino-American creatives offering a medicine path for the people during this pandemic.
The Lakbai Diwa Production Team acknowledges the indigenous people of Turtle Island, the land in which we currently dwell and are building roots for ourselves and our families. We recognize that we are conducting our creative and spiritual work on the traditional lands of the Ramaytush People in Yelamu, and pay our respect to elders both past and present. In a sincere effort to build a good relationship and be in solidarity with the original peoples of our regions, we invited Kanyon Sayers-Roods (Mutsun-Ohlone and Chumash) to join us before we began our “Streets of Diwata” Street Mural Project to properly acknowledge the land and people, as well as to bless the space for Lakbai Diwa.
My main focus for this project was to get the Streets of Diwata Mural Project on the ground and running. The mural project featured some of the dopest Pilipino-American muralists including Cece Carpio, Mel Vera Cruz, Paolo Salazar, and Audiopharmacy Pham - Nikila MamaWisdom + Dee Jae Paeste! Giving thanks for all the good folks who came through to support the artists complete their visions to form including Mariela Montero, Gaby Runnström + Jenn Ban. Special shouts out to my partner-in-love and Streets of Diwata assistant, Teao Sense for all your help to bring ease and flow throughout our day with your resourcefulness, good energy and amazing music selection! Last, but not least, a special thank you to my brother Marco Senghor and Bissap Baobab Village for providing us with the delicious nourishment we needed to keep up with the demands of the day!
Through this journey, I have learned so much about the power of who we are as Kapwa when we connect with our ancestors and guides to cultivate community, create inspiring endeavors and mindfully transcend the blocks of harmony in our lives. Our ability as Kapwa to compost the fear, hate + violence happening in our communities by activating our shared humanity, allows us to transmute our pain + struggle it into unconditional love that can empower generations of Kapwa towards the essential co-liberation that is needed to heal our people and our planet.
If you feel called, please go to https://www.kularts-sf.org/streets-of-diwata for more information on the intentional vision + prayers behind Lakbai Diwa: Streets of Diwata. We encourage our community to do socially-distant, self-guided tour before the pieces transcend and are offered up into the ethers (approx. 1-2 weeks).
Here are some photos I took + edited from our painting session this past Saturday. I hope they bring you all as much joy, empowerment and vision for a more just and sustainable world. Extra potent prayers for peace and abundance to my family and the people of the Philippines through these changing times. You have everything within you because you are an embodiment of Creator's divine love. Our ancestors + guides are with us always to help light the way home - full circle
LYNN ROGERS
On Sunday Streets performance
It was such a beautiful event, powerful energy, high spirit. So love Alleluia’s artistry, vision and movement vocabulary... always have and still do; her works speak. Beautiful day ... So great to be able to be present in that safe outdoor space after these many months.
DEE JAE PA’ESTE
Streets of Diwata Muralist
Dee Jae Pa’este. Photo by Jo Cruz.
Feeling blessed and balanced going into another year of life for my Birthday and closing the circle from a long journey of being away from home in the Bay Area in Cali and connecting it to my new home in the Philippines. I’m honored to have been able to create some art in San Francisco at a very historical site for Filipino-Americans on Lapu Lapu & Bonifacio street in the SOMA district with the amazing folks of @kulartspresents and my fam @love_speak_productions @audiopharmacy with the help of my amazing wife @gaby.storm getting down on the floor with me to bring this earth goddess to life. I haven’t painted in SF in almost 10 years so it’s great to feel the energy of the city and to also have the chance to vibe out with a few other Filipino and Fil-Am artists for this Lakbai Diwa street mural project. Tapping into what I’ve been building and working on back in the Philippines and getting to share it with back here in San Francisco is very special to me. I’m very thankful to still be able create art during these times and also to be back home for a while to be with my family and friends. It’s Definitely setting the intention to end the year on a more creative note and hopefully to get back to sharing more art and light with everyone.
GIOVANNI ORTEGA
Diasporic Spirit Dance Ritwal Dancer
I carried pain inside of me on my way to San Francisco just as I did when working with Alleluia in 2009 for POMO when we first met. She welcomed my pain then as she did now. From nurturing the child into dispersing the DiwaTa, the current experience came in a dream over a month ago as I delved into unraveling fodder I had recently consumed. She welcomed the navigation of a binary orientation during Kalayaan, and now she allowed my evolution into the portal of acceptance and effervescence of gender identity dualities in Lakbai Diwa. The experience reached above and beyond sensorial manifestation landing on the primal spiritual essence.
Langit, Lupa, Kaluluwa. Lakbai Diwa.
CLAUDINE DEL ROSARIO
Diasporic Spirit Dance Ritwal Dancer
Photo by Erina C. Alejo.
Thank you @kulartspresents for bringing us together in ceremony and dance for #lakbaidiwa #filipinoamericanhistorymonth
Amidst a pandemic, racial reckoning, unprecedented fires and climate change, and an imminent election —this was necessary grounding, healing and conjuring. Forever in gratitude to Manai, my fellow dancers and musicians.
Mel Vera Cruz. Photo by Erina C. Alejo.
MEL VERA CRUZ
Streets of Diwata Muralist, on Kanyon’s land acknowledgement & permission
“tatlong araw masakit likod ko. buti di bumigay. offering para sa mga nauna dito. alam nyo kasi tuwing pupunta ako ng sf, ramdam kong may mga mangkukulam na kampi sa dark side na pinagtri-tripan ako. i cant explain it with words pero ramdam ng budhi ko yan. may mga senyales akong nakikita like patterns na nung pinagdugtong dugtong ko, saka lang malalaman so napaka importante sa akin na ma bless kami ng isang ninuno ng orig dito kasi sila ang tunay na may karapatan dito kaya feeling ko, 'protection' ng spirit ang mga blessings na ito kaya yun ang bottomline sa akin ng mga pangyayari. bow at luhod lang ako. salamat. for me po, kailangan at importanteng igalang at irespeto natin ang mga nalimutang katotohanan kasi dyan tayo nakatayo. tumba tayo pag nabura yan. cheers everyone. thank you!!!”
CARLITO CAMAHALAN AMALLA
2-ft Spirit Boat designer
“The sounds are cosmic. The ritualistic choreography is mystic.”
RAMON ABAD
“My soul feels full after witnessing my first real, LIVE dance performance since lock-down - yesterday Alleluia Panis DanceTheater performed ‘Diasporic Spirit Dance Ritwal’ on the streets of SF. Zoom is NO replacement to live dance!
Congrats to director Alleluia for pushing thru barriers in order to perform her work in this time of Covid!
Kudos to Joshua Icban & his fellow musicians & dancers for healing us all with their art!
Alleluia told me that they rehearsed in outdoor parking lots at City College & the back yard of her home - that undaunted spirit of to-do-what-it-takes to get a work done is a true inspiration to me!
Congrats, Alleluia Panis DanceTheater!”
ARLEN LENNY PABROS GUERRERO
Sunday Streets Undiscovered SF Dance Ritwal performance
Sunday Streets Undiscovered SF, Diasporic Spirit Dance Ritwal
“Yesterday was such a gorgeous day in San Francisco to see a colorful & moving dance ritual presented by Kul Arts. It was fun to use some creativity to help decorate some of the ceremonial boats with live greenery and flowers. Masks, social distancing and hand sanitizers were in place. Even the dancers had lovely masks that didn't take away from their intricate, beautiful costumes. So good to see live performance!!”
EARL ALFRED PAUS
Diasporic Spirit Dance Ritwal Dancer, post production
Ocean beach shoot. Photo by Erina C. Alejo.
“My heart is so full and heavy with spirit. So thankful to be a vessel to be used in this project. Honored & forever grateful to everyone involved to Manai to the Lee sandwich worker who made those sandwiches for us that were then bought by the people in the Undiscovered tent and were then declined by some of us who were too full to eat them cuz of the amazing Dinosaurs lol. I can't sum up everything that I'm feeling but I was connecting with a raven on a trash can at the beach right before we shot @ Ocean Beach and I'm remembering the hawk chillin during our rehearsal @ YBG- these lower realm beings continue to provide me with energy and give spirit to things I cannot express fully with words. What a powerful group of creators.”
(Left to Right) Teao Thompson, Cece Carpio, Jo Cruz. Photo by Erina C. Alejo.
TEAO THOMPSON
Streets of Diwata Assistant, on IG @teaosense featuring mural designs
"#FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth Today we honor our Pilipino-American community and @audiopharmacy collective members who are dedicated to the thriving cultural heritage of Pilipino people in the motherland, in the diaspora, and here on Turtle Island. It is with great honor that we share our latest endeavors supporting the vision of #FilipinoAmerican and #SanFrancisco legacy artist, @alleluiasfprojects and @kulartspresents - the premier presenter of contemporary + tribal Pilipino arts in the US 🙌🏽📿✊🏽"
For the last two months, AP members @love_speak_productions @nikila_mamawisdom1 @deejae408 have been working intimately with Manai Alleluia for a project called Lakbai Diwa: Streets of Diwata.”
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Cece Carpio with mural. Photo by Erina C. Alejo.
CECE CARPIO
Streets of Diwata Muralist
Thank you @kulartspresents for bringing us together and allowing us to paint the streets of Lapu Lapu and Bonificio with the Lakbai Diwa elements to show our spirits of resilience. More flicks coming up.