Hip Hop as Survival Kit
May 24, 2019
6:30PM to 8:00 PM
An evening of music, performance, and dialogue on hip hop as a vehicle for Asian/Pilipinx American resistance, identity, and impact.
Featuring 1st gen brown-femme performance artist Sammay Dizon, dance artist Jonathan Mercado, rapper saxophonist Rocky G joined by musical guests Jomarie Calasanz and DJ DonDon, and poet Jason Bayani
Moderated by Joy Ng
Participants
Joy Ng is a San Francisco born-and-raised, Asian American community service worker, events organizer, and writer. Joy majored in Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, where she developed her research on Hip Hop and Asian American resistance, identity, and impact. Drawing from the roots of radical 1960s Bay Area social movements, her research examines Hip Hop as a vehicle for social justice, within carved out spaces— from classrooms to rap shows. Her work was recently published in a local anthology, titled Endangered Species, Enduring Values: An Anthology of San Francisco Area Writers of Color (2018).
Jonathan Mercado is an inter-disciplinarian Filipino-American artist born within the bay area. As a part of the Filipino diaspora within the U.S. he has often looked to discover more about his Filipino heritage and culture through movement. His movement is inspired through his experiences of hip-hop/urban choreography and Filipino folk dancing. He currently dances with Kularts under director Alleuia Panis and Parangal Dance Company under director Eric Solano. His passion will continue to guide his efforts of discovering his own dance vocabulary that reflects his personal experiences.
Rocky G, originally from Washington D.C., is a multi instrumentalist, composer, student, and educator with the Pinoy/Pinay Educational Partnerships. He is currently about to graduate with a Bachelors Degree in Cinema.
Sammay Dizon is a choreographer/producer and interdisciplinary artist of Kapampangan, Ilokano, and Bikol descent who envisions a future where our indigenous traditions co-exist with(in) our urban landscapes. Born and raised in LA County/Tongva Territory and now a settler in San Francisco/Yelamu, she invokes ancestral healing and ritual within/around the intersection of performance art, dance theatre, music, and multimedia; their role as kinetic storyteller and healer is ancient medicine from their maternal lineage. SAMMAY is the Founding Artistic Director of URBAN x INDIGENOUS, Founding Member of I Moving Lab, and Core Member of Embodiment Project. SAMMAY holds a B.A. in Media Studies and Sociology with minors in Dance & Performance Studies and Global Poverty & Practice from UC Berkeley.
Jason Bayani is a graduate of Saint Mary’s MFA program in Creative Writing. He is a Kundiman fellow and a veteran of the National Poetry Slam scene whose work has been published in Fourteen Hills, Muzzle Magazine, Mascara Review, the National Poetry Slam anthology, Rattapallax, Write Bloody’s classroom anthology–– Learn Then Burn, and other publications. As a member of 7 National Poetry Slam teams, he’s been a National Poetry Slam finalist and represented Oakland at the International World Poetry Slam. He is also one of the founding members of the Filipino American Spoken Word troupe, Proletariat Bronze, and has been an organizer for the Asian and Pacific Islander Poetry and Spoken Word Summit. His first book, “Amulet” was published in 2013 through Write Bloody Press and has garnered acclaim in literary magazines such as Zyzzyva and Glint. He is currently the program manager for Kearny Street Workshop (the oldest multi-disciplinary Asian Pacific American multi-disciplinary arts organization in the country).