The Arkipelago Arkives Project is back with this newly digitized treasure – perhaps the only video of one of Arkipelago’s Brainfood Sessions – with director Marilou Diaz-Abaya no less, whose film Jose Rizal recently remastered and screened in the Philippines this week! Check out this gem on the Arkipelago YouTube Channel: https://youtu.be/HVPzG0NFMC8?si=rv-PjucancK9jznT
Today marks Arkipelago’s first program director Susan Quimpo’s first birthday since she passed away last summer. To honor this first birthday in heaven, we wanted to share a prayer dedicated to her from her NYC memorial written and shared by Edwin Ramoran, one of Arkipelago’s previous program directors. May her memory be a radical inspiration for us all.
Novena for Susan (Spirit of us as her heaven)
O Filipinas, Ate / Manang Susan proclaimed this planet is our heaven. It is here on earth as it is in heaven as it is on terra as it is in langit.
From the tropical archipelago of LuzViMinda to the island of Manhattan and back and forth then to our personal, private islands, we speak and whisper and text and scream in acronyms
OCW
TNT
NPA
PNP
LFS
GNP
GDP
OA
Remain progressive. O Susan, keep us on a path against extrajudicial killings, fascists, demagogues, dictators, tyranny against the poor and downtrodden.
Remind us of our colonial and revolutionary ancestors. O Susan, we invoke you today as you have invoked our predecessors who gave us problematized nationality during legacies of oppression and imperialisms, wars, and holocausts.
Who’s a Fil-Fil and who’s a Fil-Am, anyways?
Why does it matter?
Black lives matter. Brown lives matter.
Because if we didn’t have these limiting terms, we wouldn’t be able to gather in unlimited masses, we can take our island chains and make a single link
Gifted
Unbreakable
Empathic
Uncompromising
Sustainable
Action
Relentless
Fierce
Aloha
Artivism
Kindness
Erupting
Intergenerational
United
Nurturing
Unusual
Curious
Remembering
Subversive
Intentional
Barangay / Barrio
Bahay / Balay
Lugar / Pasyar
Exilic
Grounded
Joking
Coffeed-up
Stomach filled up with merienda
Intersectional
Thoughtful
Breath
Humility
Resistance
Bayanihan
Atmospherics
Mabuhay
Rise Up
Loving
Solidarity
Kapwa
Moral insistence
Community
Rabble-rouser
Reduplicated
Reduplicated
Rabble-rouser
Mentoring
Healing
Laughter
Soul
Theatrical
Bat-Ha-La
Activism
Giving
O Filipinas, mother country full of diversity, diasporas fill you and diasporas leave you and return and return and return. Return. Balik na balik. Back and forth. Back and forward. A lily feeding towards the ground or lotus floating in deep space. Maraming Salamat po, ate / manang kapatid / kabsat Susan. Thank you for your direction and continued guidance. We wouldn’t be here without you. Agbiag ti tao. Agyamanak. Mahal kita. Amen.
Dedicated to George, Sarita and Rian.
This year marks the 27th anniversary since the very first Arkipelago event at Hunter College to mark Human Rights Day, on December 10, 1993.
For this year’s Filipino American History Month, organizing member, Erna Hernandez Barenio, represented Arkipelago on a panel that spanned decades of FilAm activism in NYC. It was FANHS Metro NY‘s third event in their Merienda Meetup Series! We had an opportunity to share about the work of Arkipelago in the 1990s as well as hear fellow NYC community members share their stories and memories of Filipino American Activism over the decades.
Tying in with the theme of the the “history of FilAm activism in New York”, the artivist legacy of Arkipelago was recognized by Filipino American National Historical Society – Metro NY Chapter.
This past August, NYC friends gathered for an online memorial to mark the month since the passing of Susan Quimpo, a Filipino activist, author, theater artist, and art therapist. Susan was an instrumental founding member and the first Program Director of Arkipelago. She was a dear friend and mentor to many of us in Arkipelago. Here is an excerpt from the memorial where current organizing members, Jodi Barias, Erna Hernandez Barenio, and Edwin Ramoran speak on her legacy within Arkipelago.
Founded in 1993, Arkipelago was a New York City-based, volunteer cultural arts organization whose mission was to encourage critical dialogue and promote community involvement in issues that concern the Philippines and the Filipino Diaspora through arts-related programs. Notable programs included their online art zine maARTe as well as Sa Pinilakang Tabing, their annual film and video festival, which in total featured over 100 works by up and coming filmmakers. Programs always included dialogue between artist and audience.
Arkipelago 