Revolutionary LOVE

Revolutionary AYAT

This project was awarded the 2022 Public Art for Spatial Justice grant from New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA)
Revolutionary Healing in Public : Reimagining Colonial Wounds in Public Monuments | NEFA Blog - 6.13.23 [Read blog post here]

Revolutionary AYAT (LOVE) | What Public Art Can Do

’I learned that public art can be facilitated to face terrifying histories of violence and genocide and can be used to question established narratives and instead center and enact an alternative ethics of care, healing, and solidarity. Through coming together with fellow Filipinx artists and educators in community circles and performance rituals it is possible to find common collective consciousness to do this cultural and social justice work. It has the power to not only heal intergenerational pain and loss but enable those who engage with the work to have a understanding of the current condition of the Filipinx diaspora.

This project changed the way I approach public monuments as a passive engagement and now I know that it is possible to directly face these structures by embodying counter narratives and using technology to interface and engage with the public in ways that divert any gatekeeping or limitations to public access.’

Revolutionary AYAT (2021-22), ayat is the Ilocano word for love and the parol lantern form is a symbol of the light of Philipnx/o/a hope and empowerment. This is a multimedia public art project and performance series, the first performance of the series was done in collaboration with Jamie Yancovitz - founder and educator of Survival Arts, in a ritual performance ceremony held on Memorial Day 2022 at The Hiker (Kitson) monument in Arsenal Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This statue was created by Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson and is one of 13 monuments throughout Mass., out of 50 reproduced across the United States. It was erected to commemorate the Spanish American War or more specifically the Philippine-American War and occupation of the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba; in addition to mentioning the China Relief Expedition also known as the Boxer Rebellion.

Revolutionary AYAT is a multimedia project of radical revolutionary intervention, deep care, and recognition of cultural belonging of Filipinx diaspora, bringing visibility to overshadowed and underwritten cultural histories. Using the media of augmented reality (AR), performance, and community public art this project questions established oppressive narratives and instead centers and enacts an alternative ethics of care, healing, and solidarity. This project is a multimedia collaborative community art intervention which aims to contest public narratives of war, colonialism, race, and migration.

Through the media of augmented reality (AR), performance, ritual, and community public art. This project uplifts the protection of Filipinx, non-binary, gender expansive and womxn identified BIPOC bodies who are most vulnerable against white supremacy, race hate crimes, and sexual assault. Part of this project incorporates a healing community circle - kali training, followed by a collaborative public performance with Survival Arts that aim is to protect the mind, body, and spirit against violence.

This work was performed on the unceded ancestral land of the Massachusett peoples, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge.

Focused initially on the specific site of The Hiker in Arsenal Square in Cambridge, MA this project eventually will expand to include each of the replicated statues throughout Massachusetts and the United States.


Project Reference:
Monumental Miseducation
History map by Jeromel Dela Rosa Lara

Performance ceremony ritual collab with Jamie Yancovitz from Survival Arts and joined by Fillipinx artist Cai Diluvio

PERFORMANCE: MAY 30, 2022 - ARSENAL SQ., CAMBRIDGE, MA (MAP HERE)

In this performance Asuncion takes the role of Babaylan, a healer who rings their kulintang across Arsenal Square down the street from Harvard. The voice of the gong moves through the air to create protection in a space that harbors hate and death, and attempts of erasure. Through this space of intention and care they weave an inabel of golds, reds, blues, and whites. It cloaks all of the performers in the Square, and beyond to those who hold their breath in hope for a future where our ancestors’ lives are honored and remembered.

Performance ceremony ritual collab with Survival Arts and Cai Diluvio
Memorial Day 2022 at Arsenal Square in Cambridge, Mass.
Photos by Nicolas Andrew

Survival Arts x Revolutionary Ayat

Public performance collaboration and hosting of self-protection training with Survival Arts

SURVIVAL ARTS TRAINING FOR SELF-PROTECTION
May 29 - Cambridge, MA

Survival Arts Academy was established by Jamie Yancovitz in Bacolod City, Philippines and online across the globe to protect womxn and girls against all forms of violence. 

Yancovitz works to build skills in situational awareness, self-protection against violence, and understanding the historical connections between liberation struggles across the globe, from the Philippines to Hawaii to Puerto Rico to Cuba, to the Indigenous and Black Liberation movements on Turtle Island also known as New York City. The pedagogy and praxis of Survival Arts Academy is rooted in a vision where mothers are honored as creators, children are empowered to be leaders of the future, and all members of the family are trained to be warriors. Training includes tactical movement, breath and energy work, while uncovering the stories of warriors and matriarchies of the past. Their movement teachings come from a long lineage of Kali, indigenous Filipino fighting arts, that has been protecting the family since 1897, and influenced militaries and fighting techniques for centuries. In response to the public narratives around the Spanish-American and Philippine-American War, and contextualizing the contributions, labor and sacrifices of Filipino-Americans since 1898 and throughout the 2019 pandemic, Survival Arts works to create space for intergenerational healing, historical truth-telling, and community education to protect against violence in many forms.

Survival Arts Training is for Self-Protection & community circle for pinay / pilipina / Filipinx, non-binary, gender expansive and woman-identified BIPOC. Survival Arts kali training is for community to protect mind, body, and spirit against violence.