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  • Empowering women post-Super Typhoon Haiyan: Two Filipina women exchange big smiles, Bantayan Island, Visayas, Philippines, 2015. Photo by Cecilia L
  • Sunrise at the dock: Filipino workers and traditional Philippine banca (boats), Camarines Sur, Bicol, Luzon, Philippines, 2015. Photo by Cecilia L
  • Provincial living: A Filipino man walks his goats in front of a sari-sari store and a coconut palm-fence, behind which a Filipina woman looks out. Above them, coconut palms sway and a large mango tree's leaves rustle in the breeze, Barangay Olo-Olo, Lobo, Batangas, Luzon, Philippines, 2018. Photo by Cecilia L
project leader
Cecilia L
location
54-22 Skillman Ave
(Woodside)
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the project

Remember Y(our) Connection / Tandaan Ang Ating Ugnayan is a public participatory art project in support of environmental justice. Through storytelling, live drawing, photographs, and video, this project will: uplift the experiences of immigrant Filipinos/as/xs in NYC; be documented and shared publicly through social media; and be exhibited at the Queens Library in Woodside in Summer 2019. 

As a Pacific island nation, the Philippines is on the frontline of climate change. Solving climate change will require us to prioritize our connections to ourselves and each other. In this project, we will interview, in Tagalog and in English, members of the NYC Filipino/a/x community, especially womxn-identified and younger immigrants. Community members will share how they tap into their inner resilience in the process of staying connected to the people and places in the Philippines they hold dear: the ways their environment, featuring these people and places, have changed over time; and ways they stay connected to their environment. These stories will remind us of our connections to ourselves and each other, and inspire us to work together for climate justice.

As community members share their stories, we will create live drawings based on their stories. Community members will keep the illustrations as reminders of their fortitude, and will be inspired by local, national, and international environmental justice efforts printed on the backs of the illustrations. We will publicly share photos and video, along with story highlights, in a dedicated Instagram feed. The Queens Library in Woodside will exhibit project photographs and video in Summer 2019. Concurrent to the exhibition, we will lead interactive workshops for members of the broader Queens community to reflect on the exhibit; examine their own experiences related to culture and the environment; and envision a role for themselves toward creating a sustainable world.

Remember Y(our) Connection / Tandaan Ang Ating Ugnayan Project Team
Lead Artist: Cecilia Lim
Supporting Artists: Allistaire Javier, AL Caballes, Marin Watts
Video Editor: Luce Capco Lincoln

This campaign aims to raise just over half of the total project budget. The remaining funds have been secured through a grant from the Queens Council on the Arts with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

the steps

January–February 2019 - Confirm project team. Confirm session dates with project team and Filipinx community-based groups. Confirm exhibition and workshop dates with Queens Library in Woodside.

February–March 2019 - Finalize interview questions, design for illustration template (border and header), and content for back of illustration. Develop key/legend for illustrations, incorporating Baybayin (indigenous Filipino script) and batek (indigenous Filipino tattoo) designs. Produce illustration templates (front and back).

March–April 2019 - Conduct interviews with community members. Post photos and video to Instagram the same day.

April–May 2019 - Select 15-20 stories to share. Create short video for exhibition. Prepare photos and other materials for exhibition.

June–August 2019 – Install, exhibit, and conduct concurrent programming at Queens Library in Woodside.

why we're doing it

The Philippines is one of the top five countries most impacted by climate change (Global Climate Risk Index 2017), and Woodside is home to the largest Filipino/a/x community in NYC. Filipino womxn and young people bear the brunt of climate change, and they have the knowledge to lead us toward solutions for climate change. This project aims to amplify their voices. 61% of NYC’s total Filipino/a/x population lives in Queens. The Philippines is ethnically and culturally rich, with more than 175 ethnolinguistic groups.

Through this project, we will bring hope to immigrant Filipino/a/x/ community members and possibly inspire them to lead climate justice work; deepen Queens residents’ understanding of the Philippines, its people, and its cultural traditions, especially of the indigenous knowledge that has been passed down through generations of how to live in harmony with the land, sea, and each other; and inspire Queens residents to build a community culture of respect and mutual support.

We are a team of immigrant and first-generation U.S.-born artists of Filipino/a/x heritage who are committed to using our creative skills toward the goal of building and strengthening sustainable communities. This requires disrupting dominant narratives of separation and division and uplifting respect and care for each other and unity in our common humanity. This project will create spaces in which marginalized peoples share their stories and offer a perspective of hope and possibility. In turn, members of the broader community have a chance to listen, learn, be inspired, and be moved to act to effect positive change, together.

budget

Disbursed Budget:

Original Budget: Revised based on collected via ioby
Artist fees (Team of four (4) artists): $4,073.40
Outside Professional Services: $1,000
Materials and Printing: $700
Marketing: $250
Travel and Meals: $230
Fundraising Costs: $250
 
Total Project Budget: $6,503.40
 
Queens Council on the Arts Grant: -$3,000
In-kind Donation to Offset Fundraising Costs: -$250
 


RAISED = $3,386.00
less ioby Platform Fee $35.00
less ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $97.60
TOTAL TO DISBURSE = $3,253.40

 

Original Budget:

Artist fees (Team of four (4) artists): $4,000
Outside Professional Services: $1,000
Materials and Printing: $700
Marketing: $250
Travel and Meals: $230
Fundraising Costs: $250

Total Project Budget: $6,430

Queens Council on the Arts Grant: -$3,000
In-kind Donation to Offset Fundraising Costs: -$250



SUBTOTAL = 3,180
ioby Platform Fee $35
ioby Donation Processing Fee (3%) $95
TOTAL TO RAISE = $3,310

 

updates

What We Did, and What's Next!

Posted 01/22/2020 - 2:53pm

Dearest supporters,

Those of you who follow the Remember Y(our) Connection / Tandaan Ang Ating Ugnayan project's Instagram and/or Facebook know that we closed out the first phase strong. After our opening event at the Queens Public Library with 60 community members in attendance and amazing cultural performances by Kinding Sindaw, we held four drawing & storytelling workshops. Through art, community members supported each other to think about the ways they can love and protect the people and places we hold dear. Our photo exhibit and short documentary film engaged hundreds at multiple gatherings including the Bliss on Bliss Art Project in Sunnyside and Anakbayan's Linggo ng Samahan in Woodside. The project was featured in Balitang America, The FilAm Magazine, and Inquirer.net, reaching yet more everyday people. I am currently in conversation with the Socrates Sculpture Park in Astoria to do a drawing & storytelling workshop at their Queens Green Day festival on June 6!

Deepest gratitude to you again for financially supporting the project! It is with your generosity that we've been able to create space for hearts and minds to engage with the issue of our times; recognize the ways we are already taking steps to resolve the crisis; and think together about how we can further work together to end the crisis. The response has been wonderful, and I am inspired to do more culture-based work to end the climate crisis. A second phase of the project is underway and a third phase is planned! I hope you will continue to support this work as generously as you can. Look out for an email launching the next community-funding campaign on the ioby.org platform, within the next week!

With love and appreciation,
Cecilia

photos

This is where photos will go once we build flickr integration

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