Pilipinx Virtual Histories is a collaboration between Kearny Street Workshop and Balay Kreative that explores the cultural impact of the Filipinx and Asian American arts activism community in San Francisco.

This two-part event celebrates the launch of the AR/VR project, Pilipinx Virtual Histories, and an exhibition, kalayaan (till every grass blade is afire from every other) which opens at ARC Gallery (1246 Folsom Street) on June 19.

Pilipinx Virtual Histories as part of the USAAF Festival
Supported by API Cultural Center
June 17, 2021 - 7-9PM

Join us for the launch of the Pilipinx Virtual Histories AR film vignette series with lead artists Kristian Kabuay, ClarizeYale Revadavia, and Jason Bayani, a curator’s walkthrough of kalayaan (till every grass blade is afire from every other), and a panel discussion with SF-based Artist Activists Kristian Kabuay, ClarizeYale Revadavia, Rupert Estanislao and Joel Tan.

Pilipinx Virtual Histories

Led by collaborating artists Kristian Kabuay, ClarizeYale Revadavia, and under the Artistic Direction of Jason Bayani (KSW), this Augmented Reality project presents four vignettes that follow the stories of SF Pilipinx Artist-Activists Claire Amable, Rupert Estanislao, Jessica Hagedorn, and Joel Tan. Each vignette re-animates the hidden histories of how each Artist-Activist grew their consciousness around community in specific neighborhoods of San Francisco, especially SoMa and Chinatown/Manilatown.

kalayaan (till every grass blade is afire from every other)

As part of a larger oral history project called Pilipinx Virtual Histories, kalayaan (till every grass blade is afire from every other) responds to a recurring theme in interviews with San Francisco Pilipinx artists of different generations: the cultural freedom that is possible in spaces beyond the bounds of mainstream society. The exhibition explores what it has meant for Pilipinx artists to work in these spaces of freedom, also known as the underground. Drawing connections between different spaces, times, & genres, kalayaan will exhibit archives of zines, photos, & ephemera documenting their histories; kiosks for independent bookstores & record labels currently circulating underground material culture; & artwork reflecting on & continuing the legacies seeded in these autonomous zones. To bring these disparate elements together, the gallery will be transformed into a multifunctional space associated with the underground known as an infoshop (often called a “cross between a radical bookstore & a movement archive”). As an active community space, the infoshop will invite people to participate as archivists, researchers, & producers of material culture.

Curated by Colin Choy Kimzey

Opens at ARC Gallery 1246 Folsom Street on June 19, 12-3pm
Gallery hours: Wednesday & Thursday 1-6PM, Saturdays 12-3PM.