Confronting Appropriation in Artistic/Creation Work and the Struggle to Re-member Self

In the work of Decolonization, confronting our contradictions and the ways in which we hold Colonial ties is crucial to our true liberation. Jana Lynne “JL” Umipig is an Artist, Activist, Educator whose Sacred Work as Cultural Bearer seeks to heal self and community and holds Decolonial mentality at the forefront of her movements, her relations and all her living. She has worked to create pedagogy and codify process and practices that seek to support future generations in the continued work of Decolonization, with the vision of supporting the creation of a Post Colonial, liberated world.

In this interactive, expressive webinar workshop, JL will share core teachings of her Decolonization, Anti-Imperial, and Radical Liberation pedagogies that she has shared in classrooms, community circles and with relations globally. Using the Arts as a central tool to this work, this workshop space will provide foundational tools of creation for individual and communal Decolonization work in the pursuit of healing and liberation and ask participants to do deep inquiry of Self, Lineage, Community, and Connection.

About Jana Lynne "JL" Umipig

Jana Lynne "JL" Umipig is the daughter of Rosemarie Caldetera Umipig and Godofredo Peralta Umipig. A 2nd Generation Ilokana, born and raised in the Kingdom of Hawaii and currently living on Lenape Territory (in the Bronx, NYC) JL received her BA in Theatre at the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at the University of California, Irvine (where she spent 3 years organizing with the collegiate organization Kababayan) and her MA at New York University in Educational Theatre for Communities emphasizing participatory and social justice oriented theatre. She also studied Physical Theatre and Mask work at the Commedia dell’Arte in Arezzo, Italy. She has a certification with the Empowerment Institute through her role as a founding member of the Global Justice Institute at El Puente - one of the leading Afro-Latinx education and community activation organizations.

She has traveled to communities throughout the world sharing her cultivated knowledge of processes that activate and support self and community healing and empowerment. Particularly, JL has committed herself to bringing the presence of her ancestors from the Philippine diaspora into every space, with cultural teachings and practices being implemented in all of her work. She is the creator of The Journey of a Brown Girl and Raised Pinay reflective of her “Theatre as Ceremonial Liberation” and “For the Movement Theatre” pedagogies. She is also the creator of Kapwa Tarot, a diasporic Pilipinx divination tool that has been exchanged across the US and all over the world including Singapore, China, Australia, France, the UK and the Philippines

She is a core member of The Center for Babaylan Studies and a practitioner at Minka Brooklyn. Through these central communities in her life extends sacred space for Pilipinx Kapwa seeking to learn and remember healing practice, ritual/ceremony and knowledge connected to our ancestral traditions. She has been uplifted in her Spiritual Learnings by Indigenous teachers from the Philippines and throughout the Global Diaspora.

Currently JL is a founding Theatre Teacher creating a 4 year Revolutionary Theatre Program at a high school in East Brooklyn where she works to “Rehearse Revolution” with her students and prepare them to enact change for liberation in their lives and the world.

Webpage: www.janalynnecreativeproductions.com

Instagram: @jlcreator

Facebook: Jana Lynne Umipig