ART CAN BE A COLLECTIVE WAY FOR OUR COMMUNITY TO HEAL
On Saturday, Jan. 21, auditions were held in in Los Angeles at a dance studio for “On this Side of the World” — a world premiere musical about the Filipino immigrant experience, presented by East West Players, the nation’s largest and longest running Asian American theater. Many fellow artists auditioning live and work in the diverse nearby community of Monterey Park.
It was extraordinary. This sort of Filipino project is a rarity in the creative industry. It was a unique gathering of Asian American artists — peers, glowing with pride and solidarity. But that same evening, a gunman struck a different dance studio just 7 miles away from us.
In a phenomenon that is becoming ever more routine but getting no less horrifying, senseless violence overshadowed our joy.
Maraya Performing Arts was launched in March 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It was a risky and fateful decision — it was a critical time for historically underrepresented artists to claim their space in the spotlight.
As a seasoned nonprofit arts leader, Anjanette had usually worked behind the curtain — watching predominately her White colleagues on center stage. It took simultaneously surviving a three-year battle with leukemia and enduring numerous business shutdowns to take a leap of faith.
We grew a team of diverse and passionate individuals, many of whom were Asian American or people of color — who had also long been overlooked for their skills and talents.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic unleashed a wave of hate directed at Asian people — as a fear that the virus had been the product of some foreign conspiracy blended into anti-Asian racism that has been a part of the U.S. since Chinese laborers started coming to the continent in the 19th century.
We did what we could. We offered free healing dance classes taught by our Asian American Pacific Islander teaching artists to unite seemingly disparate communities in solidarity through the arts. An essential sense of connection was stripped from us during the COVID-19 lockdowns — but this provided Asian American Pacific Islander artists with the opportunity to reflect upon the violence and paranoia directed against Asian Americans and try to cope and forge ahead.
As scary as that time was, we hoped that it was temporary, that maybe it was just a nightmare. But we aren’t waking up.
Two mass shootings, both allegedly perpetrated by socially isolated elderly Asian men, happened in California in January, while most of the Asian American community was celebrating and ushering in the new year.
Asian Americans and our public gatherings will keep getting targeted.
Our gatherings reflect community — a closeness of kin and culture unabated in spite of an immense scattering of our people across oceans and continents. In the Philippines, we call this bayanihan. It’s a Filipino custom derived from the Filipino word bayan, which means nation, town or community. The term refers to the collective spirit of communal unity and work in cooperation to achieve a particular goal.
Bayanihan is the polar opposite of the isolation and despair that drives people to commit these horrible acts. In efforts to share the spirit of collectivism, this summer, Maraya Performing Arts will be presenting the world premiere of “Bayanihan,” a docu-style dance theater spectacle that highlights the personal stories of resilience and triumph of multigenerational Filipinx Americans who immigrated to America and now reside in South Bay San Diego.
COVID-19 locking us all away felt like a lightning bolt from a clear blue sky, but in truth it was just an escalation. The technological, social and economic changes making Americans more isolated have been worsening for years. At Maraya Performing Arts, we are doing everything we can to ensure that youth don’t fall into that sort of social isolation.
We bring children together to learn the transformative and healing power of the arts — dancing, acting, singing and telling stories through every variety of creative expression. This March, an all-Filipino creative team is directing a youth production of Disney’s “Moana Jr.” — a heartwarming story of Islander culture and empowerment.
Youth in our programs work together, eye to eye, to create powerful productions. For a generation fractured by the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope that theater’s unique stage for emoting and exploring feelings will allow children to discover new parts of their own humanity, as they grow closer to one another and their community.
Maraya-Ramey is the CEO and artistic director of Maraya Performing Arts and lives in South Bay Terraces. Lynch is the communications associate at Maraya Performing Arts and lives in North Park.