Greetings & salutations, Atlas community... Welcome to the beginning of our favorite season; autumn = awesome. In Hawaii, it begins to cool down, bringing in the rainy season and winter swells on the North Shore. We are so pleased to share this month's double feature: SAMMAY (CA) & ALENDI (HI). This feature highlights two very magical creatives who met for the first time at our "ramen meeting" and tea time interview back in early July. After an amazing meal at Junpuu, we stoked some inner fire over a cup of green tea. The energy of Summer 2019 was so quick and has definitely materialized in the form of movement, action, shifts and transformation, allowing us to redefine our foundation. Take a peek into some fresh paradigms.
Alendi (Brandon Boyd) and I met during my season as a Sales and Marketing Director for a local restaurant group. Brandon reached out after I left the position and learned that he also left the Sous Chef position; and the parallel moves lead us to be more creative and we quickly vibed on cooking & music. One of my favorite first memories of B was in the kitchen, seeing the dude totally passionate, lit, smiling ear to ear and being creative with food. One time B made this dope 30 minute pavlova. Pavlova usually takes overnight on very low heat, so I knew this guy was not like the others. The pavlova and all the desserts he made using what may have gone to waste, were bangin! Then, I learned that he also made beats and we used the same program to produce. Listening to Alendi's beats is an extension of the sensibility he has for cooking. Dude attended Le Cordon Bleu and is probably one of the most humble chefs I know; I guess his badassery can really speak out through his soundscapes and fully express itself in a quietly confident way. I feel like some of the tracks would totally provide a perfect sound bed for animations or a super abstract film. Each track is a journey and I can totally visualize him riding his fixie through the streets of Honolulu sometimes. Riding fixie is one of the things that makes this dude stoked on life.
I met Sammay, my Bicolana sista through my first ever Bicolana sista, Jo (LoveSpeak) of the Audiopharmacy family. I had heard so much about Sammay through LoveSpeak and we began our first conversations via interwebz before I witnessed her perform at Jo & Teao's Love Ceremony last September in Oakland. She moves like someone expert at breathing and if you don't believe in a Divine, you might change your mind after you see Sammay dance; & she can sing. Sammay is s solid shapeshifter; completely committed and open. Lil sista's got swag; best of all, she is a heartbeat for the community. I feel like we need to see more of this; being a homie, seeing her live her life is similar to watching a channel I want to tune into regularly. I got to see Sammay perform once again at The Sipping Room HNL, when I sang over a beat by Oddisee while she freestyled for an intimate gathering to bless our new space. One of the things I noticed about Sammay is her strong intuition, ability to be fully present and activate a space with her presence and intention. It is inspiring to witness this beauty's ability to light up and connect, which is why I feel she can be such a generous creative.
I am so grateful for these reflections and hope that reading their stories inspire many to activate and use their magic to help bring more peace and resolution to times of chaos and uncertainty. Please be sure to follow their links to find out where you can catch them live and on the interwebz.
Name of feature:
SAMMAY
Bio:
SAMMAY (Samantha Peñaflor Dizon) is the daughter of Yolanda Peñaflor Dizon; granddaughter of Salvacion Orencillo Peñaflor and Carolina Agdeppa Dizon. Born from a collective dream where the ancestors danced, drummed, and sang around ceremonial fire in the mountain tops of the arkipelago - she is a healer, interdisciplinary artist, choreographer, producer, educator, and facilitator of Kapampangan, Ilokano, and Bikol descent who envisions a future where our indigenous traditions co-exist with(in) our urban landscapes. Born and raised in Los Angeles County/Tongva Territory and a settler in San Francisco/Yelamu, she invokes ancestral healing and ritual within/around the intersection of performance art, dance theatre, music, and multimedia; their role as kinetic storyteller and healer is ancient medicine from their maternal lineage. SAMMAY is the Founding Artistic Director of URBAN x INDIGENOUS, founding member of I Moving Lab, and a core member of Embodiment Project. She has been featured by Dance Mission Theater, Red Poppy Art House, CounterPulse, Kearny Street Workshop, and East Meets West Festival among others. She is a three-time recipient of the "Presented by APICC" Artist Award; YBCA Public Imagination Fellow 2018; and first-ever featured artist for United States of Asian America Festival 2018. SAMMAY holds a B.A. in Media Studies and Sociology with a minor in Dance & Performance Studies and Global Poverty & Practice from UC Berkeley.
What is your favorite memory of tea time?
In Peru…
such a hard question for me to answer - tea time has brought an abundance of magical moments and meaningful exchanges to my life. i can’t just pick one!
What are your thoughts on &/or relationship to earth medicine?
MJ,ilang-ilang, sage…
i am very resistant towards consuming pharmaceutical products and am a student to the knowledge of our community herbalists and plant medicine keepers. in an ideal world, i would have time to learn about the medicines indigenous to my ancestral land - specifically from my maternal lineage in Bikol. i know that this is part of my path and trust that the necessary spaciousness will come in time. i am committed to continuing to learn more about holistic ways of healing that are in alignment and in reciprocity with mama earth.
What is YOUR medicine?
Artful prayer x Prayerful art, the creative process, facilitating, telling stories...
i assist beings with their re-becoming journey as i re-become who i am meant to be on this earth. as a healer, it is my responsibility to do all things with heart and be led by Spirit. with every group i have the blessed opportunity to facilitate in embodied practice and/or storytelling, i find deep resonance and offer my personal experiences in recognizing core wounds, working to transmute pain into resilient beauty, and all the back-forth-all-around that the multilayering of our personal and ancestral trauma brings up (daily). i believe the personal internal work is just as important as healing with/in community and i feel extremely blessed to have such gracious relations in my life whom i do this work with.
Promotions:
Current community building projects and what sparked this interest? Products/recent releases?
DALUYAN (vessel) - several month long project
Embodied storytelling - May 2019 (would like this to be a regular offering)
URBAN x INDIGENOUS - multidisciplinary, intersectional
Embodiment Project - X-rated Planet, sexual trauma = Eco-feminism >>> Use music, movement, performance
Sustainability...
i am currently in the beginning phase of planning for UxI 2020: Urban-Indigenous Futurism to be manifested in early may 2020 at somarts cultural center in ramaytush ohlone territory (san francisco). i’m really looking forward to getting deep into the production planning and curatorial process as i took a year off from producing and have learned so much / healed so much. though i don’t expect it to be any easier than past iterations, i have a deepened trust in the knowing and holding of this vision. as the visionkeeper of this multidisciplinary intercultural arts festival, i know that as long as i am in communion with the ancestors that hold UxI - all is in good hands.
i am also really excited to say that i’ve returned to the studio and am working on new music to be released … when it wants to be released! i’m moving away from the ‘deadlines’ behavior with my music and am leaning in to what it wants to be / do / serve.
What is your vision for the next year?
my vision for the next year is to deepen. i have been learning heaps in respect to what no longer serves and what i need to make space for. my journey has been one of aligning with my higher purpose and continuing to heal in order to show up more fully for myself, those around me, and mama earth. i want to be in a place where i am clear about my trajectory in this lifetime so that i can thereby give more energy and attention to the things and people that will continue to be a part of my journey moving forward. i feel that i have finally found a flow that feels sustainable for me as a healer-artist-etc. living in the bay area; settling into that and continuing to trust that the opportunities meant for me will unfold and align will be an important part of my journey this next year.
Links:
To follow her journey through the diaspora:
IG: @sammaybabay
FB: https://www.facebook.com/sammay.artist
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Name of feature:
ALENDI
What is your favorite memory of tea time?
Watching my father making his tea. I didn’t grow up with him, so it was rare to be in his house during the morning time. Everything was quite except the roosters, the snores, and the eventual scream from the tea kettle; then silence again, my farther didn’t talk to me much when I was a youth, but I was there during tea time, observing his ritual. Then he would take his scalding hott tea and “walk the yard.” He would walk from one end of the property to the other inspecting truck parts, farting, making noises. That was enough time for the tea to cool and be consumed, by the time he got back to the house, he put on his work clothes and shoes, and got to work early in the morning; every morning.
What are your thoughts on &/or relationship to earth medicine?
During my youth, I somehow used this to cure my asthma. I was told I was weak, couldn’t breathe correctly, allergic to many things, and needed daily nebulizer treatments to be comfortable. I remember specifically thinking that I needed to go play in the bush to “level up.” As soon as I went into nature and played, I received the immunities, strength, and solar-powered infusion that I needed.
Cooking is part of medicine for me, I remember my grandma cooking stewed fish and the fragrances of thyme, peppers, and onions. These were my first experiences on how fragrances/cooking/eating can heal. Also, when I’m able to combine my mental focus, while being physically active, and spiritually in tune, I can absorb better, the energy we are all receiving from the earth and sun. Being energized by those waves create an incredibly long lasting natural “high.” ..this is most easily attained, for me, by going on a bicycle ride; weed can help, but is not needed.
What is YOUR medicine?
My medication would be creating food experiences that people have never tasted before, and creating music that inspires others to create and express themselves. Just sharing what I’m passionate about cures whatever ailments I might temporarily have. I’ve been healed, and I want to share the healing, my blessing, with everyone.
Promotions:
Current community building projects and what sparked this interest? Products/recent releases?
Cooking - first passion. Music - since age 15. Riding my bike, physicality.
Helping a local bike shop find abandoned or unwanted bikes, and n
Bike parts, then giving them to needy folks.
Releasing 3 EP’s on the last 3 months of the year; Short Skirts, Flavor Text, and Velodrom…
My 1st EP, Log Horizon, is out now.
What is your vision for the next year?
My vision for next year involves falling deeper into the passionate creation of tunes; I will release a full album, with vocals and all. I will continue working two jobs to be able to save extraordinary funds; this will help me travel around the world to meet, eat, and see… While all that is happening, I’m saving time to be able to help the local non-profit organization, KVIBE, by finding and/or fixing used bikes to be donated to children.
Links:
To hear the latest release from Alendi, click on https://soundcloud.com/alendi/winter-drift. All the tracks currently on this site are instrumentals; perfect listen when you are ready to go on a journey. Excellent sound bed for tea time, a nice scenic drive or to lay down and travel from your living room.