The day I heard the Urban Futures Lab Fellows would be giving an ABSTalk for the Public Matters family, deep, deep anxiety set in. What is an ABSTalk? Well, it’s a Public Matters spin on the popular TEDTalk series, but about half the time (10 minutes)....
Public Matters is a creative civic engagement studio that forms strong partnerships through unconventional measures as a way to redress social ills. My involvement as a Fellow in the two-year long Urban Futures Lab Fellowship definitely falls under this purview. This round’s cohort, which consists...
Imagine one day out of the blue somebody asks you, “What motivates you in life?” At first we stutter and think about the question so deeply that we come up with many things, or nothing at all. When I was asked that question for ABSTalk, an...
Neighborhood Stories. Community. Fried Pork Skin. Explore Historic Filipinotown through the voices of the people who know it best! Experience The Chicharrón Chronicles Walking Tours, featuring stories from The Chicharrón Chronicles, a cross-cultural story-gathering project in Los Angeles’ Historic Filipinotown exploring the colonial legacy of Spain and...
Neighborhood Stories. Community. Fried Pork Skin. Experience Historic Filipinotown through the voices of the people who know it best on Saturday, November 23rd - 10am-1pm. Join us for the launch of the The Chicharrón Chronicles Walking Tour, a free, mobile app-based tour featuring stories from The Chicharrón...
Images from the three The Chicharrón Chronicles events are now online! Catch up with what happened in Historic Filipinotown in the last few weeks. The Chicharrón Chronicles 01: Mobilize // Movilizar // Magpak The Chicharrón Chronicles 02: Magsalita // Speak // Hablar The Chicharrón Chronicles...
As we conclude this month’s module, I realize that the topic “creative civic engagement” has come to mean many things to me. First and most importantly, it emphasizes the importance of incorporating community voice into public projects. Although this framework may seem simple, it requires...
At least one week leading up to the Fourth of July and even some days afterwards, the city resonates with the loud “BOOM” of illegal fireworks. Annually I become part of a sacred pact, an unspoken agreement amongst neighbors to stomach intrusive sounds and react...
Coming into the Urban Futures Lab Fellowship has been nothing but incredibly exhilarating, and mind blowing. When I first learned about Public Matters last summer when I was at a Sunday Jump open mic (which is held at the Pilipino Workers Center), I never would...
// public conversations // screenings // story-gathering // The Chicharrón Chronicles is a cross-cultural story- gathering project in Historic Filipinotown, Los Angeles. Teasing out the bonds that can form over fried pork rinds (chicharrón/chicharon/cracklins) and a shared Spanish colonial history, the project invites community members to...