
This past week has been all sorts of crazy-busy! I’m overdue for a journalistic blog entry. My boss always says the phrase “good stuff” to comment on things he likes, so I’d thought I’d make this newfound inside joke this entry’s namesake.
My time in Washington, D.C. is winding down but that doesn’t mean things are slowing down. I always just imagined that I could be doing the things I’m doing now. This type of networking, meeting amazing artistic people and salivating at stage space is so NEW to me but I feel so amazed and blessed. I’ve been womanifesting and letting miss universe and mother nature know that I’m ready for all of the happy things. I know it may still sound strange, but I’m learning to ask the world for what I want and I am gradually getting them. It works, yall! No joke. You just have to ask. I’m applying faith – it’s time to see what art and writing can do for me. And you, too.
Things are picking up as far as my dreams, my career and my process is going. All I can think about is anything related to writing and how I’m gonna turn this out and make this work for me now that I’m putting all of myself in. (Wow, typing that just made things a lot more real.)

I performed at the DC Filipino Young Professionals “beat drops” Typhoon Ondoy Fundraiser on Veterans’ Day, Wednesday, November 11th at DC’s K Street Lounge. While some of my folks were rallying at the Justice for Filipina/o American World War II Veterans in Los Angeles Historical Filipinotown, I seized the day and opportunity to read a short poem I wrote about that youth movement. (After all, learning about the veterans as a first-year in college was the catalyst into the world of artivism. I haven’t left ever since.)
Here are some thoughts that must run through most performers’ heads when they’re on an elevated stage while hella people stare at them:
Shit, are they feelin me? Why can’t I see anyone? How come people aren’t smiling? Can they tell when my poems end? Thank Goodness for (free) Chardonnay – my drink of choice in DC.
All in all, it was a great night and I got to meet a lot of cool people. Thanks to my girl Kirstie and the event’s organizer Jerry for bringing me out! And I very much appreciate my roomie Jen for coming with. I hope DC FYP will be able to put on more events like this one.
And now, on a drastically contrasting note: The day before this, I went to Aiton Elementary School in DC to help my boss with a workshop for parents’ and their roles in poetry for their children.

Oh, and he was preceded by a special greeting by the Aiton ES cheerleaders.

I think the workshop really helped and encouraged the parents. They got to hear some of Kwame’s poetry and they got more books to bring home. I’ve never seen students so excited to read as much I have since I’ve been interning here. It’s nothing short of amazing!
My lovers & friends (as in, they’re each other’s lover and they’re both my friends) Caz and April flew in from San Diego to take over DC! Here’s a lovely shot of them subverting gender norms on the Metro:
We spent their first day at the Smithsonian American History Museum where 1) admission is free, 2) we were bombarded with pop cultural artifacts, a whole lotta President Lincoln, fun maps and 3) touched displays we probably shouldn’t have played with but did anyway. The self-guided tour was also entertained by our delicious social commentary on how small the exhibit on immigration was, how people of color are significantly made absent and how much former Presidents and First Ladies owned strange objects and resembled and reminded us of icons like Mr. Burns or our friends Marcus and Malou.
I’m happy that I got to see them both! We had fun walking around DC and I’m glad they got to feel me on how awkward this business casual-binary world of politics operates. It’s definitely a win to have conscious, critical friends that are willing to visit you from across the country.
You might not believe what I had lined up for Thursday, but I straight up spent the day in the countryside. Why does traveling to the country make me feel like I’m in transit twice longer than I actually am? Past work experience has taught me to have a high tolerance for ambiguity, so here’s a sufficient photo of country space for a Pinay like me who is never a happy camper and sticks to cities as much as possible:

taylor swift ain't got nothin on this kind of country.
After trekking out in the Baltimore woods near graveyards and cemeteries, searching for wings amongst sushi and waking up the next day to put on a six-hour long publishing workshop with middle school students, I read some poems at my boss-mentor-supervisor-newly published author Tinesha Davis’s
book party on Saturday at her amazing home venue in Chantilly, Virginia. The event was crackiiin – there was a belly dancer and a high school step team there to fill in the audiences’ imaginations. The book is split up into the stories of three sisters – Dominique, Donya and Damita. I read poems about unrequited love before a belly dancer (Dana Smith-Rogers), performed a yoga piece to India Arie’s song “Ready For Love” and students from the Freedom High School step team stepped, danced and sang for us. I’d never been to a book launch party, but now I know that these events can rival some of the best clubbing experiences I’ve ever had. The night was full of entertainment, good food, and of course, copies of her book Holler at the Moon. (Buy yours today!) The party got me thinking about what I could possibly womanifest for the future…
I’ve been reading Holler at the Moon on and off and I find the drama and the tragic womyn stories extremely compelling. It’s not the kind of book that I’d read before I go to bed to calm myself down to achieve inner peace because it makes me want to read on. I can never seem to find a comfortable place to stop, the titillating desire to know more never ceases with these stories and these characters. I definitely recommend this book!

home!
And onto some more good news! After finally finding a DC Hip Hop joint (Steve’s in Dupont Circle), finding a $20 bill on a bench in my building (and then buying empanadas for my friends with it!), kickin it in DC streets until 4 in the morning and getting used to this East Coast cold weather — I landed an interview and an exciting internship opportunity with New Village Press based in Oakland, CA. What can I say? I love the East Bay. I can be around more books and I can engage literacy from a fresh perspective.
I can fully return to the center of my universe for the time being. I can remember what it’s like to stay in one place indefinitely for more than a week, a month or a whole quarter. I’ll have my room (and wardrobe!!!) back home to wish for the world and my travels. I’ll be an official college graduate (although the UC system needs to get its act together by not implementing fee hikes for my fellow struggling students) from UCSD.
When I get back, I am going to dream big, work hard, continue to hustle and live.
Yes, world. This is good stuff.
janice.