In this conversation, faculty organizer Paul Kikuchi, along with student Krisna Mandujano, talk to culture worker Nic Masangkay about how they've used music and spoken word to process trauma--individual, ancestral, psychic, racial, sexual, and physical--and why hope is a radical and difficult way of being in the world, particularly in the face of systemic violence.

For instructors: check out our PDF of discussion/reflection questions here

Nic Masangkay is a cultural worker in music, poetry, multimedia, and transformation. They are a Filipinx, sick and disabled, queer and trans survivor based in Occupied Duwamish Territory (Seattle). 

"Following years in a personal state of survival, I re-emerge in 2021 thriving. I am loved and ready to love. I know my power and where that can take us... Change is here: we have summoned it for so long. And now that it arrives, will we show up? Are you ready to let go of the way things were? How we got here? Post-survival, will you finally love like the world is ending? Like you are ready for what you asked for? I promise I am with you when it all needs to end. So let us begin."

nicmasangkay.com

Nic Masangkay - Star

Performed, written, produced, and mixed by: Nic Masangkay 

Video by: Stephen Anunson
Mastered by: Camelia Jade Lazenby

Krisna Mandujano is a recent South Seattle College alumnus. She was born in Chiapas, Mexico, and spent most of her childhood living undocumented in the U.S. These experiences have strengthened her passion for community organizing. In response to the pandemic, Krisna started a rental assistance fund to help the undocumented Latinx community. She plans to dedicate her life to public service and learn more about how to make a change through ARTivism.