FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 10, 2011
Contact: Karen Hanna, Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan, 347-298-7964, contact@ugnayanyouth.org
Journey of a Brown Girl:
Filipinas to Produce a Theater Performance and Workshop About Young Women’s Issues
New York--On Sunday, June 19, young Filipino women will stage the performance piece The Journey of a Brown Girl, which debuted last fall at the Brecht Forum. The theater piece is an extension of the one-woman performance piece by Jana Lynne Umipig, that originally featured conversations with Pinay women who have developed their own means of empowerment through dialogue and education, exchanges and connections, and loving of their Filipino sisters.
During the second half of the year, the theater piece transformed when a collective of Filipino women met in solidarity to examine the experiences, perceptions, struggles and triumphs of the Pinay body and spirit. Through a series of workshops facilitated by Ms. Umipig, Journey of the Brown Girl was staged in November.
Immediately after the one hour performance, a workshop will be facilitated by performers and members of Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan NY/NJ a Filipino Youth based organization that serves the greater New York boroughs and neighboring New Jersey communities, who are sponsoring the performance.
“I’m very proud of this experimental theater piece because it uniquely examines the exploration of the Pinay body and how our journey starts in being aware, owning and loving our physical beings,” says Ms. Umipig.
“We have seen a compelling need in our community for young Filipinas to have a space to talk about our identity and sexuality,” says Karen Hanna, Ugnayan member and organizer. “There’s a huge void in addressing young women’s issues and this event aspires to begn to fill that gap.”
In a sweeping outreach by Ugnayan during the Philippine Independence Day Parade last Sunday, initial results of an Ugnayan survey showed that a majority of Filipino women between the ages of 15-26 years old felt mediocre about their body image, had experienced sexual harassment and felt discriminated against as a woman.
“As Filipinos in the US, we usually understand our issues in terms of racial discrimination or class exploitation but we don’t talk about how being a woman impacts us. Why is that?” asks Ms. Hanna. “We hope to provide a venue to ask each other questions about being a woman, find commonalities in our struggles, root them to systemic issues and deepen our organizing work so that we can tackle our issues as young Filipinos and women.”
Vanessa Ramalho, a member of the original collective that developed and performed the piece last year, says, “[The piece] means freedom. You can’t be free until you learn your history and discover your roots. You can’t be free until you understand your trauma and heal. You can’t be free until you become unafraid to find your voice, and to refine what being a brown woman means to you. I haven’t figured it all out yet, but Journey of a Brown Girl has brought me so much closer to freedom.”
“We are so honored to work with Ugnayan on the next steps of introducing this project,” says Umipig. “It will serve many young Filipino women in the future.”
Journey of a Brown Girl, a free event open to women and men, will be held at 410 West 40th Street in Manhattan from 3:30pm-6:30pm, with doors opening at 3pm. Filipina performers include Czareena Dotchev, Krismin Inocentes and Vanessa Ramalho. To RSVP, or for more information, please call Ugnayan at 347-298-7964, or visit www.ugnayan.blogspot.com.
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| Please RSVP for The Journey of a Brown Girl Performance & Workshop [click here]. |
