UW-Madison's Filipino American Student Association's RATED P
Celebrating Filipino American Artists
Celebrating Filipino American Artists
| Debby Tewes is Asian Wisconzine's Contributing Writer in the Milwaukee area |
noted in a post-interview that she made a studded belt for one dress less than 24 hours prior to the show. One eye-
catching design by Vang included a dress made from belts.
The models held wide smiles as they strode down the runway to calm French music. Near the end models
became bashful, including the three designers who concluded the segment by powerwalking down the catwalk.
The event concluded with a walkthrough of every model and even FASO members wearing their student
organization clothes before becoming a complete social event of congratulations and rap freestyling over the DJ’s
music.
Friday’s workshops included a discussion from visiting theater troupe Circa-Pintig about their history and the use
of activism in theater. Friday’s second workshop was catered and hosted by the owner of a Filipino small business
grocery store, Mabuhay in Madison. The owner gave a brief discussion about the overwhelming difficulties in
running a small business.
FASO held Saturday’s screen-printing workshop and DJ workshop in a modest sized room in Memorial Union. The
DJ workshop flowed into the screen-printing activity as the facilitator introduced a short history of turntablism as
participants finished the final stages in screen-printing on their clothes.
The annual festival continues to grow with this third installment of honoring Filipino-American arts and artists.
FASO’s organizing and entertaining programming was only undermined by the potential for a larger turnout at the
evening performances.
catching design by Vang included a dress made from belts.
The models held wide smiles as they strode down the runway to calm French music. Near the end models
became bashful, including the three designers who concluded the segment by powerwalking down the catwalk.
The event concluded with a walkthrough of every model and even FASO members wearing their student
organization clothes before becoming a complete social event of congratulations and rap freestyling over the DJ’s
music.
Friday’s workshops included a discussion from visiting theater troupe Circa-Pintig about their history and the use
of activism in theater. Friday’s second workshop was catered and hosted by the owner of a Filipino small business
grocery store, Mabuhay in Madison. The owner gave a brief discussion about the overwhelming difficulties in
running a small business.
FASO held Saturday’s screen-printing workshop and DJ workshop in a modest sized room in Memorial Union. The
DJ workshop flowed into the screen-printing activity as the facilitator introduced a short history of turntablism as
participants finished the final stages in screen-printing on their clothes.
The annual festival continues to grow with this third installment of honoring Filipino-American arts and artists.
FASO’s organizing and entertaining programming was only undermined by the potential for a larger turnout at the
evening performances.
Marlon Eric Lima
By Marlon Eric Lima
The American dream is commonly framed among traditional Asian-American
households to follow the career routes of business or medicine rather than artistic
endeavors.
However, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Filipino-American Student Organization
(FASO) spotlighted Filipino-American entrepreneurs in the arts with their annual two-day
“Rated P” festival in mid-April. Both weekend days began with two workshops and
ended with evening events that highlighted student art work as well as guest artists.
Friday’s event transformed a dim lit lecture hall into a humble stage for theater
performances and Spoken Word poetry. The night’s performances began with a brief
one-act play by UW-Madison First Wave scholars Dominic Nicholas and Jill Fukumoto.
The American dream is commonly framed among traditional Asian-American
households to follow the career routes of business or medicine rather than artistic
endeavors.
However, the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Filipino-American Student Organization
(FASO) spotlighted Filipino-American entrepreneurs in the arts with their annual two-day
“Rated P” festival in mid-April. Both weekend days began with two workshops and
ended with evening events that highlighted student art work as well as guest artists.
Friday’s event transformed a dim lit lecture hall into a humble stage for theater
performances and Spoken Word poetry. The night’s performances began with a brief
one-act play by UW-Madison First Wave scholars Dominic Nicholas and Jill Fukumoto.
Their 10-minute performance dealt with Nicholas and Fukumoto’s separate, yet similar experiences under an Asian-
American identity including issues of assimilation and estrangement from their immigrant elders.
The soaking of rice prior to cooking provided the motif metaphor for the Americanization process that reduced their
relationship with their elders as sharing only food on the table and blood in their veins.
Next, the community-based theater troupe from Chicago, Circa-Pintig, performed a brief skit that brought humor to
the intergenerational interaction between a mother and an adult son. The skit began with the two interacting
awkwardly at first then eventually bonding over the suspense of the mother’s television drama.
American identity including issues of assimilation and estrangement from their immigrant elders.
The soaking of rice prior to cooking provided the motif metaphor for the Americanization process that reduced their
relationship with their elders as sharing only food on the table and blood in their veins.
Next, the community-based theater troupe from Chicago, Circa-Pintig, performed a brief skit that brought humor to
the intergenerational interaction between a mother and an adult son. The skit began with the two interacting
awkwardly at first then eventually bonding over the suspense of the mother’s television drama.
| Dominic Nicholas (left) and Jill Fukumoto (right) performing their one-act play "Forget It" |
| Circa-Pintig's stage reading of "Mr. and Mrs. LaQuesta Go Dancing" |
The crowd then witnessed two back-to-back spoken word
performances about Asian-American identity from First Wave
scholars, Ittai Wong and Ashlyn Atkins. Wong’s
instantaneous performance included an adrenaline
cadence expressing the difficulty of wearing “only the
pigment of the Philippines” on his skin while still feeling
distant from the culture and history. Atkins poetry addressed
her soul-searching experience as an ethnically mixed writer
on a scholarship through her clever wordplay and rhymes.
Circa-Pintig returned for a stage-read performance of Noel
Alumit’s award winning one-act play “Mr. and Mrs. LaQuesta
Go Dancing.” Both nicely dressed protagonists engaged the
audience as members of a get together by telling stories
and even taking flash photography of the audience.
performances about Asian-American identity from First Wave
scholars, Ittai Wong and Ashlyn Atkins. Wong’s
instantaneous performance included an adrenaline
cadence expressing the difficulty of wearing “only the
pigment of the Philippines” on his skin while still feeling
distant from the culture and history. Atkins poetry addressed
her soul-searching experience as an ethnically mixed writer
on a scholarship through her clever wordplay and rhymes.
Circa-Pintig returned for a stage-read performance of Noel
Alumit’s award winning one-act play “Mr. and Mrs. LaQuesta
Go Dancing.” Both nicely dressed protagonists engaged the
audience as members of a get together by telling stories
and even taking flash photography of the audience.
The performance juggled between light-hearted humor and hard-hitting
issues of child abuse and the difficulty of acceptance for a homosexual
son in a strict traditional household.
According to executive director of Circa-Pintig Ginger Leopoldo, the
theater troupe promotes activism by provoking dialogue about the issues
addressed in the performance. In an interview Leopoldo, referenced
German playwright and theater director Bertolt Brecht in the group’s goal
of “not trying to make the audience feel escape.”
The following evening FASO converted the Red Gym’s On Wisconsin
Room into an illuminated outline of a runway for the festival’s fashion
show. Organizers split the room between the backstage and runway area
with a divider that held the Filipino flag at the center as a background to
each striding model.
The show, “Breaking Barriers,” featured apparel from Zenxyth, InkRed,
and the textile and Apparel Student Association (TASA). The Night’s first
designs by Zenxyth and InkRed highlighted the underground shirt
printing culture, which is “commonplace for young Filipino-American
entrepreneurs” according to the Rated P festival’s website.
issues of child abuse and the difficulty of acceptance for a homosexual
son in a strict traditional household.
According to executive director of Circa-Pintig Ginger Leopoldo, the
theater troupe promotes activism by provoking dialogue about the issues
addressed in the performance. In an interview Leopoldo, referenced
German playwright and theater director Bertolt Brecht in the group’s goal
of “not trying to make the audience feel escape.”
The following evening FASO converted the Red Gym’s On Wisconsin
Room into an illuminated outline of a runway for the festival’s fashion
show. Organizers split the room between the backstage and runway area
with a divider that held the Filipino flag at the center as a background to
each striding model.
The show, “Breaking Barriers,” featured apparel from Zenxyth, InkRed,
and the textile and Apparel Student Association (TASA). The Night’s first
designs by Zenxyth and InkRed highlighted the underground shirt
printing culture, which is “commonplace for young Filipino-American
entrepreneurs” according to the Rated P festival’s website.
Three female student-models strut down the runway to calm reggae music outfitted in three screen-printed shirts
for the first label, Zenxyth. The label is managed by Atkins, the spoken word poet from Friday’s performance.
Next, five students leisurely strolled down the runway with a disinterested swagger modeling InkRed’s new spring
line. Each model climaxed their runway pose by facing the audience with their back to the photographers at the
end.
for the first label, Zenxyth. The label is managed by Atkins, the spoken word poet from Friday’s performance.
Next, five students leisurely strolled down the runway with a disinterested swagger modeling InkRed’s new spring
line. Each model climaxed their runway pose by facing the audience with their back to the photographers at the
end.
| Jennifer Le modeling Punbraye Vang's "belt dress" during the fashion show |
“I’m really focused on people there for the moment,” said InkRed owner
and UW-Madison student, Niko Tumamak whose choreography for the
models was meant to favor the people present at the show instead.
Once the DJ switched music to a heavy hitting hip-hop instrumental, the
student-models blended the average runway attitude of careless
disregard of the audience with a street mentality most aptly summed up
as a middle finger to haters. In this half, models displayed new and
older styles from Ink Red as well as street-styles such as a bandana
over the eye or mouth, black shades and a hat donned nearly over one’s
eye level.
The fashion show’s final fashion strolls were made by all female
student-models dressed in the designs of Yer Lee, Punbraye Vang and
Jordan Camille of TASA. Lee’s work included a silk duponi white dress
with green ruffles, a black jacket, a deep v-necked green dress with lace
on top and an elegant white dress with pleated flowers. Lee described
her work as having an “innocent, fun look.”
Although most of the fashions were products from their own classes as
textile and apparel design majors, a few were independent works. Vang
and UW-Madison student, Niko Tumamak whose choreography for the
models was meant to favor the people present at the show instead.
Once the DJ switched music to a heavy hitting hip-hop instrumental, the
student-models blended the average runway attitude of careless
disregard of the audience with a street mentality most aptly summed up
as a middle finger to haters. In this half, models displayed new and
older styles from Ink Red as well as street-styles such as a bandana
over the eye or mouth, black shades and a hat donned nearly over one’s
eye level.
The fashion show’s final fashion strolls were made by all female
student-models dressed in the designs of Yer Lee, Punbraye Vang and
Jordan Camille of TASA. Lee’s work included a silk duponi white dress
with green ruffles, a black jacket, a deep v-necked green dress with lace
on top and an elegant white dress with pleated flowers. Lee described
her work as having an “innocent, fun look.”
Although most of the fashions were products from their own classes as
textile and apparel design majors, a few were independent works. Vang