A Time For Action: Curated by Sixto Wagan
Sunday, May 23, 2021
6:00pm—7:00pm CT
FREE and open to the public
Location
Blaffer Art Museum
Visitor Information
Occupant capacity is limited: Reserve your FREE tickets
Please submit a required COVID-19 Screening
A Time for Action is necessary and now, confronting urgent political circumstances with an expansive performative language. An experimental inter-disciplinary micro-festival running for six nights at the Blaffer Museum, A Time For Action is sponsored by the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts.
The series of performances curated by Sixto Wagan features Koomah, Toni Leago Valle, and Filipinx Artists of Houston and featured guests: Christy Poisot, Cybil Pallugna-Saenz, Jenah Maravilla, Muizz Akhtar, and Royal Sumikat.
Koomah is an intersex & genderfluid interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and legislative policy advisor currently residing in Houston, Texas. Koomah is co-founder of The Houston Intersex Society, board member of the Transgender Foundation of America & the Houston Transgender Unity Committee, founding member of CHAA (LGBTQ Collective of Houston Asian Americans), founding member of The Locas (Queer Latina/x artist collective), and founder of iPOCA Collective (intersex People Of Color Artist Collective). Koomah has performed, showcased artwork, presented workshops & lectures, and screened films across the US & internationally.
Toni Leago Valle: As Artistic Director and choreographer for 6’, Valle creates spoken word and dance works that challenge the audience to address political and sociological issues. She is driven by the idea that art holds the ability to shift cultural paradigms. By giving varied perspectives on societal and cultural beliefs through her art, Valle strives to change society’s belief systems that one set of rules should apply to everyone.
Christy Poisot has worked in IT for the oil industry for 20+ years. An active community leader, she blogs about oral history, recipes, and her heritage. She is the co-author of “Filipinos in Houston” and performs spoken word poetry, when inspired, in her spare time.
Cybil Pallugna-Saenz was born to Filipino immigrants in the United States. Not quite Filipina, not quite the average-looking American, Cybil sought answers to her identity questions through television and movies but did not see herself in those characters. She is a multimedia, digital content creator intent on developing original stories she can see herself and her family in.
Jenah Maravilla’s work centers around the ideas of honoring those that came before, empowering those present, and shifting the conversation to radical vulnerability. As a Filipinx American, moving in a politicized body through different spaces means more than just becoming “Successful,” she is determined to uplift our storytellers and show up in spaces we’ve historically haven’t been a part of.
Muizz Akhtar is a writer and editor who has traversed the realms of academia, strategic communications, nonprofit community organizations, and electoral campaigns. Born, raised, and based in Houston, Texas, Muizz is civically engaged, an aspiring polyglot, and a punster extraordinaire. Above all though, Muizz is passionate about learning everything, but especially topics related to urbanism, public policy, the social sciences, and the humanities.
Royal Sumikat is a dynamic human and a futuristic artist born in the Philippines and currently residing in Houston. She is a multi city muralist and painter whose work is informed by her experiences as an immigrant, community organizer, and priestess. Storytelling and mythology is prevalent in her work as she aims to strengthen the connection she has with her ancestors.