Naparnuay. Creations.
Pu’on. Ancestral history.
Writer and genealogist
Family history and genealogical research to the late 1700s. Through DNA testing, that heritage stretches to ancient migrations across continents to where we are today. Currently putting all of that together into a book.
1996 - 2024
Language: English, Ilokano
Genre: Nonfiction
GAPA Fund.
Secretary, Treasurer, and webmaster
I helped establish and launch GAPA Fund in 2019, an offshoot of GAPA, as a 501(c)(3) public charity focused on arts and culture. It leverages GAPA’s more than three-decade history. GAPA Fund integrates chorus and theater programs to nurture the creativity that is unique to the LGBTQ+ Asian American and Pacific Islander experience. I served on the board, participated as an artist, and created/managed its website.
Writer and actor
Since its revival in 2017 after more than a decade in hiatus, GAPA Theatre has been dedicated to providing a platform for mentorship, learning, and performance for queer and transgender AAPI artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Artistic Director: Cesar Cadabes.
A different boy (2019)
Director: Emmanuel Romero
Cast: Christopher San Juan, Dino Duazo, Kyle Reyes, and O. V. Cácananta
Language: English
Genre: Short play, LGBTQ+
A comic-dramatic exploration of one child’s seminal memory of being “othered”. It was staged as part of Finding Your Voice: A Collection of New Works on May 10-12, 2019 at Bindlestiff Studio, San Francisco, CA, part of the United States of Asian America Festival, presented by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center.
Chorus member
Created as a safe space in 1989 for queer AAPI men, GAPA Men’s Chorus celebrates culture through song. I’ve been singing with them as a baritone-bass since 2015. Musical director: Randy Kikukawa since 1991.
Language: Various, primarily Asian-Pacific, English
Genre: Live Performance, Choral Music
Out in the rain (2022)
Language: English
Genre: Short story, LGBTQ+
Part of the community conversations and artist cohort public reading series Hearts and Minds, with financial support from the California Humanities. Presented on April 9, 2022, at Brava Theatre, San Francisco, CA. Printed in Lavender Godzilla by GLBTQ+ Asian Pacific Alliance, Winter 2022 edition.
2001-2002
Language: English
Genre: Journalism
LAVC’s The Valley Star.
Writer
I enjoyed taking journalism classes at Los Angeles Valley College when I took a hiatus and lived in the San Fernando Valley. It got me accepted into the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, though I backed out for lack of funds and the need to return to the Bay Area. LAVC archived its The Valley Star editions.
Ilokano Wikipedia.
Administrator and translator
I began offline translations of Wikipedia articles into Ilokano and designed pages and images in 2004. Then on October 2, 2005, I requested the launching of the Ilokano version of Wikipedia from Wikimedia, (“Oavcacananta” and “Tarong”). Along with award-winning Ilokano writer Roy V. Aragon (“Saluyot”), we were its first administrators and translators. Much of the design remains. I stepped away after 10 years, as others have stepped in to expand the site. I presented it at the Nakem Conference in 2015 and 2017.
2004 - 2017
Language: Ilokano
Genre: Translations
