This week we are closing out Season 2 and the final episode of Cultural Kultivators with Unsung Heroes student guest host, Jerard Del Mar! In this episode, Jerard interviews his father, Mario Del Mar. 

In this conversation, Mario reflects on the hardships he faced growing up in Cebu, Philippines and the trials and tribulations of his immigration journey in pursuit of the American Dream. With an unwavering drive to make a life for himself, he shares his experiences of code switching, microaggressions, and the values of Filipino and American culture which shaped him into the man, mentor, and father he is today. 

As we pass the torch on the Cultural Kultivators show, we look toward the future with hope and pride. This journey has been about more than just stories—it’s been about honoring our values and preserving the richness of our oral histories. Now, it’s time for the next generation of storytellers to take the stage and continue cultivating a legacy of connection and cultural resilience. Thank you for being a part of this incredible chapter with us. To stay connected and inspired, follow Kindred Kapwa as the story continues.

This project was made possible with support from California Arts Council and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.

We’d love it if you could take just a few minutes to fill out our listener survey. Your feedback is essential—not only does it help us improve, but it also strengthens our efforts to secure the funding needed to keep this platform alive. As a thank you, we’re offering some awesome Kultivate Labs swag for folks that participate and leave their email! https://forms.gle/VeA2qCohUQwAd3Nj8

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In this episode we welcome a very special guest host: Soluna! She is a local Bay Area highschooler and graduate of our Unsung Heroes youth podcast program. In this student-produced episode, Soluna interviews co-founding member of Sama Sama Cooperative and a current advisory board member for Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity, Lisa Juachon!  

10 years since the start of Sama Sama Cooperative Summer Camp, Lisa speaks about her and other families' determination to fill a gap in children’s education by teaching kids about social justice and solidarity, finding and cultivating community within the diaspora, and their own culture and history. As a sanctuary of love, solidarity, and shared values, it gave Lisa’s children an extended family—a network of 20 aunties and uncles, helping to raise them with compassion and care. For Lisa, Sama Sama was a place of true community and belonging, “it was a place where we could express our values of bayanihan, of Kapwa, our social justice values.” 

Soluna and Lisa's conversation is a reminder that in moments when division and fear are amplified, building intentional community is one of the most radical and necessary acts we can undertake. Tune in to see how Avatar: The Last Airbender and Filipino Martial Arts come together in this special episode!

Follow Sama Sama Cooperative on Instagram! @samasamacooperative

This project was made possible with support from California Arts Council and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.

We’d love it if you could take just a few minutes to fill out our listener survey. Your feedback is essential—not only does it help us improve, but it also strengthens our efforts to secure the funding needed to keep this platform alive. As a thank you, we’re offering some awesome Kultivate Labs swag for folks that participate and leave their email! https://forms.gle/VeA2qCohUQwAd3Nj8

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Your support means everything to Cultural Kultivators and the Filipino American community we celebrate in every episode.

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This week we are kicking off the end of the year with a very special guest host: Amelia! She is a local Bay Area highschooler and graduate of our Unsung Heroes youth podcast program. In this student-produced episode, Amelia invites multidisciplinary writer, Zee Lacson, to talk about her journey as a published YA author of The Woolgathering Trilogy and her most recent novel, Twice Removed. 

Amelia relived a dream with Zee, a firm believer in following your heart, the power of love, and all things Star Trek. Before rekindling her love for the arts and transitioning to writing, Zee had pursued careers in mechanical engineering, early childhood education, and photography. With stories inspired by culture shock and her own risk taking, Zee explores what it means to be whole when you’re torn between two worlds as an immigrant in between two generations, and a literal manananggal, or as Zee likes to put it: twice removed. 

From revealing the in’s and out’s of the publishing world, the difference between “Pantsers” and “Plotters,” this is a must listen episode for aspiring writers and readers! Follow Zee’s writing journey on Instagram and books: @zeelacson on Instagram and https://zeelacson.com/

This project was made possible with support from California Arts Council and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit www.calhum.org.

Music Credits: "Nighttime Breeze" by Ann Zhou

We’d love it if you could take just a few minutes to fill out our listener survey. Your feedback is essential—not only does it help us improve, but it also strengthens our efforts to secure the funding needed to keep this platform alive. As a thank you, we’re offering some awesome Kultivate Labs swag for folks that participate and leave their email! https://forms.gle/VeA2qCohUQwAd3Nj8

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Your support means everything to Cultural Kultivators and the Filipino American community we celebrate in every episode.

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Happy Halloween and upcoming All Souls Day! This Wednesday, we are so excited to host podcaster, animator, and occultist, Sapphire Sandalo! As the host of SpectreVision Radio’s Stories with Sapphire podcast, she is also known for her work on The Ghost Town Terror and Paranormal Caught on Camera.

In today’s conversation, Sapphire delved deep into her unique take on the paranormal, approaching it with culturally inclusive curiosity and the mysterious interplay between intention, intuition, and manifestation. She also shares her views on recontextualizing her experiences of her Catholic upbringing in conversation with the cultural and spiritual practices we observe today. 

For listeners looking to get more in touch with their spirituality or connect with their ancestors, this episode is for you. We invite you to find what makes your soul sing and follow the alignment with your authentic self across time, past, present, and future. 

We’d love it if you could take just a few minutes to fill out our listener survey. Your feedback is essential—not only does it help us improve, but it also strengthens our efforts to secure the funding needed to keep this platform alive. As a thank you, we’re offering some awesome Kultivate Labs swag for folks that participate and leave their email!

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Your support means everything to Cultural Kultivators and the Filipino American community we celebrate in every episode.

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In this week’s episode, we’re honored to sit down with special co-host, Luna Salaver and the King of Latin Soul, Joe Bataan!  As the first recording artist to create Latin Soul music, Joe has made a lasting impact through his innovative combination of genres, including Boogaloo, Salsa, and Disco, leading to hits like “Gypsy Woman” and “Young Gifted & Brown.”

With the gift of his life experience and wisdom, Joe also built a career counseling at risk youth in correctional facilities. His ability to evolve, whether through genres like Disco and Rap, or through his role as a mentor, is a powerful reminder of the enduring strength that the Filipino American History Month theme celebrates.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us. Your support means everything to Cultural Kultivators and the Filipino American community we celebrate in every episode.

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• Instagram: @balaykreative  

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Kicking off Filipino History Month (FAHM), we’re honored to spotlight the storytelling journey of documentary filmmaker and video editor, Sondy Lucille! Sondy’s work captures the power of oral and visual storytelling, as well as cultural preservation. With a keen eye for detail and determination to shift the painful narratives embedded in our history, Sondy’s films delve into mixed heritage, Asian diasporic experiences, and how globalization molds identity in multicultural homes and communities.

Sondy reflects on her dual heritage as Filipino and Mauritian which has fueled her desire to research her family histories and find solidarity in the shared struggles of Filipino Americans. Dear Watsonville – Sondy’s most recent project touring the festival circuit – sheds light on the untold stories and memories of the Manong/Manang generation with a  distinct focus on Watsonville, California—a place often remembered for the violence and racism towards Fil-Ams. By weaving together family photo albums, hand drawn illustrations, and oral histories, her work seeks to preserve the experiences of first-generation Fil-Am immigrants through the memories of their second generation descendants.

She encourages filmmakers to embrace imperfection and to “free yourself from the shackles of filmmaking rules” — in order to approach filming as a form of self-expression. Sondy also emphasizes the importance of film fellowships for Asian-American and BIPOC filmmakers and recommends “creating your own experience” by using unconventional, experimental spaces to gain valuable production and post-production expertise. She also challenges listeners to be curious and to look into their family histories and documents, as a means to recognize the power of storytelling of our shared heritage.

Follow her journey on Instagram @sondy.lu and @dearwatsonville and on the web at sondylu.com. The Watsonville is in the Heart digital archive can be viewed at wiith.ucsc.edu and on Instagram at @wiith.ucsc Catch a screening of Dear Watsonville at the SF Indie Fest coming this October 17th - 27th! 

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In this week’s episode, we’re honored to sit down with Kultivate Labs’ very own Desi Danganan, Founder/Executive Director of Kultivate Labs, a trailblazing cultural strategist, and human catalyst who is helping revitalize San Francisco’s Filipino Cultural District. With a nearly two-decade career spanning tech, hospitality, branding / marketing, and community organizing– he has dedicated his career to uplifting our local Filipino-American community and empowering the next generation of artists, entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and culture bearers.

From the days of Poleng Lounge and Summit SF, to Plinth Agency and Kultivate Labs, Desi discusses the obstacles of balancing cultural preservation with economic development, addressing income inequality, and building a more livable, enriching community without displacing its members. Desi’s vision for “developing community through abundance, not sacrifice” is transforming SOMA Pilipinas into a corridor of creativity and cultural pride that is inspiring folks as far as Winnipeg, Canada to develop their on Filipino communities

Desi also challenges us to realize our role as the bridge between the younger and older generations of creatives and entrepreneurs by creating an ethic of self-forgiveness and learning from one’s mistakes. He also encourages us to envision collective liberation and economic alternatives to revitalize our community, ultimately embodying his advice to “enlarge the table.”

Follow his journey on Instagram @kultivatelabs and on the web: kultivatelabs.org/team and linkedin.com/in/desi-danganan/

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In this week’s episode, we are excited to welcome former UC Davis professor turned farmer, Dr. Robyn Rodriguez! As a widely published researcher, highly-sought after speaker, and long-time community organizer, she founded the Remagination Farm and Lab, a research and educational consultancy service encompassing the School for Liberating Education and the Amado Khaya Initiative.

In this conversation, Dr. Rodriguez shares with us how the origins of the Reimagination Farm located in Lake County, California were inspired by her late son, Amado Khaya, her transition away from academia, and realizations brought on by the pandemic. For many, the pandemic posed a time of great loss as well as a reckoning of the old systems designed for social inequalities and ecological destruction. In a radical approach to a more authentic way of living, Dr. Rodriguez talks about embracing the end of these systems, not with fear, but with excitement as an “invitation to get back to the land.” 

In weaving and braiding her background as an educator and sociological researcher into her life as a farmer, she welcomes visitors and guests on the farm to come and learn regenerative agricultural practices as well as surrendering to the forces of nature and what it has to teach us.

Join Dr. Rodriguez at the Reimagination Farm on Saturday, September 7th to celebrate her first fall harvest/Anihan in commemoration of when Filipino agricultural workers, led by labor leader Larry Itliong, walked off the job on September 8, 1965, to protest years of poor wages and working conditions in the Central Valley’s grape fields.

Follow her journey on Instagram @madprofessora @liberating.education @remaginationfarm @amadokhaya and on the web: drrobynrodriguez.com, liberatingeducation.thinkific.com, remaginationfarm.org, and amadokhaya.org. 

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Join us this week as we sit down with Cambio & Co. co-founder and CEO, Gelaine Santiago! Award-winning social entrepreneur and storyteller, Gelaine shares the inspiration and the journey behind the Toronto and Manila based Filipino jewelry company.    

In this conversation, Gelaine navigates the nuances of entrepreneurship under our capitalist systems and its potential for activism and social change. Embracing the ethos of her work and leadership, Gelaine is on a mission to build more ecosystems and not empires in a radical shift towards more collective wealth and joy. 

Listen for a behind the scenes look at Cambio & Co.’s partnerships with local, Filipino artisans whose work centers modern design and traditional craftsmanship made with locally sourced materials. In uplifting these collaborators, Gelaine urges us to get curious about long held beliefs we might hold that have a more sinister, colonial mindset at play. 

Tune in to learn about the haters who inadvertently inspired the Cambio & Co. team to lean into community led conversations and the power of education. In Gelaine’s words, dare to “Reimagine what it means to be proudly Filipino.”

You can connect with Gelaine at www.gelainesantiago.com and on Instagram @gelainesantiago.  To shop Cambio & Co.’s latest products, visit @cambio_co on instagram or https://www.shopcambio.co/.

WHAT IS BALAY KREATIVE?

BALAY KREATIVE is a pop-up Filipino-American arts hub in SOMA Pilipinas, San Francisco, California.

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Website: www.balaykreative.com

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Kumu: @balaykreative

Joining us this week is multi-passionate teaching artist and dancer-choreographer, Niki Saludez! As part of the original cast of the newest Broadway musical by Alicia Keys, "Hell's Kitchen,” Niki shares his journey from internet kid studying Lady Gaga music videos to achieving what it takes to dance on a Broadway stage.

In this episode, Niki takes us back to the catalyst of his transformative journey in New York City: a fateful dinner party that led to his meteoric rise. Listen for the magic that happens “when preparation meets opportunity,” in spaces which demand nothing less than your best self. 

In opening up about the levels of physical and mental wellness of a Broadway dancer, Niki stresses the importance of community and the power of staying true to one's artistic path. His story inspires us all to listen to that inner voice, even when the path ahead is uncertain, because it's often in those daring moments that we find our true potential. 

For the aspiring creatives, Niki's advice is clear: embrace discomfort, listen to your inner excitement and let it guide you. 

Catch Niki on stage and get your tickets to “Hell’s Kitchen” at https://www.broadway.com/shows/hells-kitchen/ ! Follow Niki’s journey on Instagram: @TitoNiki.

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Website: www.balaykreative.com

• Instagram: @balaykreative