&Now 2019 Conference

This multimedia presentation/reading represents the need and the celebration for Pinay/Pilipinx and queer Pinay/Pilipinx futurisms. How can Feminist Pilipinx Futurists speculate future when so much of our past has been erased by colonization, militarization and capitalism? How do we claim agency in a homogenous North American culture when monolithic forces such as the academic institution, a globalized, capitalistic economy, or even the medical-industrial complex work against our efforts towards wellness, sustainability and upward mobility?  

This reading explores these questions through a feminist-futurist-poetics written by Pinays/Pilipinx who identify as woman, queer and/or gender nonconforming. Can a group of Pinays with a passion for X-men’s Storm and Back to the Future’s flying Delorian create an imaginary that represents and supports queer and/or women-identified Pilipinx survivance? This is a call to take up space and stand amongst other literary futurist movements such as AfroFuturism and Indigenous Futurisms. As writers and scholars, we choose to unapologetically search for as well as reclaim a language of reimagination and resistance that enlivens the range of Pinay/Pilipinx and queer Pinay/Pilipinx futuristic visions.

We see Pinay/Pilipinx futurisms as amalgamation that chooses nonconformity (whether it be form, gender, sexuality, citizenship or cultural heritage etc.). Our poetics are archipelagic and diasporic, thus able to maneuver within the hybrid topography of the body, the landscape, the oceans and space itself. Thus, this presentation/reading aspires to create a multimedia assemblage from what has been ravished, stolen, or silenced. Through this subversive process, we continue to fuel a tradition of poetics of disruption and renewal.

Notes:
*pinay – a woman of Filipino origin or descent; Filipina
*Pilipinx/Filipinx – gender nonconforming term for someone of Filipino or Filipina origin or descent