TK 1713

  • Community Conversations

    I attended an Environmental Justice workshop, facilitated by Ayesha Qazu-Lampert and Ylanda Wilhite of Chicago Environmental Educators at the Academy for Global Citizenship at 4942 W 44th St, Chicago, IL 60638. Lupe Escárcega and Danielle Russell from Openlands is how I learned about the event. I didn’t grow up with many of the environmental career […]

  • Filipino American History Month: My Reflections as a Filipina American

    Growing up in Japan, I visited the Philippines every other Christmas and several summers. When I first moved to America for college, I experienced culture shock. I had visited the United States often and studied American history, but I had never lived—or identified—as an American until 2009. I am still learning what it means to […]

  • Urban Canopy Maps

    The things being connected are called nodes and the connections are called links. The process and patterns are highlighted through streams, while the end goal may never be achieved. When I first realized I was part of the northeast end of Little Village, I had always assumed my home was within the boundaries of West […]

  • Falling Leaves

    autumn leaves falling spilling rain from cloudy skies goodbye summer Since I could never be Japanese, despite being born and raised in Tokyo, the urban forests that surrounded me throughout my childhood are my only truth that Japan is home. When my father passed, we had to move out of the house that we called […]

  • Lola Lolo

    In Tagalog (one of the many dialects of the Philippines), Lolo and Lola means grandfather and grandmother, respectively. These come from the Spanish abuelo (grandfather) and abuela (grandmother). Photographs are the closest representations of my origins and my most important connection to my ancestors. These pieces are the stories that make up the histories of […]