Performance: BAKLA!: An Afternoon with Queer Filipinx Poets

Kick off National Poetry Month with Filipinx poets antmen pimentel mendoza (she/he/they), Christian Aldana (she/they/siya) and Keana Aguila Labra (they/she) in conversation about queer lineage, chosen family and gender euphoria! Along with their own performances, they will guide the audience through generative writing prompts and spirited discussion to revel in the joy of being queer.

antmen pimentel mendoza (she, he) is the author of the chapbook My Boyfriend Apocalypse (Nomadic Press, 2023; reprinted by Black Lawrence Press). antmen is a writer, the Interim Director of the Multicultural Community Center at UC Berkeley and a student at the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. His poetry is published or forthcoming in Underblong, Peach Mag, A Velvet Giant and Split Lip Magazine. Find antmen riding her bike in Oakland, CA. 

Christian Aldana’s poetry is a safe space for wicked and sinister femmes who hate imperialism. She is the author of The Water We Swim In, a full-length collection of poetry published by Sampaguita Press in 2023. They are a queer, Filipinx, artist, educator and community organizer based in Chicago. Though she has a soft spot for the Midwest, part of her will always be in South East Asia (Cebu and Saigon) where she grew up. She is the founder and Co-Director of Luya, a poetry organization that centers the stories and experiences of people of color. Alongside their comrades at The Digital Sala, Christian is dreaming up alternative visions of what radically flexible, community-centered, revolutionary writing spaces can be. Their poetry has been published or is forthcoming in the Chicago Reader, Injustice Watch, Marias at Sampaguitas, the Capilano Review and Locked Horn Press. When they’re not writing poems you can find them in deep discussion about dystopian sci fi, cooking in their pjs, and trying to throw off the tether of scheduled time.

Keana Aguila Labra (they/them/she/her) is a queer Cebuana Tagalog Filipinx genre- and genderfluid/non-binary poet, editor, and writer in diaspora residing on stolen Ohlone Tamyen land. She works to provide a safe literary space for underserved and underrepresented communities as co-Editor-in-Chief of the literary magazine, Marías at Sampaguitas and co-Founder of the BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ focused independent publishing house, Sampaguita Press. Outside of MAS & SAM, they are the co-Director of the Santa Clara County Youth Poet Laureate Program alongside Janice Lobo Sapigao and Karla Reyes-Santiago. In October 2021, she served as one of the Honorary Santa Clara County Poets Laureate alongside Lorenz Mazon Dumuk. They were the SVCreates SVLaureate & Content Emerging Artist for 2023 as well as the proud recipient of the Lucas Artists Residency Program Fellowship through Montalvo Arts Center. She is the author of the poetry chapbooks, No Saints (Lazy Adventurer Publishing, 2020), Mohilak (Fahmidan Co. & Publishing, 2021) and Kanunay (Self-Published, 2022) with her full-length book, The Language of Unbreaking, forthcoming this spring (Sampaguita Press, 2024). 

Connect 

antmen pimentel mendoza – Instagram 

antmen pimentel mendoza – Website