A Fil-Am dance artist is one of the recipients of this LA-based grant
Photos from Jay Carlon 2021 Impact Reel and “Baggage” on Carlon/Facebook
From a lawyer-slash-designer to a biochemist who also makes music, there’s a pretty long list of Filipino-Americans who are owning the multihyphenate label on the global scale.
Next up on this list is Jay Carlon. As revealed by the Department of Cultural Affairs of Los Angeles, this queer artist is one of the selected 11 recipients of the City of Los Angeles Independent Master Artist Project (COLA-IMAP) grant from the city. Each artist of the 2023/24 batch is given $10,000, which will help them produce new artwork.
Additionally, this initiative offers independent artists the opportunity to premiere brand new brainchildren in one or more group presentations (catalog, exhibition, or performance showcase).
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It’s also said that every artist handpicked for this program “demonstrates an exemplary career-trajectory of more than 15 years of professional public presentations in the LA region” and their current endeavors and contributions have earned them respect from their community.
A multidisciplinary creative, Carlon’s artistic pursuits are driven by the goal to “grasp my/our place here on Earth,” as stated in his website. His personas span from being a dance artist, choreographer, and community organizer.
These territories manage to come together at times, too: “Sometimes it looks like dance. Sometimes it is live or on film, or a hybrid of the two. Sometimes it’s conversational, like tsismis (gossip)—a space for preservation and community care. And sometimes it involves food.”
The way these elements collide can be seen in his body of work. For one, he’s worked alongside Filipinx-American artists Alexis Convento and Angeline Marie Michael Meitzler to deliver “Istorya-Istorya,” which “(re) imagines the Pilipinx/a/o identity” with collective research, conversation, food, and play colliding. Their first get-together in July 2021 was a fusion of recipes and personal narratives, highlighting Philippine history.
Raised on the Central Coast of California, Carlon was the youngest of 12 in a Filipino Catholic migrant family. In his dance film “Baggage,” which was commissioned by Metro Art, he depicts his family’s tale of migration through ropes, bags, and emotionally-charged movements.
As he described in his personal space on the internet, his creations push for “collective healing and the exploration of post-colonial identity, ancestry, and the complex experience of queer and Filipinx communities in relationship to site and space.”
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“I value trust, realness, pakiramdam (knowing by feeling), bringing people together and taking care of them,” he also said. This artist has also been tapped for teaching engagements in universities like University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Johns Hopkins University.
COLA-IMAP’s newest roster is divided into two categories: Performing and Literary, plus Design and Visual Art. Aside from Carlon, included in the first subgroup are Gina Loring, Sehba Sarwar, Chris Wabich, and Dorian Wood. Meanwhile, the latter lineup includes Jane Brucker, Yasmine Diaz, Mariah Garnett, Janna Ireland, Debra Scacco, and Bari Ziperstein.
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In the program’s previous 2022/23 batch of grantees, other artists with Filipino roots were also given the chance to showcase their art. Among them are Daniel Corral (composer-performer), Jasmine Orpilla (vocal performance artist-composer), and Elyse Pignolet (visual artist specializing in ceramics).
