from the pen of "i was born with two tongues'" marlon unas esguerra. thank you for reminding me.



THE POETRY OF REBOLUSYON
By Marlon Unas Esguerra

FOR MANY Filipino Americans who do not deny their “Filipinoness,” there is
that defining moment that makes them more than just a writer, more than just
a purveyor of Asian American literature, more than just a spectator. There
is that moment in college when you pick up Carlos Bulosan and read, “I know
in my heart I live in exile in America.” Someone hands you a thin book with
a picture of Bienvenido Santos on the cover (who looks like your Lolo) and
you say to yourself skeptically, “Scent of Apples? Yeah, whatever.” You come
upon Hagedorn, Roska, and Constantino as easily or randomly or magically as
you do a Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, or The Last Poets. Or better yet,
you hit that first open mic. There is a featured reading by a group of cats
(showing my age) who look just like you, wear their hearts on their
sloganized sleeves and have names like Kiwi, Faith, Balagtasan Collective,
Isangmahal, 8th Wonder, Feedback, re:Verse or Two Tongues.

There is that moment when you realize that this is all connected. That the
six degrees of separation among Filipinos is really just two degrees. That
in the end you do have a story to tell that is worth telling. Somewhere
between your identity politic and consciousness, your contradiction and
critical analysis is poetry.

In the summer of 1998, the National Filipino American Youth Association
(NFAYA) held its National Conference in an isolated Northwest suburb of
Chicago.

Twist: a feature performance by Isangmahal Arts Kollective. Their One Love
comprised of emcees, b-girls & b-boys, poets, singers, musicians,
performance artists, visual artists, activists in-training, future teachers
and social workers. All were under 25 years old. All were students or had
recently graduated. All were Filipino and Filipino American. It was
REBOLUSYON manifest, with all the unrelenting sincerity, audacity to dream,
and passion for art and community that would frighten their parents but
inspire a new generation. All this in the middle of Illinois Suburbia!

Twist: an open mic after their reading. A young poet Dennis Sangmin Kim and
I had found each other in the people of color, politically-charged open mic
scene in Chicago a year before. Our 14-minute duet/tirade at the open mic
forged a bond between Isangmahal and what would soon be (with Emily Chang
and Anida Yoeu Esguerra) the panAsian spoken word group, I Was Born with Two
Tongues. Several group poems, 300 miles, no sleep, another conference, and
twenty-four hours later, the two degrees set forth to rewrite the world.

What I’ve found in my process is simple. There is a continuity in community
that I cannot deny. There is a responsibility to my art that is
intrinsically political, anti-empire, and anti-assimilationist. I will
change the world with a pen. On my sleeve are the tools and in MAKIBAKA are
the two degrees massive: Hagedorn, Linmark, Galang, Carbo, Santos,
Isangmahal, Santilla, Freedom, Kiwi, Bindlestiff, Balagtasan, SIPA, Maganda
Mag, MaARTe, P.A.C.I.F.I.C.S., Blue Scholars, Mango Tribe and on.

I am not only a high school teacher because it pays the bills, nor do I
teach to fill my time while I pursue my aspirations as a young writer. I
strive to change the world with a pen and I feel my time as an artist is
contingent upon my accountability and responsibility to community. My
audience may be the world, but my work is congruent to those who have been
failed by the falsehood of the American Dream and American material
prosperity. My poetics include the story of my father, my neighborhood in
gentrification, a corrupt Chicago, a cowboy America. I start from a place
that I know, and that place does not deny my privilege nor my internalized
patriarchy.