S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On our show today , we are celebrating and exploring AA Heritage Month as we talk about efforts to amplify voices in the community. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. The. Pacific Arts Movement , also known as PAC Arts , is one organization celebrating AAPI stories and voices in San Diego this month and really year round. My next guest has curated many art spaces and exhibits to celebrate AAPI heritage in our region. Carmela Prudential is the director of Marketing and communications at PAC Arts. Carmela , welcome to the show.
S2: Thanks for having me , Jade. I'm excited to be here.
S1: So glad to have you. So before we dive in , can you tell us about what you do at Packard's and your main mission as an organization ? Yeah.
S2: So as director of Marketing communications , I really see my role as a storytelling role for the organization. So our mission really is to amplify Asian and Asian American stories through media arts , specifically film. And so I have the pleasure of being able to share those films and those stories from our community with all of San Diego. Great.
S1: Great. Well , like you said , Pack Arts plays a big role in spotlighting AAPI stories in our region and from around the world. So what some of the work you've done this month to really celebrate and amplify that ? Yeah.
S2: So our spring showcase ended on May 1st , and so we utilize that time to kick off AAPI Heritage Month. Um , we've been working with MTS in collaboration to design their new pronto card for the month. It's a commemorative card for AAPI Heritage Month , and we were able to work with local artists chosen for the project , so that was really exciting. There is a bus driving around San Diego , so if you see it , please , please tag us on Instagram. Um , so that was a really joyous way to start the month and to keep that momentum going. I've been working with a local organization called Viet Voices for a film screening of this documentary , New Wave. So the documentary highlights new wave subculture in Vietnamese-American communities here in California. We played it during our film festival last November and it sold out. So I was really excited to have this opportunity to bring it back to San Diego and share it with our communities here.
S1: Wow , so much to share. You also , you mentioned the SDF , which is the San Diego Asian Film Festival , in case there are some folks who don't recognize that name. KPBS Arts reporter Julia Dixon. Evans actually spoke with artist Khoisan about the MTS bus rap , and here's what he had to say.
S3: I wanted to inspire others to kind of consider how much access we have to Asian ingredients , Asian cultures , things like Seafood City , H Mart , like all these different types of grocery stores just kind of mean a lot to me.
S1: And , you know , I think the rap does an amazing job of showing the diversity of Asian food and culture.
S2: I feel like a lot of the ways that I try to connect with my culture is through food. And so I find safe haven in grocery stores like Seafood City and 99 ranch , and feel a sense of connection to to my culture through having that access to ingredients that are important to my preservation of my identity. Right.
S1: Right.
S2: I'd been doing different projects since 2017 , and so in 2019 , I curated a show , um , for Filipino American Showcase Artist Showcase. And so a few of the folks from Pack Arts kind of heard about me through this exhibition and kind of saw like , my goals with uplifting art and the voices from our community. And so I was invited to be a part of a career fair they had for creative communities called Creative Playgrounds. Um , that was in collaboration Um , with a reason to survive in National City. So that was my first taste of being able to connect with this community. I also previously worked at the Museum of Photographic Arts , and so Sadaf would play films there , and it was the first time I'd ever seen a showcase of Filipino films. And it really meant a lot to me to see an organization doing this work and again , finding spaces that I can see myself in.
S1:
S2: And I'm so excited about film and Asian cinema. So that is also an extra factor that I get to watch movies before they come out on the big screen , or I get to get people hyped up about these movies that I'm watching. And so that's been a really fun exploration for me.
S1:
S2: And so I grew up in a town that didn't have a lot of access to those grocery stores or to big communities that were celebrating the arts. And so as I was getting familiar with different neighborhoods and making friends and community here , I really like saw this place in the arts that made sense to me in terms of my own exploration of identity and getting to connect with people that have similar stories and experiences as me. So I just wanted to keep that going. And so working at Packard's has really been a great place for me to combine my personal passions with my career goals , and so it feels seamless.
S1: Yeah , that's a great place to be in.
S2: And we were able to bring an archive of photos from martial law era in the Philippines. And so getting to tell those stories really helped me understand how those events that happened there , how migration , how even just assimilation in the United States has impacted my own personal story. My parents are immigrants from the Philippines , and it's really rewarding to be able to see the through lines of the past to the present , and also to kind of creating a roadmap to the future of what that looks like for younger generations. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. It's like you're the change that you want to see. Exactly. So many ways. Yeah. Well , how have you built community with other AAPI creatives and artists in San Diego and also in Imperial counties ? Yeah.
S2: So I think that I have my strength in marketing and event planning. And so I have been able to build these relationships with different artists by helping showcase their work in different gallery spaces. So I've worked with good Faith Gallery , the Front in San Ysidro , and a few other spaces in San Diego as well as Tijuana , to , um , to be able to shine light on these artists work. And I think that's where I build that connection with them , is , um , seeing something in their work that feels relatable to me and wanting to share that with everyone else.
S1: Well , you're working on one program that is supporting artists who are up and coming , and that's the AAPI Emerging Artist Fellowship. Talk to me. I mean , why is it important to support the next generation of creatives.
S2: With this fellowship program that's supported by Viet Voices ? I'm really excited to be working with curator Hamza Faye on the project , who has such a vision and an eye for contemporary art. And I think that , like we do have a lot of art here in San Diego that speaks to identity and culture. And the mission with this is really to push it to the next level in order to explore the intricacies of our identity. And the exhibition is going to be up sometime in July , and we're working with four different artists from all over Southern California to create space for them to hone in on their practice , as well as just have space to create. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S2: You know , since the pandemic , we've seen so many like crucial art galleries and exhibition spaces closed down and with rising rent and just like things that are happening in the sociopolitical like sphere , we're losing spaces to be able to tell our stories. And so we have to really get creative with the partnerships that we're building with people , different organizations and gallery spaces to be able to accomplish all of our goals. So being able to uplift our stories and being able to support these artists.
S1: You know , and we just spoke with a couple of dancers , you know , who who are really leaders in several dance organizations. And the one thing that they were saying is that they're losing a lot of spaces to perform , to practice. A lot of those spaces are now going away , particularly because there's a lack of funding. Yeah , funding has been a lot of funding has been pulled from the arts.
S2: And , you know , I think that like with competition with streaming platforms , um , over the years we've seen a decline in theater attendance. But recently , and I think over the last maybe two years or so , I'm seeing an increase in that. And I'm really hoping that we can see more theater spaces coming. We just lost landmark. Um , Redding Cinema and Claremont and San Diego didn't have a lot of theater space , independent theater spaces to begin with. So spaces like Ultra Star in Mission Valley , where we work with. And then also just like a gem in San Diego , the digital gym in downtown , these are really vital to us being able to tell our stories as well. And so we're impacted in that way. And again , I think it's really about being creative and building partnerships with people like Digital Gym , for instance. Packers is going to be working on a collaborative film screening series this year with them. And so this is the way that we're able to all be able to lift each other up. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S2: I'm really driven by creating spaces for belonging. And I think that like because when I moved to San Diego , I fell in love with the culture here , the community , and also , again , like as a Filipino American , um , the access to my culture. And so I think that's really precious. And I want to protect it. And so like my exploration through curating , event organizing and meeting new people is all a part of this value that I put onto San Diego in this place that we're in , as well as the communities that reside here. Mhm.
S1: And what does it mean to like welcome somebody new to the community. Like that's the person that you once were coming to San Diego.
S2: You know , I really I'm really bad with names , but for some reason , I feel like I'm like , I could remember someone's , like , hopes and dreams or something like after a conversation I have with someone like , I forgot your name , but I know what you want to do. Yes. And so , like , getting to know people in that realm is , like , really fun. Um , I get really inspired by getting to meet new people who maybe have just moved to San Diego or are looking to be more involved in the arts and kind of just seeing what their personal goals are and relating back to how that is our collective goal as well. Yeah.
S1: Yeah.
S2: And so I've just been cooking in my head , like , what can I do to continue to like , offer the traits and skills that I have to our community members who are looking to maybe screen a short film that they've made or who want to share their art with San Diego. Um , so I'm like , excited about that. Um , there's also just this rise in really cool , like different markets and like food pop ups that's happening in San Diego that I feel like is really relevant to AAPI communities. And so my friend has a coffee pop up called One on One Community. And she recently had , um , an exhibition for her short film at the Ming. But she does these coffee pop ups in normal heights , and all of the coffee drinks have a story to tell about her own personal like experiences. Her name is Kristen Clevenger. Pick her up. Um , but yeah , so , like , I'm seeing all of this happen. And so I'm really inspired by the different storytelling happening through like , food as well. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. That's great. I've been speaking with Carmella Prudential , the director of marketing and communications at Pac Arts. Carmella , thank you so much for stopping in and sharing your story.
S2: Yeah , thank you so much and thanks for supporting AAPI Heritage Month. I think it means a lot to our communities.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
