photograph courtesy of CSUSM
FULL VERSION (467 WORDS)
Jason Magabo Perez is a Filipino American writer, performer, scholar, teacher, and relentlessly anti-disciplinary Gemini thinker. Through poetry, prose, performance, film/video, archival research, and oral history, Perez explores anti-colonial Filipino diasporic historiographies, geographies, intimacies, and solidarities. Perez is the author of two full-length books, I ask about what falls away (Kaya Press, 2024) and This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017), and one chapbook, Phenomenology of Superhero (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016). Perez has written, performed, and staged three multimedia theatre-performance works: The Passion of El Hulk Hogancito (KULARTS, 2009); You Will Gonna Go Crazy (KULARTS, 2011); and Blue Bin Improvisations: Performing Yonie’s Archive (MexiCali Biennial & Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 2018). Additionally, Perez has written, directed, and independently produced three experimental documentary video projects: para sa akin: autohistoria (2012); Leonora, archive of (2013); and Just Stranger Here (2015). Perez’s writing has appeared in publications such as Interim, Witness, The Feminist Wire, Marías at Sampaguitas, TLDTD, Kalfou, The Operating System, Sonora Review, San Diego Union-Tribune, Academy of American Poets, and NPR’s Here & Now. For over two decades, Perez has performed, delivered keynote addresses, lectured, and convened and facilitated dialogues, panels, and creative writing and storytelling workshops in public libraries, community centers, museums, art galleries, and K-12, college, and university classrooms. A founding member of the San Diego-based Freedom Writers Spoken Word Collective, Perez has been a recipient of a Challenge America Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, Featured Artist at New Americans Museum, Community Scholar-in-Residence at San Diego Public Library, Artist-in-Residence at Center for Art and Thought (CA+T), Community Arts Fellow at Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies, and Guest Faculty Member at Idyllwild Writer’s Week. Perez has been a featured performer at notable venues such as the Progressive Labor Summit, Southern California Poetry Festival, UCR Writers Week Festival, National Asian American Theater Festival, International Conference of the Philippines, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Public Library, and La Jolla Playhouse. From 2023-24, Perez served as San Diego Poet Laureate and was awarded a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets. During his laureateship, Perez developed and facilitated San Diego Poetry Futures 2024 (SDPF24), a signature public engagement initiative exploring poetry as a form of intergenerational community empowerment. The City of San Diego proclaimed December 14, 2024 as Jason Magabo Perez Day to commend Perez for his ongoing community work in poetry and social justice. A VONA Writing Workshop alumnus, Perez holds an M.F.A. in Writing and Consciousness from New College of California and a dual Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies and Communication from University of California, San Diego. Currently, Perez is an Associate Editor at Ethnic Studies Review, an organizer with The Digital Sala, and Associate Professor and Director of Ethnic Studies at California State University San Marcos.
BRIEFER VERSION (170 WORDS)
Jason Magabo Perez is a Filipino American writer, performer, scholar, teacher, and relentlessly anti-disciplinary Gemini thinker. Perez’s body of work explores anti-colonial Filipino diasporic historiographies, geographies, intimacies, and solidarities. Perez is the author of two books, I ask about what falls away (Kaya Press, 2024) and This is for the mostless (WordTech Editions, 2017), and one chapbook, Phenomenology of Superhero (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2016). Perez has written and performed three staged multimedia theatre-performance works: The Passion of El Hulk Hogancito (KULARTS, 2009); You Will Gonna Go Crazy (KULARTS, 2011); and Blue Bin Improvisations (MexiCali Biennial & Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, 2018). Perez has also written, directed, and independently produced three experimental documentary video projects—para sa akin: autohistoria (2012); Leonora, archive of (2013); and Just Stranger Here (2015). From 2023-24, Perez served as San Diego Poet Laureate and was a Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Currently, Perez organizes with The Digital Sala and is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at California State University San Marcos.
BRIEFEST VERSION (77 WORDS)
Jason Magabo Perez is a Filipino American writer, performer, scholar, teacher, and relentlessly anti-disciplinary Gemini thinker. Perez is the author of numerous works in poetry and performance, including his most recent book of poetry, I ask about what falls away (Kaya Press, 2024). From 2023-24, Perez served as San Diego Poet Laureate and was a Poet Laureate Fellow with the Academy of American Poets. Currently, Perez is an Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies at CSU San Marcos.