Radio Chthulucene 87.9 FM

In the previous LTWR 113 class I took this year, I was constantly writing about my connection to my Filipino culture and how I was stuck in this “third space” that I had to create for myself as I couldn’t really find many people to relate to me. Although much of what I wrote was honest in my struggles, I did feel I was grasping at straws at times to stay afloat in the course. Until about last week, I had planned to take the same course of action with my final project. A poem or some lyrical piece that shifted between Tagalog and English and I’d be done. However, as we continued to workshop others’ pieces, I realized I wanted to take a different route.

One thing that I love to write about is love. From platonic to romantic, I can’t go a couple pages throughout my journals or poems without finding myself talking about it. It’s even hard for me to read books or watch TV shows/movies without some undertone of love in it! It has always been a guiding force within my life and I only feel it is right to produce work that is honest to who I am right now, especially since I feel I strayed away from it in my last LTWR 113 class.

As I am crafting up my workshop draft for next week, I am considering incorporating the sounds of love into my piece. As someone who often reads between the lines of everything (I know, it’s a struggle at times), I think this could be a good way to bring in the translanguaging aspect of our class. For example, I wanted to create a section that was based on silence with my boyfriend or my bestfriend and how its presence communicates to me comfort rather than awkwardness. Or how when my grandma yells at me in Tagalog I take that as care rather than her scolding me. Like my peers have mentioned, finding tWERK online has been a struggle but from what I was able to find, the sounds of music and trilingualism was a big part which I was thinking I could similarly draw on in some way. English is my primary language but growing up around Tagalog and other languages has shifted how I view love and I want my piece to display that. I am pretty nervous for my workshop next week but also excited to finally see a draft come out of me that is more honest to what I am passionate about!