J. Lorenzo Perillo

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J. Lorenzo Perillo is a son, brother, ninong, dance theorist, perfomer, researcher, and boardgame enthusiast. More than forty years ago, his father left Bicol University College of Education, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and blazed a trail for his parents, thirteen siblings, and four children. Lorenzo was born in Honolulu and raised in San Diego, where he spent much of his time rehearsing with the Mira Mesa Co-Ed and All-male dance teams. In the early 2000s, he was a member of Culture Shock, professional Hip Hop dance company and a non-profit organization dedicated to youth outreach. Culture Shock introduced him to the potentials of dance as community activism.

At Cornell University, Dr. Perillo is the Andrew W. Mellon Diversity Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Performing and Media Arts, and affiliated with the Asian American Studies and American Studies programs. He earned his PhD in Culture and Performance and Concentration in Asian American Studies at UCLA. He also holds a MA degree in American Studies and Graduate Certificate in International Cultural Studies from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His research interests include Asian American Studies, Global Hip Hop studies, Dance Studies, Critical Race Theory, and postcolonialism. His current book project uses ethnography and choreographic analysis to explore the role of Hip Hop aesthetic practices in Filipino communities in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Dr. Perillo is featured in Theatre Journal, International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, and Hip-hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop, and has received generous funding by the Asian Cultural Council, Ford Foundation, Fulbright Group Projects, and Fulbright-Hays. In 2011, as the first Fulbright scholar to research Hip Hop in Asia, he collaborated with faculty and dancers at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, and partnered with Akap Bata (embrace children), an advocacy organization for women and children. In 2013, his essay "'If I Were Not in Prison, I Would Not Be Famous': Discipline, Choreography, and Mimicry in the Philippines," was recognized by the Society of Dance History Scholars with the prestigious Gertrude Lippincott Award, an annual award for the best English-language article in Dance Studies. Dr. Perillo has taught courses at the University of California- Berkeley, University of Hawaii-Mānoa, California State University Dominguez Hills, and UCLA. At Cornell, he utilizes the Cornell Hip Hop Collection in his curriculum and teaches hybrid practice and theory courses entitled "Hip-hop, Dance, and Asian America" and "Choreographies of Race".

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J. Lorenzo Perillo

J. Lorenzo Perillo is a son, brother, ninong, dance theorist, perfomer, researcher, and boardgame enthusiast. More than forty years ago, his father left Bicol University College of Education, enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and blazed a trail for his parents, thirteen siblings, and four children. Lorenzo was born in Honolulu and raised in San Diego, where he spent much of his time rehearsing with the Mira Mesa Co-Ed and All-male dance teams. In the early 2000s, he was a member of Culture Shock, professional Hip Hop dance company and a non-profit organization dedicated to youth outreach. Culture Shock introduced him to the potentials of dance as community activism.

At Cornell University, Dr. Perillo is the Andrew W. Mellon Diversity Postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Performing and Media Arts, and affiliated with the Asian American Studies and American Studies programs. He earned his PhD in Culture and Performance and Concentration in Asian American Studies at UCLA. He also holds a MA degree in American Studies and Graduate Certificate in International Cultural Studies from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa. His research interests include Asian American Studies, Global Hip Hop studies, Dance Studies, Critical Race Theory, and postcolonialism. His current book project uses ethnography and choreographic analysis to explore the role of Hip Hop aesthetic practices in Filipino communities in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Dr. Perillo is featured in Theatre Journal, International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, and Hip-hop(e): The Cultural Practice and Critical Pedagogy of International Hip-Hop, and has received generous funding by the Asian Cultural Council, Ford Foundation, Fulbright Group Projects, and Fulbright-Hays. In 2011, as the first Fulbright scholar to research Hip Hop in Asia, he collaborated with faculty and dancers at the University of the Philippines, Diliman, and partnered with Akap Bata (embrace children), an advocacy organization for women and children. In 2013, his essay "'If I Were Not in Prison, I Would Not Be Famous': Discipline, Choreography, and Mimicry in the Philippines," was recognized by the Society of Dance History Scholars with the prestigious Gertrude Lippincott Award, an annual award for the best English-language article in Dance Studies. Dr. Perillo has taught courses at the University of California- Berkeley, University of Hawaii-Mānoa, California State University Dominguez Hills, and UCLA. At Cornell, he utilizes the Cornell Hip Hop Collection in his curriculum and teaches hybrid practice and theory courses entitled "Hip-hop, Dance, and Asian America" and "Choreographies of Race".

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Johanna F. Almiron

b. 1978

Johanna F. Almiron was born in the Bronx and raised in the ‘burbs of New York City. Her Ilokano parents immigrated from Baguio City in the early 1970s at the eve of Marcos’ declaration of martial law. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College where she initially forged her political and intellectual commitment to Ethnic Studies as a member of Third World House, a program house founded on the principles of Third World Liberation Front and also an African American studies major with a focus on Asian American Studies. She received her M.A. in Performance Studies at Tisch School of the Arts, New York University and subsequently worked as a writing and creative arts educator at the Saturday Program at Cooper Union and Center for Family Life at Sunset Park, Brooklyn. She obtained her PhD. in American Studies at The University of Hawai’i at Manoa where she led multiple artistic productions collaborating with social justice and community organizations including the Pilipina Rural Project & Domestic Violence Clearinghouse (Artistic Director, Filipino Vagina Monologues), Urban Babaylan, Filipino College Youth Summit and Local 5’s Unite Here! (Hotel workers campaign) and KTUH-FM radio. In 2013, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa where she participated in the contemporary art and design scene such as regularly hosting The Design Share Party directed by Neo Trinity Rakajane.
 
Dr. Almiron is currently the 2014 Nellie Y. McKay Fellow and Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in the Department of Afro-American Studies.  Based on her doctoral research, she is completing a manuscript that examines the social statements and persistent cultural relevance of the art of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Her cultural studies and interdisciplinary scholarship has been supported by various awards including most notably the pre-doctoral fellowship at the Frederick Douglass Institute for African and African American Studies at the University of Rochester. She has written catalog texts for Rush Arts Gallery (NY), LAX Arts (LA) and Saltworks Gallery (Atlanta). She happily joins the Center for Art and Thought team with the hopes to nurture the ties that bind between Filipinas and Filipinos throughout the digital diaspora and beyond.
 
Photo credit: Victor Dlamini.

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  • Born: Bronx, NY, USA
  • Based: New York, NY, USA
  • Also Based in: Honolulu, HI, USA

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