Bios
Felix
Policarpio
Remilyn Felix Lydia Aiden Faundo Policarpio is a second generation Filipino diaspora transman. He attended the Iona School of the Arts, specialising in instrumental works for half of his time there before transferring to visual arts. He moved to Ottawa in 2015 to study philosophy, stopping short due to mental illness but continuing his work as an educator and artist. Felix seeks to spread the message of Death Positivity, and what it means to him as a queer person of colour born to immigrant parents. His article, “Over The Grave and Back Again”, is going to be published in the upcoming Magdaragat: An Anthology of Filipino-Canadian Writing.
He considers himself a storyteller by trade. From recounting traditional myths, to teaching, to playing Dungeons and Dragons -- it is all fueled by an insatiable need for knowledge backed by a childlike wonder and a taste for the macabre. He continues to explore the world and reconnect to his Filipino Indigenous identity. Currently he works on his art pieces, continues to educate, is a professional gamemaster, and has recently begun a career as a Haunted Walk tour guide.
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His passions include history, folklore, anthropology, magic, science, music, games, collaborative storytelling, and collecting ephemera.
Lukayo
Bito'on
Lukayo Bito’on (siya/they), aka Lukayo Estrella, is of the Bikol diaspora, born in the Philippines, raised in Toronto, and (re)sides with(in) unceded Algonquin territory.
They have been published in the following anthologies: Out Proud: Stories of Pride, Courage, and Social Justice (for prose) and Home is in the Body: 2SLGBTQIA+ FilipinX Femme, North of the 49th Parallel (for visual art, poetry, and prose). Lukayo competed at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word twice, and coached the Ottawa Youth Poetry Slam Team. Their poetry and stories have been performed on different stages over 70 times since 2006, from the Governor General’s house to Zoom.
Lukayo has received 4 grants from the Ontario Arts Council and one grant from the City of Ottawa’s Diversity in the Arts for a variety of projects ranging from curating showcases, facilitating arts education, creating new poetry, building a professional website, and receiving mentorship from Leonard Cervantes and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha.
In all of their work, they weave together justice and harmonious spirit-land-human relations through an eternal sense of play. Discover their carefully crafted online presence, and their Qu’ART funded Filipinx storytelling series AGI-AGI (2020), at www.lukayo.com.