Introducing Maum’s New Program Manager: Marjorie Justine Antonio
Hey, my name is Marjorie (she/they/siya), and I’m the Program Manager for Maum! I am a 1.5-generation queer Filipino American interdisciplinary artist, curator, writer, and community arts organizer based in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
I recently graduated from the University of Maryland (UMD) with my dual B.A. in History and American Studies, and am pursuing a gap year (or years!). I have decided to pursue my dream to serve my community through the arts and cultural education, in particularly, the Asian American and Filipino American spaces in the DMV (DC-Maryland-Virginia).
As a Filipino immigrant, I am the product of the Philippines’ labor-export policy as my parents found professional employment in the US in the early 2000s. From my childhood until I got to college, I was conditioned to feel ashamed of my Filipino nationality and identity (ew, colonial mentality) despite living in a Filipino ethnic enclave in Baltimore, MD.
My first introduction to Asian American studies was Dr. Terry Park’s Asian American History course. It inspired me to pursue Ethnic Studies as my life’s passion and commitment and spurred my involvement in student organizations, academic research and thesis work, and culturally-competent community arts organizing. Learning about Ethnic Studies strengthened my racial-ethnic identity, enabled me to reconnect with my ethnicity and homeland, as well as ask critical questions about the presence, visuality, and stratification of Asian Americans and other Southeast Asians in the United States. My interest in Ethnic Studies coincided with my engagement with the Filipino American progressive activist space in the DMV, and such involvements spurred my honors thesis on Filipino American transnational arts activism, where I conducted oral history interviews, archival research, and visual culture analysis. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with Dr. Park to make Ethnic Studies more accessible for the public and learners of all ages.
To sum up my time at UMD, I had an equal commitment to Asian American studies / Ethnic Studies and the arts. I was the founding director of “FCArts” - a Filipino American-interest creative arts organization at UMD, The Clarice’s NextNOW Fest 2020 student curator, Student Entertainment Events’ Performing Arts Director, and the previous editor-in-chief of Stylus: A Journal of Literature and Art. I incubated my interest in politics of representation, contemporary art, and cultural interpretation through the curation of two exhibitions at the Stamp Gallery, Not Your Model Minority (2020) and alternate universe: visualizing queer futurisms (2022). I have had a fruitful run at UMD, and have been grateful for the opportunity to strengthen the arts ecosystem on campus.
Currently, I am pursuing my passion in the arts as I figure out my next steps professionally and academically. I am the newest and first poetry editor of Mahalaya SF, a Filipinx community newspaper based in the Bay Area, CA, and a teaching artist at Art Works Now, a non-profit based in Hyattsville, MD. During my free time, I am working on my craft as a visual artist and creative writer, reconnecting to my classical music background, and warming up my old field hockey stick. I am reading Safia Elhillo’s Girls That Never Die (2022) and Joseph Han’s Nuclear Family (2022), and getting through my poetry haul from AWP 2022. I love making matcha lattes with oat milk, going to concerts, wandering around museums and galleries, learning new recipes from TikTok, and spending time with my loved ones, doggies and humans alike.
I am excited to serve as Maum’s first Program Manager, and ready to optimize all of our workflows!
