Please read these 2 pages first:
Short Bio (please use for introductions)
A wordslinger and healer from the Bikol diaspora, Lukayo is based on the unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Anishinaabe (Algonquin), in so-called Ottawa, Canada. When not daydreaming of starting a sanctuary with land defenders and nonbinary witches, Lukayo is running retreats at a land co-operative or hanging out at their home made up of gay-mers and queerdos. Check out Lukayo.com to know more.
Long Bio
Artist, educator, healer.
Born in the Philippines of the Bikol people, they were raised in so-called Toronto, on the territories of the Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, and Wyandot. Currently, as a guest/settler on unsurrendered Algonquin territory (so-called Ottawa), they are committed to Anishinaabe and First Nations protocol as taught to them by their indigenous elders/teachers and will refer Two Spirit people and queer/trans Indigenous folks, if requested, to Elders and healers within the Indigenous community.
They are a hearing, sighted, anglophone who currently cannot sign, which means they can only use English language text chat if you are Deaf or hard of hearing, and can use English language audio chat if you are blind or partially sighted/blind.
As an artist, Lukayo competed at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word twice, and coached the Ottawa Youth Poetry Slam Team. They have been published in the following anthologies: Out Proud: Stories of Pride, Courage, and Social Justice (for non-fiction prose) and Home is in the Body: 2SLGBTQIA+ FilipinX Femme, North of the 49th Parallel (for visual art, poetry, and non-fiction prose).
As an educator, they have taught in classrooms, boardrooms, living rooms, auditoriums, and open fields, delivering hundreds of presentations in over a decade, while making posters, infographics, and games to facilitate learning.
As a healer, they come from a lineage of traditional healing through their father’s line, and have been mentored by a variety of spiritual teachers and healers of Christian, indigenous, and pagan worldviews. Thus, they can also offer traditional forms of spiritual counseling and support, rooted in their Bikol (Filipino) heritage, as well as astrology-based coaching. Their western-based training includes a Master of Social Work at York University, programs with the Somatic Experiencing Trauma Institute, and the Just Practice training series on transformative justice practices and harm reduction skills. As a queer and trans non-Black person of colour born outside of Canada, they have experience offering peer support to other queer and trans people of colour, and offering counseling to LGBTQ+ refugees and newcomers. They also have lived experience with the asexual and aromantic community, plural/multiple/median community, polyamory, kink, medical transitioning, chronic illness and disability (mental and physical), dissociative identities, being a survivor, and being in recovery.
In all of their work, they are dedicated to weaving together justice and harmonious spirit-land-human relations through an eternal sense of play.
Note:
Partial or full proceeds of all of Lukayo’s works go to grassroots collectives that support Pilipino/Pilipinx liberation, indigenous sovereignty (in recognition of the territory and land), and Black liberation (in recognition of the historical and ongoing roots of spoken word in Black culture). Email me if you’d like to know specifically who the donations are going to.
This website would not have been possible without the generous support of the Ontario Arts Council’s Access and Career Development Grant.
