 | Kwentong Bayan Collective are the 2025 Eastern Comma Artists in Residence. The Eastern Comma Artist-in-Residence program is named after a butterfly found near water sources in the eastern half of North America, and sporting comma-like markings on the underside of its wings. Held annually, this primarily literary residency has also engaged visual artists and musicians in its history. It is an initiative of the Musagetes Foundation and has its roots in a long-time programming relationship with the rare Charitable Research Reserve, which also includes the Question Mark Butterfly Fellowship, and the Long Dash Festival, an event bringing together the worlds of art and science. |
 Circle of Care comes full circle...from October 2023 to September 2024, KBC facilitated Circle of Care, a monthly grief support group for the 2SLGBTQIA+ BIPOC community. We facilitated art activities that encouraged self-awareness through creative expression. Participants explored their personal experiences with grief, and the impact of global events on our collective mental health, and we shared a community meal each month.
The photo above features our "Lanterns of Light" - made of recycled glass jars and pressed flowers - to explore how to create light for ourselves and others during times of personal and global suffering. We are grateful to all the Circle of Care participants for their support over the past year and acknowledge our venue sponsor, The 519.
 Beginning in October 2023, KBC has partnered with The 519 to program Circle of Care, a monthly grief support group for the 2SLGBTQIA+ BIPOC community. KBC facilitates art activities that encourage self-awareness through creative expression, including visual art, music and embodied movement. Participants explore their personal experiences with grief and the impact of global events on our collective mental health. This is an ongoing group.
 In May 2023, Kwentong Bayan Collective participated in a Careworkers Retreat in Vancouver, B.C. organized by Caregiver Connections Education and Support Organization (CCESO) and the Vancouver Committee for Domestic Workers and Caregivers Rights (CDWCR).
Our newest collective member, Melanya Liwanag Aguila joined us and facilitated embodied movement-based activities that highlighted the value of care work. While care workers recognized the wins of the campaign for Status for All, over four decades, they are determined to strengthen and sustain their commitment to fight for the rights of all migrant workers.
 Kwentong Bayan Collective is honoured to be Myseum of Toronto's 2020/2021 Artist Collective in Residence.
We have collaborated with Myseum to present Stories of Collective Care in the Time of Covid-19 a series exploring collective care in Toronto and beyond through panel discussions and storytelling. Please join us for a series of online conversations with essential workers, food justice advocates, and community educators from May to June 2020. Learn about grassroots strategies of community care and mutual support. Experience some of the cultural practices being created during this time of global transition. Free events, register online.  From Migrants Rights Network: "Canada is seeing a rise in Coronavirus / COVID-19 cases, accompanied by growing levels of xenophobia and racism. Crises do not affect us all equally – migrant, poor, and racialized communities will be the first excluded from response measures and the worst affected by the economic downturn.
We must demand collective responses that leave no one behind, including migrant workers, undocumented people, low-waged students, poor people, and refugees. Pandemics know no borders, neither should our solidarity. We call on individuals and organizations across the country to join us in uniting against racism. Groups from across the country call on federal, provincial and municipal leaders to ensure worker & migrant Justice as part of the COVID-19 response. Please sign this Call to Action and "Leave No One Behind" |
