Jo SiMalaya Alcampo

Emerging Voice 2010

Jo SiMalaya Alcampo is an interdisciplinary artist born in Maynila the capital of the Philippines and raised in Malvern in the heart of Scarborough. She combines various forms of artistic expression including sculpture, installation, sound art, electronics, photography, film/video, creative writing and performance. Her first writing teacher was poet and educator Mary Lou Soutar-Hynes. Jo studied Creative Writing at OCAD University with dub poet and professor, Lillian Allen.

Jo's writing and multimedia work have been published in INCITE! Journal of Experimental Media & Radical Aesthetics, Fireweed Women’s Literary & Cultural Journal, and Pinoy Sa Canada. Jo has read at the Toronto Women's Bookstore, Ellington's Cafe, Trane Studio, Kapisanan Centre (Araw ng mga Patay/Day of The Dead Festival), and the Junction Arts Festival (Poetry Village).

In 2010, Jo participated in the Diaspora Dialogues Mentorship Program and was mentored by critically acclaimed Canadian novelist and short-story writer Rabindranath Maharaj. Jo developed a collection of writing, including a short story "the inviolable heart" which was published in the Diaspora Dialogues anthology, TOK 6: Writing the New Toronto (2011).

Jo is an emerging playwright with short plays produced by Carlos Bulosan Theatre, the longest standing Filipino theatre company in Canada. In 2010-2011, Jo worked with an ensemble of emerging Filipino-Canadian playwrights to develop new work through a collaborative scriptwriting process. "Collective Consciousness" was presented at Tales from the Flipside (2011).

Website: www.josimalaya.com