KhoKhoi (mary alinney villacastin)

KhoKhoi (mary alinney villacastin) is a movement-based artist and a plant, body & cultural worker.

Proudly descended from pearl divers & fisherfolk of Bantayan island, KhoKhoi is based between the native lands stewarded by the Munsee Lenape, Mohican, Wappinger & Schaghticoke (New York City) & the Visayan Sea, Philippines. KK’s cultural research is informed by her BA in Anthropology from Barnard College of Columbia University, and MA in Media Studies from The New School of Public Engagement. Thinking critically about sensual embodiment amidst shifting techno-ecologies, her creative & community work bridges local, healing lineages (as founder of Kalami Spirit Arts) and global, transoceanic webs of relations (as co-founder of Bàbà Bisaya). For her Folger project, “Ubos sa Dagat: The Undersea,” KK is looking at archival, colonial texts describing the premodern seascapes of present day Philippines, in order to speculate on parallel, submerged indigenous histories.