Miguel Syjuco is a Filipino writer, civil society advocate, and professor at New York University Abu Dhabi. His debut novel, Ilustrado, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year and won the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Palanca Awards Grand Prize, his country’s top literary honor. He has worked as a contributing opinion writer for The International New York Times, written for many of the world’s most respected publications, and spoken on Philippine politics and culture at the World Forum for Democracy and the World Economic Forum. He serves on the advisory councils of both the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, an arts residency program, and the Resilience Fund, a project by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime to empower communities most threatened by criminality.
Alia Ceniza Rasul is an award-winning artist based in Toronto, Canada. With a passion for telling stories about the Filipin* diaspora, Alia has created, produced and performed in multiple award-winning projects including Tawa and Island Womxn Rise, annual, sold-out Filipin*comedy festivals, Kwento, an improvised Filipin* folktale, the sketch comedy revue Tita Jokes, and her play, Tang Ina. Alia is a co-founder of the Tita Collective, a sisterhood of Filipina theatre artists. Additionally, she works with Bespoke Collective, a creative consultancy at the intersection of culture, public good and the future.
LKN is a page-performance-slam-street poet who had shared in more than 1,700 events in 16 countries since September 2017. He has been featured in The World Bazaar Festival 2017, The History Channel History Con 2018, HK New Music Ensemble Festival 2018, World Speech Day 2019 and Poetry Festival Singapore 2020. His work has been in newspapers and magazines, and he has appeared on radio and TV. He is also the brand ambassador of Z Hostel Philippines. LKN’s work has been in anthologies in India and the US, as well as in publications in Pakistan and the Philippines. He is set to publish his debut poetry collection later in 2020.