| March 2019 Movers |
It is with great pleasure that I introduce two very wonderful humans... easily some of my favorites on this planet; Teao Sense, founder of Audiopharmacy Band & Collective, & Joana Cruz aka love/speak, Womb Manager & Community Organizer. A few years ago, we were introduced by mutual friend Nikila Badua (who by the way, is our October 2019 feature)! A few of their members were in town for a music & cultural exchange with Mana Maoli/Mana Mele, a collective I have been an music mentor for since 2011 and building with since the early days of Tempo Valley featuring Paisley in 2005. I think it was pretty much a totally organic connection with love/speak initially; it was as if we always knew each other... like she just rolled up and we were like, kickin it. Later on, we realized our Moms are from the same region in the Philippines (Bicol, Albay). Bicolanas in the house?! Lol.
So, I am writing this late at night, and for weeks, I have been thinking about where to begin. I marinated on it, and marinated on it... There's just so many things I can say about these two... First off, consider Jo & Teao fam; and their wonderful network of creatives have also welcomed me with open arms and vice versa. I met them during a time when it was really important that I only spend time with quality, authentic humans; I mean, it's this is still very true for me today, but there was definitely a time when I was just open to hanging out with anyone that seemed cool and positive, until I found otherwise and had to really learn to value my time, energy and resources. In any case, I am so grateful to have met like-minded souls that hold strong values and morals. I am so pleased to provide yet another channel where they can be honored through their work.
Audiopharmacy has so much to offer us and have been so productive in the 17+ years they have been together. We will be posting some of our favorite merchandise along with Moment; their latest audiocinema release on the socials & here on the website regularly.
We celebrate Audiopharmacy this March 2019. Happy Astrological New Year and First Day of Spring!
AUDIOPHARMACY Band + Collective
Teao Sense - Bio/Vision Statement (2018)
Audiopharmacy is a Bay Area-based live music ensemble that uses globally infused hip-hop to inspire social change. Founded by producer/multi-instrumentalist/turntablist Teao Sense in '94, Audiopharmacy combines body-moving hip-hop, soulful poetics & technical lyricism with global musical genres, live instrumentation, turntablism, and electronics. For over 17 years, Audiopharmacy has used its musical platform to reflect on humanity’s struggles and triumphs to cultivate healing, unity and harmony. The band is scalable to accommodate any setting, varying in size from a DJ set with live instrumentation to 6-piece band with dancers.
In 2013 and 2014, Audiopharmacy toured as Music and Cultural Ambassadors for the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Educational and Cultural Affairs. The band successfully fostered cross-cultural understanding through intimate jam sessions, live concert performances, and youth music workshops. On March 19, 2013, the band received a Mayoral Proclamation from the City & County of San Francisco for artistic excellence, the promotion of cross-cultural understanding abroad, and representing the values of the San Francisco Bay Area. Domestically, Audiopharmacy has performed all over the West Coast, New York,
Washington D.C. and New Mexico, while internationally, the band has taken the stage at festivals, concert halls, clubs, cultural centers, orphanages, schools, and US Embassy events in Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Holland, France, the UK, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Samoa, New Zealand (Aotearoa), Fiji, the Solomon Islands, Ecuador, Morocco, Oman, Cyprus and Tanzania.
Audiopharmacy is a part of Audiopharmacy Prescriptions Collective - a culturally diverse, grass-roots artist collective and independent record label. The AP Collective was officially founded in 2000 when the band grew to include event producers, movement artists, poets, journalists, painters, illustrators, photographers, filmmakers, activists, educators, event producers and natural medicine practitioners. The AP Collective believes in the power of love, collaboration, and socially-conscious artistic offerings to support the healing of Pachamama and the unity + harmony of all beings.
love/speak productions BIO:
Mother. Soldier of Love. World Citizen. Artivist. Art Collective Manager. Grassroots Community Organizer. Special Events Producer. jo "love/speak" cruz is blessed to be raised in and by the diverse and culturally-rich Bay Area. Coupled with her strong familial, spiritual and indigenous roots to the Philippines where she was born, these worlds unite within her to cultivate a deeply rooted unconditional love for Mama Earth and all beings. It is from this love that she is inspired to create her own personal and professional path motivated not by colonization, capitalism and commodification, but rather in social change through the arts, culture, personal + collective healing, empowerment, and service. In partnership with Teao Sense, founder of World Hip-Hop Cultural Music Ambassador Ensemble - Audiopharmacy (AP), and San Francisco-based International Art Collective - Audiopharmacy Prescriptions (APP), jo “love/speak” cruz strives her best to support phenomenal world-class collective
members to advance ideas from vision to form with mindfulness and positive impact. She is also the Community Relations Manager for Bissap Baobab Village where she assists owner Marco Senghor develop special community events, including Teranga - a platform for the Bay Area's diverse, brilliant & creative change agents to inform, network, and inspire collaboration. The Teranga program also serves as a platform to fundraise for projects and causes that improve our community. Additionally, jo was also the former Sustainability Business Consultant for P.E.A.C.E. Fits created by self-taught designer AndreasOne. P.E.A.C.E. Fits is unique socially conscious fashion brand designed in Oakland, CA and made in small, hand-crafted batches by ArtiBali production house in Bali, Indonesia. She is also a former Board Member for Rooted in Resilience (formerly Bay Localize) and Beats, Rhymes & Life, both located in Oakland, CA. In 2015, jo “love/speak” cruz started her own special events company - love {speak} productions, in which she, alongside her mentor, Dancing Earth's Rulan Tangen, and company manager, Javier Stell-Fresquez, produced their first community festival - the SEEDS & SOUL Festival and Indigenous Cultural Exchange. SEEDS & SOUL is an indigenous-led, women-led labor of love combining the power of the arts, respectful cultural exchanges and intentional project-building to create a gathering space where performance and ceremony intersected with the intention to strengthen relationships & bridges among the Bay Area's indigenous and culturally-diverse communities. The Seeds & Soul Festival also aimed to honor the resilience and leadership of the Ohlone people - the original native people of Oakland, traditionally known as Huichin, who have made great efforts to gain cultural recognition and the return of Chochenyo and Karkin Ohlone lands in the San Francisco Bay Area to Indigenous stewardship . In 2016, jo “love/speak” cruz was invited by Lyla June Johnston (T he Taos Peace and Reconciliation Council , Nihigaal Bee Iiná
Movement , Black Hills Unity Concert, and Regeneration Festival) with the humble opportunity to offer support to the water protectors of Standing Rock by assisting to produce The Seventh Generation Medicine Concert, a prayer offering of music, song and spoken word to honor of the courageous International International Indigenous Youth Council (IIYC) of Standing Rock, ND. Together, they curated a special offering of musical medicine for the seventh generation with powerful female medicine wombmyn - Climbing Poetree, Rising Apalacchia, Saritah, and Desirae Harp. While fulfilled with the career path jo “love/speak” cruz has paved for herself, her most prized time is spent cultivating love, raising awareness, and empowering her two delightful children, Shishin and Sakima, along with her life-partner Teao, along with the rest of the Audiopharmacy family. She believes the family is the foundation of the revolution. The ancestors are our guides to show us what we can do to be the change we wish to see and the inspire the youth to become just stewards of the future.
Jo "love/speak" - love/speak Productions MISSION:
love/speak productions is Bay Area Based special events production collaborative that aims to combine intentional project-building, respectful cultural exchanges and the power of the arts to create gathering spaces where performance and ceremony intersect with the intention of strengthening relationships & bridges among culturally-diverse communities. Some notable projects include Seeds Sunday Series (San Francisco, 2014), Seeds & Soul Festival (Oakland, 2015), The Seventh Generation Medicine Concert (Standing Rock, 2016), Bay Area Artists Stand With Standing Rock (Oakland, 2017), Moment Audio Cinema Pre-release (Oahu, 2017). Run4Salmon Panel & Benefit Show (Berkeley, 2017), International Women’s Day Dance Party (Oakland, 2017), Moment Film Pre-release (Makati, 2017), Moment Audio Cinema Film Pre-release (Amsterdam, 2017), Climbing Poetree Intrinsic Concert (Oakland, 2017), Moment Audio Cinema Vinyl Release (Oakland, 2018), and Sol2Sol Summit (Oakland, 2018). love/speak production is a part of Audiopharmacy Prescriptions, a San Francisco-based international art collective which strives to invoke consciousness, empowerment and respect for life in creative endeavors shared with the world.
What are your favorite memories of tea time?
love/speak: My favorite moments of tea time...hmm…I think more than drinking tea, tho I enjoy that too, I love putting the herbs together to make tea. I’ve been interning with Holly Calica of the Nueva Luna Collective who’s been teaching me a deeper way of understanding plants. Some of my favorite tea combinations include herbs such as rose, tulsi holy basil, damiana, passion flower, moringa, turmeric and ginger.
Teao: Ha, that would definitely have to be memories of spilling a little bit on the Chinese round table and letting my tea cup magically slide across the table as if a ghost was chillin.
PaizLee: Word, I love me some Tulsi; hence, the dog's name. When I adopted my dog, I was told she had a bit of anxiety. She exhibits a shaky leg when she is anxious, so I named her Tulsi which is medicine for anxiety, and one of the most sacred herbs in India.
What are your thoughts on &/or relationship to earth medicine?
love/speak: Earth Medicine is the real tangible evidence of why the Universe conspires for our greater good. Everything we need to sustain ourselves is here on this planet. Everything we need to heal ourselves, to thrive, is right here on Mama Earth. She provides us with so many wonderful gifts to create from our wildest of dreams. But there are beings on this planet who take more than they can give, and are being driven by their greed, hatred, and fears to control of Mama Earth’s gifts to all of her children. Our works as stewards of Mama Earth and her medicine is to really help wake people up to this reality and to support a global culture that takes actions towards helping folks reconnect with the Earth and the interconnected web of life that we are all delicately a part of. Some of my native sisters from Turtle Island say that our planet is our Mother, and how we treat our women is relative to how we treat our planet. To have a future for our children, we have to shift our perspective to envision a future for the next seven generations.
Teao: Thumbs up for earth medicine! I’d say Earth medicine is typically the only route for me. Shewt...when I broke my wrist a few years ago, I even declined the sedative for my surgery and the pain killers prescribed got dusty in a drawer somewhere. I still remember sleepless nights of pacing / breathing off the pain, but yeah… I don’t like western meds. Music is my Earth Medicine. In terms of ceremonial Earth Medicines, to the right person, situation, and moderation. All goodie.
PaizLee: Whenever I hear love/speak, it affirms that I am right where I need to be. Thumbs up for Earth Medicine indeed. I encountered an injury in early 2018 that had me limping and in so much physical pain that I began to really appreciate the many forms of plant medicine because western meds did nothing (zero) for relieving my pain either. It was right after I setup Atlas and my plan was to go back to work right away so I can get on with releasing a signature tea. Instead, my injury lead me to work on catering offerings and get into full R&D mode. During that time, I really began to appreciate the different ways I would get relief, through lomi lomi, (which encouraged me to regularly ask myself, "Who do I need to forgive?" and being that the injury was on the left side, I was dealing with healing the sacred feminine). My lomi practitioner shared some la'au lapa'au with me, which also helped the inflammation. Topical CBD was also a gift from God during those first few months in extreme pain. Eventually, I was able to stretch out a lot of the pain through regular yin yoga practice and chanting helped me to focus some sound healing in the areas that needed some extra love and positive intention.
What is your medicine?
Teao: I’ve learned that if I find myself in a funk and I don’t know why, it’s usually because I’ve been neglecting my creative output. After I write a song tho... boom, i’m healed. Maybe that’s why artists often get taken for granted. When we aren’t asked to, we still create for the love it. Still...the world would be nothing without art.
PaizLee: Art is the heart; our lifeline.
Current community building projects and what sparked this interest? Products/recent releases?
Our newest project is an Audio Cinema called MOMENT. It’s a vinyl concept album / art journal / movie / artist print collection. After years of long tours with our band, Audiopharmacy, I was hit with an awakening that inspired this epic project. I broke my wrist breaking up a fight in Zurich, Switzerland, then had to finish another week of tour in Europe with a bone dislodged from my wrist. I pulled through two more shows with hip hop legend - Kool Keith, and reggae artist Macka B. When I returned to the Bay Area, I immediately saw a doctor at San Francisco General hospital and told him my story. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me I needed surgery ASAP. I told him, “I leave for 3 weeks tour in Africa tomorrow and I’m not cancelling.” We uncomfortably stared in each other’s eyes for the longest 10 seconds ever, then he scheduled me for surgery upon my return. The story doesn’t end there. The next day I flew to Tanzania, got to my hotel, met up with MC - Ahmad Lewis, Producer/DJ - Yako 440, Dancer - Karlita Flores. We were planning to teach African students hip hop classes the next day. Karla and I decided to go for a walk to check out the neighborhood and we were jumped by 3 locals hanging from a 3 wheel taxi holding machetes. It wasn’t pretty. We were robbed for $20 and a compact camera and both suffered from head lacerations. I fractured my skull that night and I was already down a wrist from the previous week, so yeah...I was having a rough month. Other than my first night, Africa was beautiful and the locals were friendly as can be. I just learned the hard way to not freely be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Feel me? Anyways. A near death experience makes you re-evaluate things.
PaizLee: That's right; I do remember that. I think you came to Hawaii afterwards. Sound is really medicine; it allows you to breakthrough pain, challenges, obstacles. On the topic of Moment audiocinema; it's so cool to have seen the various stages these last few years. My favorite memory of it though, was inside the geodesic dome when I came out for Seeds & Soul Festival in 2014. We were up all night making vegan/vegetarian tamales for the Seeds & Soul crew, slept for a few hours and did the festival. When it got dark, Teao debuted the film in the dome. I remember it was freezing that night and entering the geodesic dome, laying down on the ground, watching Moment and the sound system just bumpin Teao's beats. It was so epic. The next night, I got to watch it in the studio at the Pharm, where I got to spend a quiet night with Key Low; your awesome snake. That was the most peaceful sleep I had and sleeping in Key Low's room felt totally normal; which is ironic, now that I think about it. Haaa… I love those memories.
Without further ado, here is a link to snippet of Moment audiocinema film, sample the tracks and the full menu of offerings.
https://audiopharmacy.shop/collections/moment-audio-cinema
Purchase a download card to experience Moment audiocinema: