On April 22nd, gues joined the artist Bennie Flores Ansell for a special Earth Day event that continued her collaborative exploration of migration. 

Starting at 1 p.m. at the Moody, visitors joined an artist and student-led procession to The Betty and Jacob Friedman Holistic Garden where the physical copies of migration stories-- contributed by the community over the last several weeks as a part of Flores Ansell's Swarm Migration installation-- were composted. Participants could return to the garden in September to collect a plant grown from their story. 

All guests were treated to a special subli performance (traditional Filipino folk dance) and calamansi juice at the Friedman Holistic Garden from 2:30 - 4 p.m. Guests learned about how the Filipino diaspora and Filipino history at Rice are integrated into Flores Ansell's work at the Moody. 

Guests could submit their own migration story in person at the Moody or online through this form. Physical copies of these narratives, which were included in the procession and composted as mentioned above, were also digitally archived and are available on this website.

This event was organized by Rice students Marc Armeña, Alice Bian, and Mallory Tucker with Bennie Flores Ansell.