If the nature of creativity is originality, what does that mean for the path we follow to pursue it? Filipino/xs are a traditional people—hear from those who are along (or away from) the tradition of a linear path.
Speakers
Ashley D. Topacio, Cartoonist & Illustrator, she/her, @mommasmashley
Ashley Topacio is a multidisciplinary artist living in Seattle. Her work focuses on relationships through the diasporic lens.
Her creative journey has always included raising her family and keeping a day job. She wants young artists, particularly those who are caretakers to children or elders, that keeping an artistic practice is possible, and even necessary, as a form of self care. Ashley believes that art is for everyone, and that we all have stories worth sharing.
Presently, she is working on a series of comics for a new platform celebrating AAPI voices. She plans on spending the rest of this lifetime making comics, loving her family and eating really good food.
Charisse Ledres, Estate Private Chef & Founder of Lamisa Events LLC, she/her, @lamisa.events
Charisse went to the Culinary Institute of America in NY for Associates in Baking and Pastry and Hospitality Management from Johnson and Wales University. In college, she worked as a Head Chef Instructor Assistant and as a Camarera for one of the school’s renowned restaurants, American Bounty.
She worked in the Pastry Department of a big wholesale bread company, Bread Alone. She then started working for a boutique hotel and a catering company, The Rhinecliff, as a Line Cook working her way up to an Executive Chef position. Currently, she is the founder of Lamisa Events LLC and a multiple estate Private Chef. Lamisa Events LLC also provides wholesale products sold in NYC and the Hudson Valley.
Working in a male dominated industry as a woman and a minority showed many challenges. This taught her adaptability, confidence and perseverance in her skills, physical strength and intellect. Eventually she decided to create a space for her career that is a representation of her cultural background and childhood.
Her goal is to continue to represent her Cebuano roots within the culinary industry in the US and eventually go back home and establish a creative food space for aspiring Filipinx/Filipino/Filipina chefs. This space will highlight sustainability, traditional culinary techniques, indigenous ingredients as well as local talent.