from the wind to the water:
an evening of poetry and sound art
presented by Riverlife in partnership with Anthropology of Motherhood
Saturday, August 9, 7-8 pm
Riverlife’s Shore Thing
2 Federal Street, Pittsburgh PA 15212
Free and open to the public. ASL interpretation will be provided.
Join sound artist trē seguritan abalos and poets Veronica Corpuz, Leslieann Hobayan and Sara Tang in an exploration of nature, place, culture and the intersections of embodiment and spirituality. The evening will take place under the art installation Pittsburgh Chandelier created by Fran Ledonio Flaherty.
ARTISTS
trē seguritan abalos (tree) is a Filipinx-American sound artist from San Jose, CA improvising with flutes and field recordings. Their interests revolve around unraveling or reimagining place / placelessness and breath / breathlessness. tre’s playing includes live soundscapes, ambient sound collage, free jazz, and collectives of electroacoustic improvisation. tre curates unmade place, a series of sound + text experiments featuring local musicians/improvisers and poets in spaces such as The Big Idea Bookstore, Abolition Coffee, and Telephone. https://www.theresa-abalos.com/
Veronica Corpuz is a first-generation Filipina American poet and interdisciplinary artist exploring themes of identity, assimilation, loss, and grief. A workshop facilitator in the Madwomen in the Attic program at Carlow University and poet-in-residence with Anthropology of Motherhood, she co-curates with Sarah Williams-Devereux Mad Bookends, an online journal of creative writing featuring women writers of color. As a member of the #notwhite collective, she has performed and exhibited mixed media work and photography at most recently at McDonough Museum, City of Asylum Pittsburgh and Yolia Artspace with Los Fantasmas Artist Collective in Englewood, Co. Her most recent collection of poetry, The Widow’s Calendar, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.
Leslieann Hobayan is a Filipina-American poet, essayist, activist mom, and host of Spiritual Grit, a podcast at the intersection of spirituality and activism. She is the author of the chapbook, Divorce Papers: A Slow Burn (Finishing Line Press, 2023) and her poetry manuscript, Jeepney Girl: An Archipelago, was a finalist for the Trio House Press Open. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a 2018 Best of the Net, her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Aster(ix) Journal, The Grief Diaries, The Lantern Review, The Mom Egg Review, The World I Leave You: Asian American Poets on Faith and Spirit, and elsewhere. She has been awarded the 2025 NJ State Council for the Arts poetry fellowship, along with fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and artist grants from Community of Writers and the Bread Loaf Orion Environmental Writers Conference. She teaches creative writing at Rutgers University. She is also a spiritual guide for women of color. https://leslieannhobayan.com/
Sara Tang is a multidisciplinary artist and cultural worker who is currently exploring the intersections of chronic illness, embodied change, ecopsychology, and the sacred in her process and work. You can find them glitching out between being present and dissociating in many of Pittsburgh's liminal spaces.
Sara uses reclaimed and discarded materials and creative processes to illuminate the sacred deeply embedded in our lives and surroundings. Her creative workshops, projects, and collaborations often explore multiracial and multicultural kinship, the power of knowing and shaping our stories, and understanding the complexities of health and wellbeing. Sara’s process is mindful of drawing people in to a deeper empathic encounter with themselves, their communities, and what is strange and beautiful about humanity and existence.
Sara is a member of the #notwhite Collective, JADED PGH Asian American Pacific Islander collective, and is the Digital Content Curator for Anthropology of Motherhood. She also serves on the City of Pittsburgh's Equity Audit Committee and on the Community Advisory Board Council for the Pittsburgh HR/Equity Arts Cohort. https://www.draw-me-in.com/
Fran (Ledonio) Flaherty is an Assistant Professor of Digital Art and Emerging Media and the Director of Fablab at Carlow University. A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh in Studio Arts, she is a first-generation immigrant mother from the Philippines and a deaf artist whose work explores themes of migrant family relations, maternal feminism, disability aesthetics, and social work.
Her artistic practice is grounded in the care paradigm, emphasizing the importance of interconnectedness and community. This philosophy led to her internationally recognized project, Anthropology of Motherhood, which curates work from artists focused on the culture of care and transforms public spaces into immersive installations for young children and caregivers. As a member of the #notwhite collective, she advocates for diverse voices in the arts and the importance of caregiving in communities.
Flaherty's latest installation, The Pittsburgh Chandelier, is located along the Allegheny River on The Shore Thing. Later this summer, she will exhibit her work at arriviste.coffee in Shadyside, PA, and will have a forthcoming exhibition at the School of Visual Arts in NYC in February 2026. https://www.anthropologyofmotherhood.com/fran-flaherty
