Nicky Uy
Nicky Uy co-founded Bahay215 in 2020 as a way to connect to Kapwa and Filipinx traditions through the context of wild and cultivated plants. Born in Manila, Philippines to children of Chinese immigrants, she has emigrated twice, to Toronto, Canada at age 11, and as a young adult to Philadelphia, USA, where she has lived for the past 30 years. Shaped by her and her family’s immigrant experiences, she explores diasporic longings and loving adaptations that bring us home. Bahay215 occupies land that is part of the territory of the Lenni-Lenape, called Lenapehoking. We recognize Lenape People as the original inhabitants of this land and their continuing relationship with their territory.
Awarded Grants
2021
Art and Change Grant (ACG)
Related grantees
Overview
Nicky will create interactive site-specific installations that will frame spaces for Kapwa to dialogue around wild and cultivated plants that can be adapted in ancestral Filipinx recipes and traditions. Centering the Filipinx diaspora, Nicky will organize seasonal opportunities for Kapwa to learn, forage, and cook with these plants while facilitating exchanges of ideas and dialogue about cultural belonging and authenticity through the lens of ecology. Nicky's hope is that these events will inspire the Filipinx community in Philadelphia to connect with the local environment and incorporate seasonal Filipinx traditions into practices that can nourish themselves and their communities.