Michael Balangue, Anito Soul
Michael Balangue / Anito Soul is a multidisciplinary artist weaving ancestral memory, sonic ritual, and cultural research rooted in the contradictions of the Filipino-American experience. Their practice explores animism as a framework for decolonial futurism, focusing on the role of spirit as a channel for ecological and ancestral reconnection in an era of technological oppression. Their most recent project Amen, Anito! is an audiovisual archive of personal and precolonial memory experienced through the energetic tradition of jungle and budots soundscapes.
They have performed at various cultural institutions including MoMA PS1, Times Square Arts, and the Lot Radio. Their work has been supported by Balikbayan Worldwide, Tropical Futures Institute, and featured in films like Some Nights I Feel Like Walking. They are also the Program Director of Biodesign Challenge, an international education program for students developing research at the intersection of contemporary art, design, and biotechnology.