Salo salo is a Filipino term for “party, gathering, banquet.” Especially now, we invite folks who hunger for community nourishment: Come! Join us ‘around the table’ for restorative & joy-filled kinship via stories from Subo and Baon: A Memoir in Bites, live music, and with-nessing one another.
In Subo and Baon: A Memoir in Bites, Ella deCastro Baron invites us to a communal meal, a roundtable collection of creative nonfiction. The subo (handfed bites) and baon (food to go) she serves are kitchen counter-stories marinated in Filipino American identity, faith, family, chronic illness, and the complex fullness of being, becoming. Here, ancestors and more-than-human kin conspire, too. This is kapwa, deep interconnection. May those who partake in Ella’s generous offerings savor, metabolize, and be fed by core Filipino values that infuse flavor and sustenance into American culture.
Ella deCastro Baron (she/siya/we) is a second generation Filipina American from Coastal Miwok lands (Vallejo, California). She teaches English and Creative Writing at San Diego City and Mesa Colleges as well as in the Zoom-verse with Urban Haiku. Ella's books are Subo and Baon: a Memoir in Bites (2024) and Itchy, Brown Girl Seeks Employment (2009). She conspires with art-ivists to produce workshops and kapwa (deep interconnection) gatherings that stir love and justice via writing, art, joy, grief-tending, movement, food and community. Her favorite pronoun, more than ever, is We. Find some of Ella’s offerings at elladecastrobaron.com.
Dr. Jeannie Estella Celestial, PhD, MSW (she/her/siya) is a licensed psychologist and leadership coach who specializes in trauma recovery and posttraumatic growth among AAPI women. Dr. Celestial is a bestselling co-author of “The Filipino Instant Pot Cookbook” and co-editor/co-author of “Clinical Interventions for Internalized Oppression”. Her ancestry is from Cebu and Cavite, Philippines by way of Guam. Dr. Celestial serves at Richmond Area Multi-Services, Inc. (RAMS) as the Trauma, Grief, & Loss Counselor in San Francisco public high schools. She is a founding member of Filipino/x Mental Health Initiative (FMHI) in San Francisco & Solano/Napa. Connect with her at drcelestial.com.
Sheilani Alix (she/her) sings and plays jazz first influenced by her mother constantly playing records by Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and more since she was a little girl. She currently performs as a vocalist with two main groups, and has also performed with other local artists trios, including those of Dan Damon and Kurt Ribak. They can be enjoyed around the Bay Area at private events and venues that include The Boom Boom Room and Yoshi’s. Sheilani also records original music and has released acclaimed solo albums, When Night Falls and Lovesong. Find more at https://sheilanialix.com/