Ethnic Studies Alumni, Isabella Avila Borgeson, to Perform Spoken Word Poetry at the Current Climate Change Conference 2015 in Paris, France
December 7, 2015
From "Fil-Am poet to perform at climate change events in Paris":
"Filipino American poet Isabella Avila Borgeson of the San Francisco-Bay Area is one of four spoken word artists who have been chosen to perform at various events in conjunction with the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Also known as COP21, the world confab is being held in Paris from November 30 to December 11, 2015. . . .
She dedicated her poem to her mother, Geline Avila, a longtime community activist in the U.S. and survivor of super typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan, which has been called the strongest typhoon to make landfall in the recorded history of the world. Borgeson’s mother barely escaped with her life as Yolanda destroyed her ancestral home and thousands of other residences in Leyte and Samar, and other provinces on its path.
Borgeson will be performing her piece in Paris with the rest of the contest winners, Jetnil-Kijiner and other poets from different parts of the world. A graduate of U.C. Berkeley, Borgeson is a community curator for Adobe Systems, a multinational computer software company based in the Bay Area. Her job involves ensuring a safe space online for youths to share their voices on issues like climate change and police brutality and providing a platform for their art work, such as paintings, poems and short stories."http://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/admin/dy_schemas/11509/dy_nodes/2960030-es-alumni-isabella-avila-borgeson-to/edit