Nov 19, 2024
In Part 2, we pick up where we
left off in Part 1, with Nicole's move to New York. She didn't
necessarily have a plan for this cross-country relocation, but she
dove in head-first nonetheless.
Nicole of course turned to
Craigslist to help her find a roommate. But she also hopped on FB
Marketplace, which is where she eventually found someone. She moved
in with an old friend from theater to an apartment in East Harlem
on 125th Street.
She considers her time in NYC
"epic." She learned a lot, she grew up, she did laundry in the snow
... character-building, all of it. She came to hate winter, being a
California girl and all. But she auditioned, worked as a waitress
and bartender, and had a few other jobs. She made it onto New
Amsterdam and Law and Order. At this point in the
recording, thanks to my dorking about Nicole being the first guest
of this podcast to have also appeared on Law and Order, we
talk about that long-running TV show.
There was also an "industrial
sitcom" where Nicole played a lead character. Today, it is used to
teach people around the world to speak English. Thanks to this and
her own world travels, she gets recognized abroad.
After nearly 10 years, she
returned to The Bay, around the time of the pandemic. Part of it
was COVID, but also, she feels that the Hollywood myth had been
demystified. Nicole arrived at a new perspective on the industry,
one that felt exploitative. And so she came home.
Because Nicole and I recorded
before Election Day, we go on a sidebar about what we thought might
happen if you-know-who won. It's interesting to hear our chat about
that from here. But I left it in for posterity, if for no other
reason.
Nicole's husband got COVID
while they were still in New York. It was early in the pandemic,
and NYC got hit hard. He wasn't able to go to the hospital, and so
Nicole masked the fuck up and took care of her partner. She avoided
contracting the new disease. He recovered, but it made her think of
what could happen if one of their parents got it. That informed
their decision to return to California. They were able to get on
one of the last flights out of New York in April 2020.
Once she got back home, she
regrouped. It was still early during the shutdown and no one was
shooting anything. She meditated, hiked, and cleaned her mom's
house. In doing so, Nicole found a file cabinet full of her
grandma's letters, including those from her time spent living in a
San Francisco brothel. Her grandmother, Estrella Chavez, wrote
about that time as well as her own ancestors, and Nicole was blown
away.
She discovered that the
California State Assembly had named her grandma the first
Filipina-American to do activism and cultural work in San
Francisco. She was also recognized by Willie Brown when he was
mayor.
Around this time, she was also
learning more about the uncle who gave her that camera—Patrick
Salaver—and his work in the Civil Rights movement. Patrick was
involved with the
Third World Liberation Front that brought together many
different ethnic student groups at SF State, including
Filipinos.
Discovering all this family
heritage made Nicole focus on her own legacy. She had gotten into
producing events for the Filipino community in South of Market. She
was rolling. But then, she got pregnant. With a kid on the way,
Nicole realized she needed a job. And that's how she got work as
program manager at Balay Kreative.
One idea she brought to her new
job was starting a podcast to help amplify the stories of her
community.
Cultural Kultivators podcast serves to share Southeast Asian
voices and stories and push the culture forward. Find it on
Instagram and on all the podcast platforms.
Also, please follow
Kindred Kapwa, Nicole's production company. Learn more about
her "Patrick
Salaver Project," the life story of her uncle.
We end the podcast with
Nicole's take on this season's theme: Keep It Local.
Photography by Mason J.