Reclaiming agency and healing: With Blessyl Buan
Live on CIUT 89.5 FM
Airing Date: November 20, 2024
Host/ Producer: Nicole Inica Hamilton
Assistant Production Manager: Amber Downie-Back
Featured Guest(s): Blessyl Buan
On this episode, multidisciplinary artist Blessyl Buan opens up about her personal process for reclaiming agency and healing, while sharing insight about the sacred nature of creation work.
**This interview is a featured segment of the 2024 Fall Fundraising Drive.
About Blessy Buan:
Blessyl Buan is a multidisciplinary artist whose work spans contemporary dance, choreography, painting, fiber, and jewelry arts (buankissed). She also has a deep-rooted academic background, holding degrees in Kinesiology and Chiropractic Medicine—all which bring a profound understanding of the human body into her artistic practice.
Buan’s creative journey is heavily influenced by Philippine Indigenous traditions. She elevates the personal process of reclaiming agency and healing from the multigenerational impacts of colonization and cultural erasure. Buan’s interest in neo-ethnic dance—which she views as a form of activism—has taken her practice beyond traditional stages, extending into performance art, interactive installations, and videos.
Most recently, Buan was Artist-in-Residence at the Clark Centre for the Arts and the Lead Artist of Weaving Futures, as part of the Artists in the Library Program by Toronto Arts Council and Toronto Public Library. Her solo entitled RARA was transformed from short film to live performance with the support of the Ontario Arts Council.
