Freedom.Movemeant.Alignment.

With Ka-Crystle Liwayway Diño

THree-Year birthday & Anniversary

In Re-VIEW, Re-NEW, & Release

We started training with Ka Crystle centuries ago on lands and in bodies much different than the ones we know now.

In this lifetime, she imbibes and imparts the energy of the Tender Warrior through Freedom.Movemeant.Alignment.

It is always such a joy and blessing to witness the first blooms of the seeds of what Ka Crystle is planting and training for as part of their life purpose. It has been an honor to be a student and warrior of FMA alongside powerful and enchanting womxn, nonbinary, trans, and queer folx of color. We tend to this sprouting and blooming plant and practice together.

FREEDOM.MOVEMEANT.ALIGNMENT. by Crystle DiñoDesign by Gigi Mascareñas — FREEDOM.MOVEMEANT.ALIGNMENT. by Crystle Diño
Design by Gigi Mascareñas

Graphic by Soultree

First Freedom.Movemeant.Alignment Session

EST. January 26, 2018

Atomix Cafe

West Town neighborhood of Chicago

The first Freedom.Movemeant.Alignment session took place in the Chicago winter of 2018. Traveling through our city’s winter winds as islanders is a true act of warriorship that we don’t take for granted.

The warmth generated from moving our bodies through all seasons and spaces like a cafe or all the many different faces and shapes of Chicago neighborhoods is part of the power of participating in FMA sessions that take you to many different communities and spaces. Our migration to different neighborhoods resembles the Pilipinx/a/o experience of being migratory in the world.

If this year has taught us anything it is how to move through shifting spaces. In 2020, we experienced a blend of FMA sessions in person as well as virtually. The current state of our world has pushed us to further shift shapes and space and so much of it is challenging us to learn about our whole selves.

FMA is a holistic movemeant program and practice rooted in Filipino Martial Arts, Art Therapy, Chicago Dance and Movemeant scenes, and so much more through the teaching of Ka Crystle Diño.

Art Therapy Grad Exhibition centering Chi-Pinay/Pilipinx Experience

Fall 2019

AFIRE office

Old Irving Park

Photos by Kayla Delson

FMA sessions have activated and enlivened our community in multi-dimensional, and as Kiam Marcelo Junio founder of Mahal Healing Arts says, “multi-sensory” ways. It’s been two years and a whole four seasons since I’ve trained with FMA and it has only grown and deepened further since these days. I hope this reflection supports others in seeing the growth of this powerful seed and the garden that is now blooming from this time.

Crystle invited our kapwa and community with her along the journey through her graduate program in Art Therapy at the School of the Art Institute. She brought her ancestral gifts and cultural studies into her program while also engaging us in practicing a new & ancient way. This (re)programming involved physical movement and healing through kali, body activations and releases as well as spiritual, emotional, and mental processing tools and techniques that further strengthened the FMA program and participants.

Backyard Sessions Training

July 15, 2019

Purok East Garfield Park

Featuring guest artist Silvia Inés Gonzalez (http://silviaigonzalez.com/)

Video & Photos by Soultree

On this day, we were connecting our relationship to our bodies, continuing our culture, and sustaining our wellness to real world shifts and challenges around policing and enforcement in the United States and across the world. This is one of the examples of how we build and manifest a sustainable, just, and empowered world while dismantling and shifting the current paradigms we live in now. In calling in the reality of violence we live in under patriarchy, the police & military industrial complex, and nation-state, we (re)focus our training on our collective healing, empowerment, and shared power. We also activate play, which is one of the most de-escalating and relating practices we could do with each other. There are also sacred elements of animism practiced by acknowledging our surroundings and all living things and beings that make it up.

Backyard Sessions Training

July 21, 2019

Purok Pilsen

A Reflection of FMA in Action

The video below shows my last time at a Live FMA session. This circle of four was a powerful pairing of minds, hearts, and bodies. I remember how intensely Carla and I were hitting the sticks and how Alex and Crystle were supporting us in controlling our strength and pace. Unless you’ve lived in a place like Chicago, it is hard to grasp the magnitude of joy, rage, pain, and celebration that happens on these lands and for its people, particularly in the summer. We all felt the heat of that day.

A week after this, my partner and I were robbed at gunpoint as we parked our car near our home. This moment really changed us and training with Crystle and FMA for over a year, I believe, prepared me to remain calm in this moment and to move with dignity and alertness.

Though I was scared, having six guns aimed at us two at once, I was able to act cautiously and feel compassion for the young men who were likely just following orders handed to them. I looked the ones near me in the eyes as I followed their instructions to give them my bag and walk away as they took our car, bags, and groceries. We made it out safe, which is a blessing we take to heart every single day since.

Crystle Diño, Soultree, and Alecks Chen pose at Chicago Dyke March 2019 before a performance of Not1More off of Soultree’s self-titled EP. Photo by Alecks. Humboldt Park Neighborhood. — Image: Crystle Diño, Soultree, and Alecks Chen pose at Chicago Dyke March 2019 before a performance of Not1More off of Soultree’s self-titled EP. Photo by Alecks. Little Village Neighborhood.

Adjusting with covid and the climate

In the spring of 2020, at the start of quarantine, we surveyed participants to share their experiences, shifts, and dreams with themselves and FMA.

It felt necessary, in a time when so many of our communities are being left out, targeted, dismissed, and disregarded to center practices/practitioners who are contributing not only to our survival and sustaining, but to our healing, thriving, and joy.

While I personally missed the second half of 2019 and all of 2020 training except for a couple of zoom session, hearing the feedback of new voices and the evolution of the program was so moving, affirming, and life-giving.

Here are some responses we gathered and received permission to share:

What has been your most memorable experience during or after an FMA session?

“Reframing the meaning of fluid movement and what it means to use that in general (pointed toward dance) but also in terms of self-defense” - Mary(Sol)

How is FMA unique from other movement-based or self-defense classes you've been part of?

“Because very few classes are QPOC led!” -Atlas (they)

“It teaches embodiment in a pragmatic way.” -Coriama

FMA sessions are ones that you feel through and through on many levels. It has brought together so many people across the Chicagoland area and continues to make an impact. I write in deep, humble gratitude and service as a student and friend.

Deep gratitude for the life’s worth of training our sibling-teacher Crystle has done to gather skills from Movemeant and MindBodyHeartSoul healing techniques to relational, tender-warrior innerstanding in order to create a program and teachings that empower our community, especially our members who are most targeted by the powers that were and are now changing.

We are a significant part of that change in FMA and in all the systems and (re)programs that are working towards building connection and strength from a vulnerable place of oneness.

It has been an honor to be a witness, part, and to continue to serve our world in this way.

Find you a teacher that brings weapons of mass peace to the party🤪For the last decade, I’ve seen Crystle carry all her tools in her backpack as she trained day and night across our beloved city. It is such a blessing that we can all share in these teachings now.

Mabuhay ang FMA!

Mabuhay ang