Photo (l ro r): Researcher Janice Lobo Sapigao, UMMAA collections manager Jim Moss, and U-M student assistant Therese Cerdan outside the Research Museums Center.
by Therese Cerdan
Filipina writer and poet Janice Lobo Sapigao visited the UMMAA this August to explore the Philippine collection. Janice, who was in Ann Arbor this summer on a U-M Special Collections Research Fellowship, has been exploring archives and institutions throughout the Midwest that house documents and items related to the Philippines. She is documenting her personal experiences in this photojournalistic project as she investigates the contentious history of American imperialism in the Philippine islands and how these archives have made their way to the American Midwest.
Janice commissioned the bright blue sign that reads “Philippine American Historical Archives" and posed with it in front of all of the archives and repositories she was able to visit in Ann Arbor. This was directly inspired by artist Janna Langholz's sign (https://www.jannalangholz.com/), which she uses in a similar way as she works to document the Philippines' connection to the St. Louis World's Fair. The purpose of both signs is to highlight sites that hold unseen aspects of Philippine history in America.
