User:Mikopepito

 "A versatile artist, Miko Pepito's spokenword creations are grounded in his affinity for music. His multifaceted pieces mix poetry with music, movement, and a touch of madness. Tastefully off-beat and highly original, his music matched with his playful yet poignant poetry and trademark maneuvers, morphs each performance into a head bobbin', foot stompin', finger twitchin' experience" -Io

Most of his works focus on Filipino social issues, mainly on how people interact and relate to each other, both the positive and negative points of views. He sees and points out what he thinks is wrong with the social system and encourages everyone that there is hope as long as we let go of pride.

Born on July 26, 1979 in Quezon City, a leo. He is the eldest of 4 children, a leader. The son of an architect and a businesswoman, he constantly received art materials from Santa Claus during Christmas and took art lessons during summer, but visual art didn’t really connect well with him. His years in Ateneo de manila during elementary and high school were spent with friends playing sports, laughing, and falling in love with music. He had always wanted to be an artist but didn’t know how to start, so when college application season came, he decided to go with architecture in the University of Santo Tomas because he thought that’s the closest he could ever get to art and that’s what his father wanted. It wasn’t until he was taking his thesis when he discovered other mediums of expression like photography and graphic arts. He studied music, photography, and graphic arts by reading books and asking people, at the same time while he was doing his thesis.

2003 was the year he graduated and the year his family moved to the U.S. He opted to stay because he knew deep inside that he had a role to play in the Philippines. It was also that same year when he enrolled in a creativity workshop called ACTNOW, formed by a collective of artists from different genres of art, led by Jourdan Sebastian, a.k.a. Jourdan the Dreamer, an actor, poet, teacher, and his mentor. That worlshop opened many doors for him, guiding him and finally landing him to his stage as a spoken word artist.

He debuted on October of 2004 with his spoken word piece Sa Utak ng Stalker (Inside the mind od a Satlker) and has since then performed in schools, bars, concerts, festivals, etc.

He is currently leading a cross-disciplined artist collective called B.I.T.A.W. (www.bitaw.tk) which is an acronym for “Being Inspired Through Active Wonder”. Bitaw is a Filipino word that means “to let go”, which is the principle ideology of the group, to let go of your inhibitions, to be pure at heart. In the local dialect Cebuano (found in the Visayan region of the Philippines), bitaw means “the truth”. The group was founded also founded by Jourdan Sebastian.

He also organizes a once-a-month open mic event called Open Spoken. This event is part of a movement he spearheaded called Urban Balagtasan. The movement’s aim is to encourage Filipinos to write and express. He believes that Filipinos right now are so jaded with society’s demands that pretention and greed overpowers purity and humility.

His other activities include:

• Bassist for Filipina singer/songwriter Nityalila • Freelance Sound Designer / Music Producer • Video Editor • Photographer