I Am YEG Arts: Giselle General

As a community advocate, Giselle General knows very well the good we can achieve in the world when we come together. When you pair Giselle’s compassion and drive with her creativity, you get an emerging artist with a lot to contribute. Her community service includes sitting on five volunteer boards. Online she is dedicated to helping others as a connector and activist. She recently left her steady gig in the non-profit sector to focus on writing creative non-fiction and visual art. Not one to be idle, she’s making the most of this time to write her memoir, a coming-of-age story of a Filipina girl up until her arrival in Canada as a teenager.

This week on the YEG Arts blog we get to know the storyteller and community builder, Giselle General.

Tell us about your connection to Edmonton and why you’ve made it your home.

I identify as a Filipino-Canadian and I have been here for half my life. I had a similar experience of a lot of immigrant teenagers. We don’t really choose where in Canada we’re going to land. I came to Edmonton in 2008 but I first lived in St. Catharines, Ontario for a year. Where you are planted you try your best to build roots, right? I did all the young adult stuff, so to speak. I went to university, I had jobs, internships, and made friends. I met and fell in love with a born-and-raised Edmontonian. That is a significant factor in making Edmonton my permanent home base. A few years after I immigrated, my teenage brother also came. That entire process of helping a fellow teenager settle in helped me experience Edmonton more deeply. That impacts you profoundly. It’s those different experiences that made Edmonton my true home.

What drew you to writing and making art? Were they a natural fit for you or something that you grew into over time?

You cannot be a top student in school in the Philippines if you don’t have good grades in writing, both in English and the Filipino language classes. It’s a necessary skill, but for me, it was also an interest. I got into student journalism, and it was a great part of my childhood and teenage years. Eventually I discovered that there’s an ethnic newspaper [Alberta Filipino Journal] here in Edmonton, where I volunteered despite not having a degree in journalism. Writing as a personal expression — that became more of a thing during my university years and afterwards.

For visual art, I never imagined doing that at all because it was my parents that had the beautiful handwriting. My mother was creative, and I thought I inherited none of that. I was quite young when they died, so it’s not like I had the chance to learn from them either. Here in Edmonton, it started more as a hobby. I made our home décor, and my husband really encouraged and nurtured my visual expression. In all my artistic endeavours I like to call him ​“the wind beneath my wings.”

As a storyteller what narrative or inspiration do you find yourself returning to?

I admit I find these questions awkward; they tap into the knowledge of what I would describe as literary arts experts and I’m not one of those. I have a Bachelor of Commerce degree and I managed to squeeze in a few literature electives. What resonates with me is far as a narrative — and even the content — is just the simple, sincere and compelling way that real people share their stories, knowledge and experiences. It’s probably why primarily my work is non-fictional. I don’t need to make stuff up because people’s real lives have more than enough material to make something creative and inspirational. That’s how I think of my storytelling, writing style and what resonates with me. 

ell us about what you’re currently working on or hope to create next.

I am immensely privileged that my husband and I managed to modify our financial circumstances so that I am not as pressured to find employment for the past seven months. I had unprecedented time and capacity, which is overwhelming. My current project is the memoir that I’m writing — my first literary project of this scale. It’s a coming-of-age memoir from the day my parents and sister died to the day when I landed in Canada in August 2007. My plan is to have an artistically compelling work that will take readers on an adventure of a Filipina girl’s story growing up. And thanks to different resources that I managed to access in the past few months, the manuscript is developing well. I hope that people get to read it in the near future. The road to publication and promotion is exciting and I hope we get there soon! It will be a new experience to work with editors while finding a way to make a living – since my savings account is not unlimited. 

Tell us about someone who has mentored you or helped set you on your path.

My husband is the first person who showed appreciation for a visual piece of art I made. That helped me integrate creative expression regularly into my life. Aside from that, I’m grateful for the different mentors and organizations I’ve encountered. I try reminding myself that I am worth it and that I can apply for these kinds of things. The Writers’ Guild of Alberta has a group called the Horizon Writers Circle for underrepresented writers like me. I was paired with a mentor, an author named Wendy McGrath. Her support and constructive feedback have been incredible during the six-month mentorship program.

I’ve been tapping into the Edmonton Arts Council. From the newsletters and being inspired by other people’s stories to the recent, tangible piece of support: I received an Individuals & Collectives grant. The staff from the different arts funding organizations have been incredible in giving tangible knowledge to help me access more funding to help my artistic work become a reality.

Also, in Edmonton there’s the Philippine Arts Council, they’re all volunteers. They’ve worked hard over the past few years to find ways to showcase the work of Filipino artists from online galleries, documentary programs, and building a community.

What does community mean to you? And where do you find it?

For me, community means that one-of-a-kind, remarkable ability to do good in the world that you can only do with the power of multiple people. Because they bring different perspectives, passions, and skills together. And if you find your group of people with whom you have something in common, the positive impact in the world that you can make is quite profound.

Where do I find it? Being an introvert (many don’t believe that about me) I’m selective about the networks I build. I’ve found community many times online and with social media circles. I know it’s kind of a minefield, but Twitter can still be a treasure trove of people and wonderful opportunities to learn. Maybe it’s the immigrant in me, but I like to build community in places with a bit of formality. If there is a program or a workshop that I attend on a regular basis or when I’m assigned a role if I’m on a volunteer board, I’m happy and I find it rewarding to fulfill that task. As an extension of that, I build community with the people that I worked alongside.

What are some important lessons you’ve learned as a community advocate and an artist?

There are endless ways to make positive change happen. Being okay with trying new things and changing direction is very important. Also, having an open mind to incorporate other people’s experiences that you haven’t gone through. I try to have a good sense of my privileges and my points of marginalization. I’m a woman, I’m Asian, I’m an immigrant, I can’t drive — that counts. Those are notable points of marginalization. At the same time, white people compliment me for my so-called perfect English. My verbal communication is mostly white-passing and my last and first name are white-passing, those are privileges too. I am straight and cisgender, able-bodied, and I’m not Indigenous, so I’m very conscientious of all of that. Being open-minded because there are points of hardship that I could never comprehend is important. And, at least for me, also being okay with not completely fitting in. Looking at all the things I’m involved in, I stand out even within ethnocultural organizations due to other criteria — whether it’s based on age, gender, country of origin, or my family circumstances.

I dislike labels and titles like VP Internal and Subcommittee Chair, writer, or artist. I think it’s because I’m an action-oriented person. I prefer describing myself based on the tasks I do; I write columns for the ethnic paper; I write creative nonfiction; I salvage waste by upcycled materials for visual art. But I know that titles have a functional reason, so I put up with it!

Tell us about an opportunity that you think more creatives should know about.

I wish more people were aware of funding opportunities. There’s the Edmonton Arts Council, there’s also funding available through the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Canada Council for the Arts. I think it’s really important that people understand that even if they have a job unrelated to the arts, but they have a creative idea that they want to make into a reality, there is funding for different purposes. They can apply for professional help, there’s a category for education, even for buying or renting equipment and supplies.

In my case, I applied for subsistence. People can apply for a few months of living expenses while they do their work. I needed reassurance that I could cover my bills while I go through the ordeal of writing emotionally heavy content. It’s been an adventure writing my memoir. It’s important for the public to realize that you don’t need to be a full-time artist or a born-and-raised Canadian or sophisticated, popular or whatever. Everyone is worth it. Their creative work is worth it. So please, apply for arts funding!

Yes, that is important to share since there are others who also might not necessarily see themselves as an artist, in that capacity at least. It can take a while to build yourself up to that.

Indeed! As someone considered the A student growing up, the people around me had lofty ambitions. But a lot of the time it had nothing to do with the arts, which is in many ways, unfortunate. In my case, ambitions are made more complicated with the immigrant dream. I have been here for almost half my life. I have a lot of complicated questions and emotions as far as ​“how do I demonstrate that my being brought over here is not a waste of anyone’s time.” Franky, it’s confusing. There’s a bit of survivor’s guilt too.

There’s also the issue of visible representation. So, for my memoir or any other literary work, being a bestselling author is a minor objective. Access is more important. In addition to mainstream and indie bookstores, I want my book to be in the bookstores at airports so that when Filipinos are traveling all over the world, they can buy it. I want it to be available to borrow from every public library both in the Philippines and countries where there’s a lot of the Filipino diaspora. Then as a spillover effect, people from other communities can access it, enjoy it, and understand someone with my story.

Listen to Giselle General tell her story on CBC Radio’s Radio Active show! Aired March 9, 2023.

Want more YEG Arts Stories? We’ll be sharing them here and on social media using the hashtag #IamYegArts. Follow along! Click here to learn more about Giselle General.