Filipinx creatives are welcome to use these prompts as inspiration

These prompts are used as “Quick-writes” during a&a workshops, but you are welcome to use them on your own time. Use them as jumping off points to explore your unique Filipinx voice or rewrite them to suit your needs. Either way, challenge yourself to take risks, embrace your identity and allow joy!

  • It’s no secret that karaoke is part of being Filipinx. Pick your favorite English song and reimagine it with Filipino flair. Add in some Taglish, rewrite the chorus in the style of your lola’s adages - let the lyrics become something else entirely: a union of the two cultures you embody. When you’re done, ask yourself: do these lyrics still work with the beat? Could they?

    Title inspired by Train’s Calling All Angels.

  • Many Filipinos are superstitious - a good thing, too. What a beautiful way to sense the mystic and arcane in our day-to-day lives. Write about a moment in your life when your sixth sense activated and you least expected it. Use each of your senses to ground us in your experience.

    Need inspo? Think sampaguita, butterflies, The Lady in White, or even when you didn’t follow a superstition and of course it came back to bite you. (Don’t forget to pagpag…)

  • From rejoicing over merienda or proudly preparing baon, food is one of our loudest love languages - not only our food, but all food. Write about what your family serves during parties and celebrations - what Filipino foods remain a staple at your table and what new ones have been adopted? What secret combination do you love and crave, but perhaps never speak about?

    Is it dinuguan and Domino’s? Kare-kare and Church’s Chicken? Or perhaps palabok and Popeyes?

  • You’ve very likely heard of the haiku, the sonnet and the villanelle. Now, let met introduce you to the tanaga, the Filipino indigenous poetic form made up of four (4) lines, each containing seven (7) syllables with an AABB rhyme scheme. They’re traditionally in Tagalog, but experiment and try your hand at Taglish!

    xxxxxxa
    xxxxxxa
    xxxxxxb
    xxxxxxb

    Need inspo? Describe your childhood home, the smell of a Filipino bakery or a late loved one.

Listed here are a&a’s light Quick-writes, which are joy-focused.
Join a workshop to learn more about the shadow Quick-writes, which are focused on naming our grief, anger and rage.