EP. 41: the Siling Labuyo Pepper Portal from Philly to the Philippines

Nicky Uy, Omar Buenaventura, Maria Dumlao, and Bitter Kalli have been coming together over Filipino foods, seeds, and stories for many years now. In this episode, we hear about the ways they weave their connections back to the Philippines and within their networks in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, growing portals to memory, meaning, and each other.  We conducted this interview on January 30th, 2026 at Nicky and Omar's dining room table in South Philly after a delicious dinner featuring many of the ingredients we explore in this conversation. We especially focus on Siling Labuyo, and many other plants and dishes (see below), as well as collaborations with Truelove Seeds such as their art project with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, an exhibition with the Acadamy of Natural Sciences, Bahay215's mobile seed library, and many other ways the four of them share Filipino culture.  Here are their bios:  Bahay215 is a Philadelphia based art collaborative by Nicky Uy and Omar Buenaventura. Inspired by experiences living in Lenapehoking and growing up in the Philippines, their installations include  materials such as plants, bamboo, natural dye and soil and include activities like cooking and seedkeeping. Maria is a visual artist working in combined media, including film, video, animation, sound, photography, & installation.  Her work explores individual and collective history as mediated experience. Her most recent work History in RGB combines images of Filipino history, popular culture, mythic folklore, landscapes, and creatures to propose alternatives to the systemic representations ordered by colonial narratives. Born in the Philippines, Maria immigrated to the US with her family at age 13. She received a BA in Studio Art & Art History from Rutgers College and an MFA in Studio Art at Hunter College-CUNY. Maria's work has been exhibited, screened and performed in the US and internationally. Maria teaches art at Bucks County Community College in Pennsylvania. Bitter Kalli is a writer and landworker born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. They work across mediums including soil, seeds, and printed matter. Bitter is the founder of Star Apple Nursery, a project focused on increasing access to African and Asian diaspora heritage crops. They are also the author of the essay collection Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation. Bitter is based in Philadelphia. SEED STORIES:  Siling Labuyo Tamarind Ampalaya (Bitter Melon) Gabi (Taro) San Francisco (Croton) Calamansi Malunggay (Moringa) Sawsawan (Filipino Dipping Sauce) LINKS: Bahay215 facebook and instagram Star Apple Nursery instagram Bitter Kalli linktree, website, and instagram Mounted: On Horses, Blackness, and Liberation Maria Dumlao linktree, website, and instagram 'A tiny Filipino chili pepper takes root in Philadelphia', in the Philly Inquirer, by Juliana Feliciano READ HERE Support Mindanao's first seed bank Ancient Salt Rock in the Philippines (Tultul in Guimaras) Philadelphia Museum of Art / Community Spotlight - Siling Labuyo Academy of Natural Sciences / Heirloom Plants: Ancestral Seeds in Philadelphia Bitter and Nicky's Ancestral Seeds workshop VietLead   THIS EPISODE SUPPORTED BY: YOU! Please become a Patron for $1 or more a month at Patreon.com/trueloveseeds Scribe Video Center and WPEB, West Philly Community Radio ABOUT: Seeds And Their People is a radio show where we feature seed stories told by the people who truly love them. Hosted by Owen Taylor of Truelove Seeds and Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. trueloveseeds.com/blogs/satpradio   FIND OWEN HERE: Truelove Seeds Facebook  |  Instagram  |  Twitter   FIND CHRIS HERE: Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden