#21: Dr. Arnel Calvario Ripkens - From KM to TEDx, Asians in Hip-Hop, and Cultivating Leaders of the Future - One Thousand Gurus Podcast

Episode Transcript
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J.R. (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of 1000
Gurus with me, your host, jrYonacruz.
So today's episode features DrArnel Calvario-Ripkins, our
first guest of season three.
Wow, I'm so excited we finallygot here.
Let me read his bio, or just aquick snippet of it.
As a visionary leader in thedance community, arnel has
inspired countless individualsthrough his work as founder of

(00:22):
Cabo Modern, former executivedirector and former board
president of Culture Shock LA,former president of Culture
Shock International and as amember of the Kinjas, while also
empowering future leadersthrough his global education
programs, leadership tools forthe dance leader and Roots
Before Branches.
He recently was the closingspeaker for TEDx UC Irvine this
past May and is a contributingauthor for the recently released

(00:44):
book With Love.
In addition to this, he alsoworks as a full-time doctor of
occupational therapy for theLong Beach Unified School
District and is working incollaboration with Andy Ho,
another guest of mine, forCulture Shock LA, to expand his
dance therapy program AwesomeShock LA in 2025 to provide an
affirming and impactful spacefor dancers with disabilities.
So this episode was by far oneof my newest favorite episodes

(01:08):
of the podcast.
By far Half of thisconversation, honestly, was just
me listening to him and wantingto hear more from him.
He's really just such a wealthof information and knowledge and
experience and we couldn't evencover half of the topics that I
wanted to bring up.
So hopefully we can eventuallyschedule a part two sometime in
the future.
But needless to say, it was ahuge honor to have him on my
show and I hope you guys learnas much as I did from this

(01:31):
conversation.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoy this conversation with
Dr Arnel Calvario-Ripkins.
Hello everyone and welcome backto 1000 Gurus.
Please welcome my guest, drArnel Calvario-Ripkinsario
ripkins.
Well, arnell, thank you forbeing here.
I really appreciate it.
You are.

(01:51):
I've already read your bio, butI kind of just wanted to for the
audience kind of hype you up or, how the kids say, glaze you a
little bit because for those whodon't know arnell, you
definitely all have links tolike his bio and everything and
in my show notes, but Arnel hasbeen an inspiration and a
pioneer in the dance communityfor a long time now.
Part of the reason why I moveddown to SoCal and UCI and Cabo

(02:13):
Modern was because of what Arnelhas done in the dance community
.
So yeah, founder of Cabo Modern1992, part of the Filipino
American club at UCI cup ofbuy-in when you were a student
there, and Cam's like legacy andimpact has had so many ripples
across the dance community.
The way I was telling myfriends about having you on the
show is, it's like your danceinspirations, dance inspirations

(02:34):
.
So for me it's been, it's anhonor.
Copa Modern has done amazingthings in the community and then
the ripple effect that CopaModern dancers have done in the
community since then has alsohad ripples, and in so many ways
in the last 30 years.
But yeah, one of the biggestreasons why I moved to socal
being on carbon modern myselfwas pivotal for my dance career
because of, you know, learningfrom my oldies and super oldies,

(02:54):
like the mindsets and thingsthat have I brought to other
things in my life and we talkabout this in the episode with
andy yeah, of how Idon't know, it's something about
the dancers in our community orjust kind of built different or
something in the water,especially at UCI.
And yeah, I think we've had afew encounters over the years
and I know we're not like superclose, but every time that you
stop by the dance team or everytime I've talked to you, you've

(03:16):
had this like this grace andhumility and generosity of
spirit that I really admire andappreciate about you, and you're
still involved too and you'relike helping out.
You've done a lot with CultureShock as well and, yeah, I'm
just really excited to connectand share your story with my
audience.
So, thank you so much for beinghere, thanks fam.

Arnel (03:36):
I know that's the amazing thing about Cabo Modern.
It's no matter how much timepasses, there's that thread that
kind of connects us all.

J.R. (03:51):
And your years on kawamodern were like exciting,
fun years to like witness and bea part of so.
So if you have not manyclarifications, we can just jump
right into it, sure?
So my first question is, kindof like with everyone is your
origin story?
I will have linked your tedtalk in the show notes as well
so I highly recommend everyonecheck that out.
It's a great story but maybejust a quick like for the
audience.
You know where'd you grow up,what were your main influences
and any like pivotal memories ofyour upbringing that stand out
to you.

Arnel (04:11):
Yeah, so I'm the child of Filipino immigrant parents.
I grew up in Harbor City, whichis nestled like right in the
middle of Carson, torrance,hawthorne and then also Palos
Verdes, lomita, so I was reallyblessed to kind of live around
and grow up in diversity.
And the good thing about livingat that era too, because I, you

(04:34):
know, I grew up in the 70s, 80s, 90s.
That was the explosion ofhip-hop culture and so
everything I know, I knew aboutdance I learned at the park, you
know, and so I really creditlike that entire for having so
many dope OGs, you know, whetherit's DJs, mcs, b-boys, b-girls,

(04:55):
poppers, lockers, there to justkind of invest in the youth,
because I was definitely notconfident, I was very shy, but
it was those art forms that kindof I connected to and that
where I kind of found my voice.
So so yeah, I'm proudly a SouthBay, south Bay boy.

J.R. (05:14):
Right, I know like the SoCal area is like a
conglomeration of culture andespecially like what you said in
that area, where a lot of thedance pioneers and everything
was going on that time and it'sfoundational for what a lot of
what we do now in the dancecommunity is.
So I guess following that.
So how did like you, growing upin that area, how did it lead

(05:35):
you to you know, joining orgoing to uci and then eventually
I want to connect the threadsback of like how modern's born
well, are there anything else?

Arnel (05:43):
that was like the impetus for that yeah, so I'm kind of a
mosaic of a lot of differentexperiences.
So, in addition to hip-hopdance and locking, hip-hop dance
and locking were probably myfoundation I also grew up doing
filipino cultural dancing and sothat took me to cerritos as
well, where there are a lot ofdancers and DJs, and then at the

(06:05):
parties.
And then I also grew up.
I went to Catholic school inthe weekend CCD and Long Beach
so I also commit, you know,connected with the B-Boys in
Long Beach also.
So I'm a kind of a blend of allthose cities in addition to my
city.
And what I learned fromFilipino culture dancing because
my cousins together we werelike a youth dance troupe for my

(06:26):
aunt, who is a very, veryfamous cultural dance instructor
is I learned teamwork andperformance, quality and
discipline and also culture,obviously, because we were
learning cultural dances fromdifferent regions in addition to
their home region, aklan.
So I also learned theimportance of knowing where

(06:46):
these dances come from, similarto hip hop, if we learn top
rocks, like we knew, thatstarted in the boogie down Bronx
, right, so everything was justso rich, I would say.
And then also the culture ofbeing responsible not only to
yourself but your community andwho you represent.
That was already kind of thatwas my entire upbringing.

(07:09):
So combine that also with beinga boy scout and you know
understanding like a troop, youknow what I mean.
A two boy scouts that's anotherthing about.
I learned about teamwork aswell.
So after in high school, I hada dance crew and we that was the
era of party dancing.
You know a lot of the thingslike the Running man, the

(07:30):
Cabbage Patch, the Troupe, theSmurf, and so it was like
battles at the parties and wewere, you know, from Harbor City
, a small crew.
We'd go to Cerritos and getsmoked.
One of my favorite crews wasFunky Junction in Cerritos, and
it's so funny because later on Irecruited a lot of them into
Cabo Modern.
So after high school I waslooking for that right.

(07:53):
When I got to UCI I joined theFilipino club, uci Cabo Bayan,
of course, and we had theculture night and my entire
Filipino American experience wasthe cultural dancing and my
hip-hop and locking.
So I asked the president youknow, is there a club in
existence?
You know, can that be a sectionin the Filipino-American

(08:14):
Culture Night?
And that's when he mocked me alittle bit, teased me.
He said yeah, just create yourown team and you know we'll call
it Cabo Bayan Modern DanceTroupe and I was like, okay,
let's do it.
I held auditions and then itwas born.
And then I found out that hewasn't serious.
But it was too late.
Cabo Bayan was born.
I already had 14 dancers, andit's funny because the first

(08:40):
year they didn't trust us thatwe were going to be good, so
they stuck us in the middle,hidden in one of the suites,
just in case we sucked okay,moving on.
All right, yeah but it ended upbeing something that people like
connected with, I think, peopleof that era.
Really it resonated with them.
That's like their high schoolexperience, that looked like

(09:00):
something that happened in theirhometown.
So the auditions the next yeardoubled, tripled the next year
and it just exploded.
And then that's where we saw,like Samahang Modern, pac,
modern all of these modernspopping out in every Filipino
club.
Then it went to the Chineseclubs, the Vietnamese clubs, all
these clubs were exploding withthese dance teams.

(09:20):
And then the next step wasbecause we were performing only
at clubs and car shows, becausethe promoters are like, hey, if
we invite these groups toperform, they'll bring their
friends and it'll be good forpromotions and growing.
Our events is.
We didn't want to just performonce on stage because the clubs
and the car shows were great butthe stages were so small.

(09:40):
So that was the birth of vibe,created by a member of kaba
modern, joseph leasing.
He was in a fraternity calledltd and creating vibe, which is
actually going to be celebratingtheir 30th anniversary in 2025
it's crazy, it's 30 years sinceit started also was the ripple

(10:01):
for creating all the dancecompetitions, because prior to
that, we had no hip-hop dancecompetitions or even just dance
competitions in general outsideof like drill team and cheer and
song.
So it actually created an entirescene of these.
You know, dance competitionslike maxed out, prelude, you

(10:23):
know bridge, later on, hip Hop,international, world of Dance,
all of those competitions poppedup after.
So we had no idea we were justtrying to take space and make
space for others and dosomething grassroots, community
powered, powered by collegestudents.
We had no idea that it wasgoing to be anything bigger than

(10:43):
just you know for our immediatecommunity, but it ended up
being like worldwide so prettycrazy.

J.R. (10:49):
Yeah, so vibe was the first like kind of hip-hop dance
, like I didn't know that whatdo you think?
was like the.
Why do you think it?
I guess I don't know, maybe.
So I know that hip-hop dance,you know, like 70s, 80s and
whatnot.
It was there and then I guessin the early 90s, right, there
was this sort of it seemed likethere was a hole that was filled
, and then it just this makessense to a lot of people and it

(11:10):
started catching on right yeah,yeah, I mean there's definitely
battles and jams and parties.

Arnel (11:17):
All of those things were really thriving in this in the
late 70s, the 80s and the 90s Ithink some somewhere in the 90,
a lot of the freestyle scenestarted to be hybrid with
choreography.
You know, and you know muchprops to Moptops, elite Force,
buddha Stretch and such, becausethey are the pioneers of hip
hop choreography in New York.

(11:38):
All of that started evolvingand morphing and that's why I
think the spaces started alsoevolving where people wanted to
go to battles and jams, but theyalso were craving, you know,
theater expressions and stage aswell, and that's kind of at the
time that's when the birth ofthe dance competitions kind of.
I think it came from thatenergy, right, and that's that

(12:00):
hybrid energy, right.

J.R. (12:01):
So there's a lot of factors in play and then it was
just kind of like the right time.

Arnel (12:05):
It was, you know, the that sort of what's it called
intersection of all those things, and it created this sort of
new area, while still combinedand from everything else yes,
and come on, it was like rightat the beginning of that yeah,
and it's kind of crazy becausewhen I look at it, you know, at
the root, all these art formsthat we're allowed to, you know,
we're guests in this culture.

(12:26):
That's like created by ourblack brothers and sisters in
New York and, of course, with alot of influence from our Puerto
Rican brothers and sisterspeople always ask me why do so
many fucking so many Filipinosand Asians?
Why are they doing this thing?
Why is our scene so Asian, youknow, and it's funny because
when we were creating all ofthese spaces, we weren't

(12:47):
thinking about it, thinkingabout that, but when I look back
on it, it's because theuniversity these are university
created like collectives and alot of these events were created
on university campuses andunfortunately, you know, there
isn't equity and accessibilityin those spaces, as it should be
.
It should be more diverse, itshould be more inclusive and all

(13:10):
these clubs should be like verydiverse, but we're not, you
know.
So there's a lot of Asians inthese university spaces creating
these collectives, or dancefamilies, as we call them.
Another thing that comes intoplay with it, too, is Asians are
often invisible, right, and wealso don't grow up with love
languages that are necessarilywords of affirmation and such.

(13:33):
So we do.
We operate more in quality time, spending time together and
acts of service right, that'sour more common love languages.
So there's a part of us thatwants to express, that wants to
be seen, that wants to, you know, be affirmed, and I think the
creation of these events andthese teams allowed a lot of

(13:56):
people who are kind of mutedversions of themselves to feel
like they belong to somethingand who they are can be seen and
celebrated.
Because we're not talking about,like five teams, right, we're
talking about jumping from kabomodern to like over 30 in just a
couple years and to the pointwhere we have hundreds all over
the world now.

(14:16):
Right, clearly, people arereally craving a sense of
belonging and a sense of beingseen, and that's global, you
know.
So, yeah, I mean, I don't wantit to be all asian, but I see
that the need was probablyalways there, you know, for
asians to be seen and to have ahave this experience.
So I guess that's kind of mytheory, yeah, yeah no, that's

(14:40):
interesting.

J.R. (14:40):
I was thinking that exact question you just answered it
which is so, like how does theAsian sort of participation or
influence in this sort of sceneLike?
Where do you think that comesfrom?
Yeah, just answered it.
But more specifically now I'mcurious, you know that that
Filipino sort of generalizationit's.
You know, we sing, we dance, wedo nursing.
I want to.
I wanted to ask what yourthoughts are on that.
As you know, one of thepioneers of this, as as you know

(15:02):
, it seems like a lot offilipinos, we gravitate towards
these sort of art forms we dodancing.
Do you have any sort oftheories on why that might be?

Arnel (15:11):
I think it all goes back to colonization.
You know, as you know, peoplewho've been colonized by spain
and you know, have beenoppressed by many other
countries, and also, you knowwe're third world country.
What we clung onto for ouridentity in the Philippines was
our cultural dances, ourcultural music.

(15:35):
That was our expression andthat's how we held on to who we
were, even through colonizationand after.
So it's no surprise that youknow that we, as Filipino
Americans, embody that beingchild of immigrant parents,
right, and also, I think it'salso that thing too, like I
mentioned earlier, becauseverbally expressing yourself is

(15:55):
not a primary mode of expressionin our culture.
Singing, dancing, all of that is.
It's a way to kind of expressyourself, have a sense of
community, because you're doingit all together and have fun,
you know, without being judged,because everyone's just doing
their thing, you know, and it'sfreedom.

(16:16):
It's liberation because when weare truly comfortable being
able to sing or dance, you knowit's liberating, so it's
liberating, it's connecting it's, you know it's communal, yeah,
and individually.
Know it's liberating, so it'sliberating, it's connecting it's
.
You know it's communal, um,yeah, and individually it's a
release, right.
So, yeah, I again that'sanother thing that I just grew

(16:36):
up, right, whether I mean I'mnot a singer, but I have many
aunts and cousins who areamazing singers, right, you know
, and I have to say that growingup, my parents always
encouraged me to play aninstrument.
You know what I mean, like anyinstrument, so it's been a part
of our knowing of being in thisworld.
Is singing or dancing?

J.R. (16:55):
Yeah, yeah, it makes a lot of sense.
I wanted to ask now on dance, Iguess from the 30 plus years
from Cover Modern I know you'vebeen dancing before that- but, I
wanted to get your perspectiveon how you feel like dance has
changed from then from the 90sor 80s until 2024.

Arnel (17:16):
What are some of?

J.R. (17:16):
the big things where you're like, wow, I've noticed
this as someone who has thatperspective.

Arnel (17:20):
Yeah, Well, first of all, my knowing of dance and
learning of dance and absorbingof dance was person to person.
So we weren't dancing in frontof mirrors, we were dancing at
the park, facing each other,learning from each other.
There's also a culture ofrespect and appreciation.
So when OGs invested in you,you always show your

(17:41):
appreciation, your ultimaterespect, and that's also really
deep in our culture as well asFilipino Americans.
So, growing up that way, evenwhen I started Cabo Modern and
we would rehearse in the studiosometimes, because mostly we're
rehearsing outside in parkinglots and between buildings that
was foreign to me because mytraining is not in front of a
mirror.
I learned everything.

(18:02):
But that's why the roots ofCabo Modern is.
There is a lot about respectand, you know, like you said,
like showing reverence to youroldies and like appreciating
each other and growing together.
It's because the founders ofCabo Modern that's how they
learned.
You know we didn't.
We learned through elders andthrough people who invested in
us.
And it's really about passingthat on to the current and to

(18:24):
the future generations.
Right, it's.
It's really about passing thaton to the current and to the
future generations, right, it's.
It's generationally uh, it's agenerational investment 2005
because I was there.
That was the advent of myspace,facebook, later on, of course,
youtube and instagram.
You saw a lot of things.
The great thing about that is,prior to that, if you wanted to

(18:45):
see another crew or team danceteam or dance family
performances, you'd have to grabthat vhs or be made a tape and
you know hope you can get a copyor borrow a copy from that.
But once we went, once youtubehit, you know now we have access
to everyone and it was excitingin the beginning.
But there was a weirdtransition from 2005 to maybe

(19:07):
2007 when people weren't sure doI like this better than
actually learning in person.
You know what I mean.
Do I want to go to a live dancecompetition or do I want to
just wait till the clip drops onYouTube and watch it like binge
watches?

J.R. (19:21):
Oh, like an experience.
You're doing it digitallyversus in person.

Arnel (19:24):
Yeah, so it was kind of an interesting time, and
especially when youtube liftedoff, all of the live dance
competitions started struggling,some of them ended abruptly.
It was also the advent of danceshows, because prior, there was
definitely things like inliving color, where you saw the
fly girls, and, of course, musicvideos, but now we had this,

(19:46):
you know, america's best dancecrew, and, later on, some other
dance shows as well, and sopeople were just eating up, you
know watching it, you know on tv, but what was missing now was
like that person-to-personinvestment where, and that
culture of appreciation andrespect that that you get prior
to the advent of social media.

(20:08):
Something was definitely lost.
So I think what's interesting,though, is when the pandemic hit
, I feel like we kind of bouncedback because we lost.
Now that we were like losthuman connection and being able
to see it actually rubber,banded back to where we are now
and feel more drastically.

(20:29):
Yeah, now people want to come tolive events, and even though
there's so many dope things likesnipes and you know things,
other offerings where peoplelike, like other media offerings
people want to be there inperson and they want to feel the
energy of people, and now it'san interesting hybrid after the
pandemic, where we have access,global access, through social

(20:51):
media, but people are showing upbattles, dance competitions,
dance showcases, theater shows.
They're packed, they're full,they're sold out, because now we
, I feel like we've reached anawareness and appreciation of
what it's like to share spaceand have experiences in person,
collectively and individually,and also embrace, like the

(21:13):
access and the ability to share.
You know, virtually as well I.
I like where we are right now.
Yeah, there's also been a returnand to the investment of
understanding culture andhistory and getting in those
lanes of appreciation versusappropriation where I feel like
when it was those confusingtimes, people were just

(21:34):
consuming without any care forrespecting the OGs, respecting
the pioneers, all the culturalthings.
Now people are reallyadvocating for that, which is so
.
It just makes my heart full andthat we're back there again,
while also pioneering newpathways of ways to share and
innovate.
How dance is, you know,proliferated throughout the

(21:55):
world you know digitally as well, yeah, so it's an exciting time
.

J.R. (21:58):
yeah, no, that's great.
That's a great perspective andI feel like there's a lot of
takeaways there of seeing whereit started, where it went, where
it is now and now and how it'sokay.
This is a good space we're innow.
I wanted to pivot a little bit.
So I know that you've stillbeen involved in dance a lot and
I think you know your impact isstill being felt in the dance
community.
I wanted to ask how has yourrole shifted?

(22:19):
You know, starting Cabo Materin 1992 and staying for a while,
and then came Legacy, and thenthere's the abdc, and then
there's culture shock andeverything you've been doing,
and now the stuff you're doingwith awesome shock and
everything else right.

Arnel (22:31):
How is?

J.R. (22:31):
your, how have you, how has your perspective shifted or,
like your role in thoseorganizations shifted over time?
Yeah I'm asking as a personit's okay you're pioneer of
these things, you're startingthese things, you're involved in
these things, you're seeing itgrow and you have, like, maybe a
vision of how you want tocontribute to those spaces.
How has your perspective oryour role shifted since then and
you know what's been yourcontributing, that sort of

(22:53):
vision?
That you have for yourself inthose spaces.

Arnel (22:56):
Yeah, because obviously with Cabo Modern you know that
was in Cabo Modern I was in my20s, right?
So that was the time of let'sjust create everything.
You know unlimited, limitlessenergy, and you know who needs
sleep, you know you just you'rejust so excited to just build,
build, build.
After I graduated, you know,from UCI and then I moved on to,

(23:17):
you know, figuring out mycareer path in the health at
least the health side of mycareer.
I definitely moved from, youknow, an active director to
advisor, you know, like kind ofbeing just coming when needed,
and that's when I was able tospread my wings and join Culture
Shock LA.
And Culture Shock LA reallycame into my life in my late 20s

(23:39):
, going into my early 30s, andCulture Shock LA was really like
the bridging of who I grew upwith as a Boy Scout, who loved
community service and who lovedbeing in the community and also
really investing in culturalappreciation of all of these
dance art forms.
So that was where I built.
I became an evolved leaderbecause I became executive

(24:02):
director of Culture Shock andit's a nonprofit organization.
Because I became executivedirector of Culture Shock and
it's a nonprofit organization,so I had to learn about the
nonprofit world, grants andbudgets and positions and bylaws
and strategic plans and such,and so that was cool because I
like learning about that stuff,but I had to learn it pretty
fast and luckily I had amazingleaders with me to learn all of

(24:23):
that stuff with.
And so during that time I wasstill advising Cabo Modern and
also creating KM Legacy, becauseall the alumni I grew up with
were looking for a place now toperform and some of them went to
Culture Shock and some of themactually, who weren't like
community service leaning, stillwanted to perform in those

(24:46):
competition spaces or at clubs.
So it was interesting to createKM Legacy as another space for
Kabo Modern dancers and alsofriends of Kabo Modern to kind
of still have a sense ofbelonging and still have that
height sense of training in asafe space.
That seemed exciting.
That's going to push them toeven grow more.
And so that time of my life wasvery busy because I felt like I
was in a safe space.
That seemed exciting, that'sgoing to push them to even grow
more.
And so that time of my life wasvery busy because I felt like I

(25:10):
was in a relationship withdance and it was also the time
where up to that point which iskind of wild to me I wasn't out
yet because I was just so busy.
I think, subconsciously maybe,I was keeping myself busy, not
to really even think about myidentity as a queer person.
But I did have a lot ofeye-opening experience during

(25:33):
that time of my life that werereally like leading me to
finally come out and live mytruth.
And I think once I did thatthings kind of like rocket ship,
like really like higher, and Iwas able to build a lot of
things that I think really weretransformational for me.
You know, because after that iswhen I finished my doctorate

(25:56):
program, I really went fullsteam with Culture Shock LA and
created like co-created with myother leaders benefit shows, all
our afterschool programs, allour youth teams.
You know Future Shock, mightyShock, mini Shock.
And then you know I, at the endof my 30s, going into my 40s, I

(26:17):
started really thinking aboutwhy do, when people ask me my
career, why do I default tooccupational therapist?
You know my career is as adance educator and as a doctor
of occupational therapy, andwe're often influenced to have
one label, but I'm anintersectional human being.
So I'm a dance educator and I'moccupational therapy and I

(26:42):
started thinking about whatthings can I create that
actually brings both of myexpertise together as well?
And so that's when I createdAwesome Shock because I knew
that, especially ourneurodivergent youth, they often
get turned away from dancestudios.
I had a lot of kids I workedwith at Children's Hospital LA
and then later on at Long BeachUnified School District, where

(27:03):
their parents were sharing thatthey love to dance.
At home there's no space forthem to dance and so that's why,
with Culture Shock grant funded, I was able to create these
free dance after school danceprograms and I went back to my
roots it's just hip hop danceand locking, mixed together with
sensory strategies from myoccupational therapy background

(27:25):
and created this program thatnow I'm building with Andy Ho,
who's another one of your guests, and it just feels so exciting
to see that all my things canalso come together to offer
something unique to the world.
That's really needed, and sothat's been super rewarding.
And when I started kind ofgoing into these other, I don't

(27:46):
call them passion projects, Icall them purpose projects,
because I think passion is whatyou do in your 20s, when you're
just excited about a thing,you're fueled by energy.
Later on, in my 40s, and nowI'm 51, I do only purpose
projects, things that align withwhat I think my purpose is, my
God-given purpose in this world.

(28:06):
And so Awesome Shock is one ofmy purpose projects and because
I'm so involved in thisdirection, where everything I do
with dance needs to have somekind of purpose, because also
I'm more protective of my time.
Every decade I become moreprotective of my time With Cabo
Modern, I've now like I justwant to be a founder, like I

(28:27):
really trust, like andy and jensango and all these other
incredible you're jason buenoasaya, all these incredible,
incredible humans who wereincredible leaders for kaba
modern and kaba legacy to be theleaders and mentors for kaba
modern.
I trusted that generation nowso that I can really focus on my
purpose projects and I'm alwaysgoing to be the founder, I'm

(28:49):
Yoda to them.
So I, you know I still help,you know I still I'll still be a
supportive force, but I canalso sleep peacefully knowing
that there are these otherincredible leaders who will take
care of them.
Because with Cabo Modern, sinceit's a college group, the
greatest need is really supportfor the directors, the leaders,
because they're 18, 19, 21.

(29:10):
So having these we call themJedi Council, the Jedi Council
advisors be able to mentor andinvest in these leaders and the
leaders invest in the dancers,makes for a much healthier and
safer experience for all thedancers.
Yeah, I had a question on that.
That's one thing that I'm verycurious about.
Dancers makes for a muchhealthier, you know, and safer
experience for all the dancers?

J.R. (29:26):
yeah, so I had a question on that.
That's one thing that I'm verycurious about is like leadership
and how you see or approachcultivating those leaders,
because, like you said, it's youknow, it's not.
It wouldn't be on someone likeyou to touch every single dancer
and be like you know, here letme mentor you.
But it's like helping todevelop those leaders who can
now take ownership of thoseteams and entities and you trust

(29:48):
that they're going to do anamazing job.
How do you approach that, likewhen a leader comes to you
asking for guidance or what kindof sort of overarching message
do you lean into for thoseleaders?

Arnel (30:00):
Yeah, I mean.
The one advice I always tellpeople is that life is a
combination of making thingshappen and letting things happen
.
So there are certain thingsthat you have to take charge of
and you need to go for it, andcertain things that you also
have to allow to happen, becauseyou have to rely on other
people who have a higher senseof knowing for their

(30:20):
contribution to that project orthat thing, and there's also
like a trust in God, in theuniverse.
You also have to let thingsalso just happen naturally and
organically as well.
So part of leaning into that isknowing that when you do the,
you find that balance.
There's going to be times thatyou're just going to kill it.
You're going to find that rightbalance and smash it, and there

(30:41):
are going to be times thatyou're going to make mistakes,
but the mistakes areopportunities to learn.
And there are going to be timesthat you're going to make
mistakes, but the mistakes areopportunities to learn.
And as a 18, 19, 20, 21 yearold, that's exactly what you're
supposed to be doing, right, aslong as it's not super harmful
or, you know, toxic to thedancers.
There's a certain amount ofmistake-making that is good for

(31:01):
your character for you todevelop as a person.
So that's what those advisorsare there for to kind of impart
their wisdom and guide theseleaders and having those
incredible like I did it moments, but also to really affirm them
in that, but also when theymake natural, as everyone is
going to make mistakes, reallyhelp them be introspective and

(31:22):
figure out.
What do we learn from this, notjust for kabo modern but for
your life, you know, as a humanbeing moving forward and a lot
of people, myself included.
There are certain things whetheryou're a leader in kabo modern
or just you are a member orchoreographer you know that
there are lessons you learnduring that period of time that

(31:43):
you do take into your lifemoving forward.
You know there are certain.
There's everyone has their ownversion of.
I learned this in Kabo Martinand I brought it here.
I know for inner, even job,interviews.
Sometimes they ask me you knowsome of what is something you're
most proud of?
I can pull something from KaboMartin.
Or what's a difficult situationthat you learn from?
I can pull, you know, asituation for the dancer dancer

(32:06):
or dancers I work with that werechallenging.
That you know.
So there's always something togain.
But the key is to lean intothat growth mindset of whether
you're winning or whether you'renavigating challenges.
You know what I mean.
You're always going to begrowing if you choose that, if
you choose that.
I love that.

J.R. (32:24):
Yeah, I think that answers it.
I was kind of just asking, as astand-in for like leaders, like
what sort of advice you thinkcould help them.

Arnel (32:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, with leaders specifically, it's have
the courage to take charge, butalso know that you can't be
everything to everyone, so youreally have to rely on a
communal effort and we really,now, for every time we have
leaders come in, we have anonboarding where we go over like
effective communicationstrategies for navigating, you

(32:53):
know, group dynamics, self-carebecause that's something that a
lot of people don't talk aboutwith leaders, that is just so
incredibly important yeah, andeven cultural appreciation, so
these are like things that forthe leaders, for kaba modern and
for cold shock.
Like all the groups I work with,I spend time doing that and I
did teach a leadership coursecalled leadership tools for the

(33:15):
dance leader and a lot of thosethings from.
A lot of the content from thatare from mistakes I made as a
young leader that I learned fromand I just kind of put it
together in a course, mixedtogether with my organizational
leadership courses, to offerspecifically to dance leaders,
because I wish I had someone youknow helping me.
I mean, I definitely am okaywith what happened, but maybe it

(33:39):
could have also been easier ifsomeone was mentoring me or
someone you know had some adviceto impart to me when I was
figuring things out for KaboModern.

J.R. (33:48):
Yeah, definitely I like that.
It's kind of you know you learnfrom your mistakes.
But also it's key to pass thatalong to the next generation so
they can stand on thoseshoulders and, you know, make
the space even better than whenyou left it.
Right, yes, yeah, Quickquestion on that.
So those resources that youcompiled, can people access that
, or is it?

Arnel (34:06):
And then a lot of things were also coming out in the
dance community like even justnow, people were speaking their

(34:32):
truth about sexual harassmentand all these other really
dangerous, important things totalk about.
So leaders were coming up.
So I created it as a virtualprogram five sessions and yeah,
five five week sessions.
So one time a week for two anda half to three hours virtually,
and I didn't know that it would.

(34:53):
You know, it's like one ofthose things, just you know,
once you create it, then it justaccidentally, you know.
So I did one.
My first cohort was like only 22, but I did so many cohorts that
I ended up reaching over 380leaders in over 42 countries.
So I kind of had to figure outalso time zone.
Like I would like you know onecohort.

(35:15):
I would hold it on the morningson saturday so I could reach
all the asian countries, and Iwas like I need to hold it at
this time at a different day soI can now get the european
countries and the cool thing iswith that I also created a space
on facebook so I can now getthe European countries and the
cool thing is with that, I alsocreated a space on Facebook
where they can also get togetherand I hold reunions and the
cohorts just grow.
So those 370 something leaders Istill create spaces for them to

(35:39):
check in and I'll create likeactivities and breakout rooms
and such.
But in 2025, I'm going to tryoffering it in person at
Movement Lifestyle I'm stilltalking to Sean Evaristo about
it and possibly maybe in OrangeCounty.
So I might try an LA cohort anda Orange County cohort, because
something's happening againwhere I'm getting a lot of

(36:02):
people asking me for advice andit's easier for me to hold a
course where I can just deliverit in a more structured way and
also more rich way and communalway than just, you know, emails
and phone calls like over andover.
So I think I'm going to trythat next year and see where
that goes.

J.R. (36:18):
Yeah, so if so, people are interested in this sort of
thing, or what would yourecommend them to check out or
reach out or like how do they?

Arnel (36:26):
yeah, um, definitely my instagram, because I usually um,
I will usually announce it andthen I'll keep applications
before I would announce it,leave applications open for two
to three weeks and I would fillup.
So, um, I'm gonna do that again.
But also next year I'm to havea landing page for my website.
So that's one of the thingsthat I like.

(36:48):
Website and you know my, my Tedtalk.
Those are things like all thethings for myself have been on
the back burner forever, andlast year and this year I tried
to really say I need to makesure I take care of those things
so I can continue doing what Ido in a more efficient way.
So next year I'll also have alanding site where everything

(37:11):
will be there as well, but it'llbe Instagram and that website
together, okay, so just staytuned on your Instagram.
Yes, and then we'll announce it.

J.R. (37:19):
Yes, that's exciting.
I'm going to say straight upthat sounds like.

Arnel (37:22):
I would want to do that.
I don't know if I'm eligible.
Yeah, you could teach it.
Yeah, no, that's crazy.

J.R. (37:28):
I feel like that sort of thing you're offering and have
been offering.
I feel like it's so valuable inmy own experience as a leader
on a team and trying to createsome sort of structure or
something that you can pass onso that these spaces can be safe
, can be productive, can beproductive, can be like fruitful
for these dancers, who, a lotof them, tend to be younger or,

(37:48):
you know, whatever stage they'rein.
I feel like that's so importantfor us to keep these spaces
like that or keep it, andimprove it right.

Arnel (37:55):
And even identity Like I forgot that the first sessions
is identity and mission, becausewe don't need another team that
looks like another team right.
Like when collectives cometogether, it's because of a
particular reason, you knowwhether it's like a connection
they have with each other or aspecific leader that inspires
this group.
So I think that's important forleaders of organizations to

(38:17):
also think about, like why didyou, why do you exist and what
do you want your mission andvision to be?
And to understand understandthat that's going to be
extraordinary, as long as youspend time really knowing what
that is Before you haverehearsals and start having
auditions.
Start first with what makes youspecial, what is your footprint
on the world, because we did gothrough a time in our dance

(38:40):
community where all the teamslooked the same.
It's just for the sake ofdancing there's no difference
and it's okay to start withinspiration.
Like every dancer, singer,spoken word, artist, everyone
starts from inspiration, whereyou kind of imitate or you just
like, really want to emulate,like your idol.
But eventually, as you growpast that, you take some of the

(39:01):
sauce.
That's just yourself.
Put it into your inspirationand you end up developing your
own thing.
And so that's just yourself.
Put it into your inspirationand you end up, you know,
developing your own thing.
And so that's what?
When we think about dance, youknow, whether it's a dance crew
or a dance company or a dancefamily, each one should have its
own identity, mission andvision.
You know, and they should knowthat before they ask people to
join them.

J.R. (39:20):
Yeah right I love that so much because I've had this
conversation too, like askingdifferent dance teams and
project teams so what's yourlike?
Why are you here, what is thepurpose and the values?
I want to say something, butit's like everything you're
saying is amazing and I don'twant to like add to it too much
because I want to cover someother things, but it's I've
asked my own team this beforewhen I before I joined
leadership.

(39:40):
I'm like we're taking on peopleand we're having all these
culture problems because wedidn't identify what our values
are and what our purpose is, andso let's start with that and
then we audition people andinterview and all that filter
them in so that now we have thissort of common denominator,
Because if we do it in reverse,we're going to come up with all
these again, these cultureproblems that we're having.

Arnel (39:58):
That's exactly it, and especially when you have to let
someone go, if you weren'ttransparent with them from the
beginning of what you stand for,then what is your basis for
whether they stay or not?
Exactly you know.
So, to be truly ethical, um,that should all be worked out in
the beginning, and that'sactually.
Every person that asked that tocome approaches me wanting to
create or found a team.

(40:19):
I have them, like write yourmission statement first.
If do you do your personalmission statement to know who
you are, then write your missionstatement for with your by
yourself or with your leaders,for your group, and then
everyone that you take on yourteam needs to like, support or
embody that you know, I lovethat that's yeah, that's amazing
.

J.R. (40:38):
Okay, really quick for this last section.
I wanted to ask.
Okay, so I had questions onyour TED talk, but we're linking
it.
Check it out Maybe we'll have apart two if it's in the cards,
but I wanted to ask about thebook that you contributed to
called make sure.
I want to get this right withlove, and it's how?
Oh my gosh, I'm missing it.
It is what we wish we knewabout being queer and Filipino

(41:00):
in America.
And so I haven't read it.
It's on my list and I don'tknow if this is too much of a
teaser, but could you maybeshare with us any sort of
snippet of what yourcontribution to that book was?

Arnel (41:11):
Yeah, so last year, in 2023, this amazing person,
dustin Domingo.
He put a call out to all queerFilipino, filipina, filipinx
people out there to writeletters to their younger selves
and they said you can submit upto three, because we're going to

(41:32):
do this collection of theseletters.
It's going to be a book.
So, of course, I wrote threeand I picked different times.
I picked when I was 10, justbeing confused and actually not
embracing that.
I picked when right before Icame out, and I picked right
after I came out, and so I wrotethose three letters, just
hoping one of them was going tobe picked.

(41:54):
And then I found out.
It's funny because I found outthe same month that I found out
that I was selected for the TEDtalk.
I found out that all three ofmy letters were accepted into
the book, and so and everythingaligned with each other because,
also, when I did my TED talk,that's the same week that the

(42:16):
book came out.

J.R. (42:17):
Oh, wow, that's crazy.

Arnel (42:19):
So it's all kind of in tandem with each other and so
I've been doing like book talkpanels, you know, speaking on
panels for these book, the bookrelease, and meeting also some
of the other people who wroteletters, because there's 50, he
picked 50 amazing human beingsand some of these letters are
like hella funny.
Some of them are very thoughtprovoking, Some of them are

(42:40):
heartbreaking, you know.
So they're all so different andthey all like touch just a
different part of the queerexperience and collectively I
think it's really rich.
So it's such an honor to be apart of the book.
It's a little bit I was moreworried about my parents because
, you know, over the last fiveyears I've been a lot more vocal

(43:01):
about my queer experience andthat's scary for my parents who
still think, you know, I mean,it's true, you know queer phobia
, you know homophobia is realand I have been the recipient in
recent years of, you know, hatecrimes and things and such.
But I think there's such animportance to speak your truth
and to you know, for your ownhealing and for the chance that

(43:23):
you might help someone else, youknow, in their healing journey.
Yeah, just impart yourexperience and how you got
through it or how you'refiguring out your way.
You know through it.
So that book is definitely avery unexpected blessing.
I really wasn't sure if I wasgoing to get picked, and so to
have all three in there is sucha huge honor.

(43:44):
And to again meet the otherauthors and it's ongoing, so
there'll even be more panelsnext year, so it's just
something I just continuallylook forward to.
It's like the gift that keepsgiving.
You know so, and there'snothing like it.
You know cause to speak aboutyour queer experience in the
Filipino culture.
It's alsooo, you know to bebakla and you know in the queer

(44:04):
community.
That's empowering, but it'sstill so much it is degrading,
you know, in a lot of spaces.
You know so.
So yeah, on goes the fight, foryou know speaking your truth
and helping people feel affirmedin who they are and also help
people know that they're notalone.
I like it a lot.
I was about to ask for feelaffirmed in who they are and
also help people know thatthey're not alone right now,
nice.

J.R. (44:24):
I like it a lot.
I was about to ask for asnippet, but I think that's a
good sort of summary of whatit's about, and what you get
from it and what you can learnfrom it yeah, yeah, one of my,
one of my stories fell on 143 ohreally people are like what
page you're on?

Arnel (44:39):
look for 143 nice, one of my stories is on that page.

J.R. (44:43):
Nice, nice yeah.
What a coincidence.

Arnel (44:46):
Is it?

J.R. (44:46):
so sorry.
How's the book like laid out?
Is it just like randomly, or isthere some sort of format?

Arnel (44:51):
Structure, structure, so yeah, I didn't even know how it
was going to be laid out.
I love the way Dustin organizedit, because what he did is the
foreword and introduction, islike his story, and then he
separates all the chapters intolife lessons.
Okay, yeah, and then theletters are grouped according to
that life lesson oh, I likethat.
Yeah.
So it's cool, it's a reallygood book.

(45:11):
It's awesome because you canjust open it up and just read
you know, two or three pagesjust to read one letter and then
you can put it down.
Or you can deep dive and belike I'm going to read this
whole chapter of all theseletters and take that in.
So I'm more of I'm not aread-write learner, I'm an
audio-visual learner.
So I'm more like I just want toopen up, read something short

(45:33):
and then think about it and thenyou know again, pick it up
again.
So it's a perfect book for thekind of reader.
I am.
So, yeah, I think people wouldenjoy it and it's great for
everyone For queer people,obviously, it's amazing to read
these stories, but it's alsogood for all our allies that
want to get a sense ofunderstanding of what some of
these experiences are like.
So I think it's a great bookfor everyone.

J.R. (45:54):
Yeah, definitely.
So I have a book summarywebsite, so it's on my list.
I usually do audiobooks likeAudible.

Arnel (46:00):
This one's only print right.
For now.
I told Dustin he would beamazing, you know.
So, yeah, he wants to do it.
It's just so many lettersthough he has to figure out, but
I think he should.

J.R. (46:11):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
It's on my list regardless, butif it ever drops on an audio
version, I'm going to post uplike a summary.
Sounds like an amazing book.
Yeah, sounds like an amazingbook.
Yeah, all right.
Anything else on that topicbefore we go to rapid fire
questions?

Arnel (46:24):
No, I just want to say it's available.
I mean, when it comes to books,it's always best to buy from
the direct publisher, but it'salso on Amazon, so it is easy to
find.
And, either way, supportsDustin and the amazing people
behind the project Gotcha.

J.R. (46:40):
Yeah, I'll link Dustin's website, because I think that's
what I have now in our booth andso it links to that page that I
think it's where we can orderfrom.
Yes, yeah, cool.

Arnel (46:47):
Quento books, yeah, perfect.

J.R. (46:50):
All right, so rapid fire questions.
First one, arnaud, is calledthe billboard question, so if
you could put up a sign formillions of people to see, what
would it say?

Arnel (46:58):
It would say my mantra, which is give love, receive love
, be love.

J.R. (47:03):
Next one what is one of the hardest challenges you face
in your life and what did youlearn from it?

Arnel (47:08):
I did go over this in the TED Talk, but I would say
finding out that I was HIVpositive, you know I was because
I was 31 and I was in my thelast year of my doctorate
program and I wasn.
I was just battling, navigating, feeling like I was a fucking
disappointment to my parents andthat was going to hurt all the
people in my life while tryingto finish my doctorate.

(47:29):
So that was the hardest part,but that did.
I had no choice but to reachout to like close friends and
lean on community and and thenit also led me because I found
out I was hiv positive before Icame out, which is crazy.
So I did that process oftelling everyone I was HIV
positive and then I went a yearlater another round of hey also.

(47:55):
So that time was verychallenging because all of that
was scary emotional.
It was a time where I wasfiguring out if I even deserved
to live.
I was navigating those thoughtsbut I came out on the other
side having a deeperappreciation for life and a
stronger commitment to mypurpose, and also both of those
experiences made me reallyembrace that it's so dope to be

(48:19):
different and it's good to bemore than one thing All the
parts of yourself, the painfulparts and the joyful parts and
the in-between parts make youextraordinary in the world, so
we should embrace it all, yeah Ilove it, so good.

J.R. (48:36):
Okay, next one self-inflicted wound.
So do you have a story aboutsomething that's gone wrong in
your life?
That's your own fault and youcan't blame anyone else because
you did it to yourself?

Arnel (48:44):
yes, when I went on academic probation for common
that's always one of thosethat's a whole other story.
But yeah, I got an academicprobation.
I listened to a counselor whowas discouraging.
I actually dropped out of mybio major and then, when I
changed my mind, they wouldn'tlet me back in so and I only had

(49:05):
one year left.
So it was really bad advice totell me to drop a major.
That was so close to finishing.
So I had to add all my classesthrough AdCard and prove and get
straight A's to prove to theuniversity that I deserve to be
a bio major.
And that's when all my friendswere gone and I was like the
only one left in my age at UCIand I ended up doing it.

(49:25):
I got back in two months beforegraduation and then I graduated
.
But all of that time, thatwhole two years of figuring that
out, I didn't know if I wasgoing to get a degree.
So I did that to myself.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
But, I also got myself out of itas well.

J.R. (49:41):
I think you're the second person to say academic probation
I did that to myself.
People are like no, I did thatto me.
Okay, if you could redo onething, what would you do
differently and most of myguests will be.
Like you know, I don't regretanything, yeah.
But for the spirit of thequestion, if you, as a thought
experiment what would you redo?

Arnel (49:59):
I mean, if I could redo some of the mistakes I made as a
young leader, because I don'tthink I have the lens now of an
awareness of like kind ofstepping outside, of just being
present and having a very likewide perspective, Because I
think when I was a young leaderI was just fast, fast, fast,
let's build, build, build.

(50:19):
It's so exciting.
You know, I didn't take as muchtime to just stop, be present,
integrate the lessons and thenmove on.
I was just rapid fire.
I was just so excited to havethe opportunity to create and
build and do things, do fuckingcool things with my friends.
I would have stopped and likereally thought about what am I

(50:40):
learning?
What am I experiencing?
What ways can I do thingsbetter?
Am I even taking the time tocelebrate too?
You know, I would have done alot more of stopping.

J.R. (50:50):
Like more stopping, reflecting and celebrating.

Arnel (50:52):
Like you said, I didn't do that until I was in culture
shock.
That's when I was like cause.
Now I had all these leaders,like I had, you know, co-leaders
, and we were doing that foreach other, whoa whoa whoa, whoa
, let's think about that.
Oh, is that in budget?
So, yeah, I wish in college.
Even though I'm grateful forthat time, I stopped a little
bit more.
Yeah, I like it.

J.R. (51:15):
It's good advice.
Well, if you could give youryounger self advice, what would
it be now If you haven't alreadytouched upon it?
Any age, any range.

Arnel (51:23):
I would say at every age, because we all battle
insecurities.
I would just say you're enough.
Who you are as a human being isenough and you have worth in
this world.
You will always make mistakes,you'll have your moments of
triumph, but you belong in thisworld.

J.R. (51:43):
You carry a unique purpose and you're enough you know in
the last few years what newbelief, behavior or habit has
improved your life boundaries.

Arnel (51:55):
I'm a people pleaser, so I learned in the last,
especially in the last decade,when I started placing
boundaries around what I'm ableto do and what I'm willing to do
.
Everything in my life gotbetter.
When I was, I would say, Istill spent most of my thirties

(52:15):
just rapid fire, which is alsowhy I was single for most of
that time, cause I feel like Iwas in a relationship with all
of my purpose projects and mydegree and you know.
But once I did that, it waspretty immediate because once I
had boundaries, I started takinghaving better self-care
practices.
I started scheduling myself inmy own calendar, you know, not
the appointments, not theobligations to other people, but

(52:37):
just.
And it wasn't until that momentthat I ended up meeting my
husband, because literally thenext year after I fully
integrated that practice, I metDustin in the most unlikely
place and then, you know, hebecame my husband.
So yeah, Nice.
Love it.

J.R. (52:54):
I always say, at least in my perspective, and my
experience or my philosophy isthat any relationship can be
improved with strongerboundaries.
Yes, I think it's like thatsort of when the boundaries are
not there and you don't knowwhere I end and you begin.
That's where all that conflictcomes from, with families,
relationships, friends.
Yeah.
But when you strengthen thoseboundaries, that's when you can
fully love someone, because nowyou know where you guys are.

Arnel (53:18):
Yeah, and your relationship with yourself.
And that's right, that getsstrengthened, also because you
have a better knowing of who youreally are.
You know the good and the areasfor growth.

J.R. (53:28):
Yeah, the areas of growth.
I like that Nice.
Who would you call successfuland how do you define success?

Arnel (53:39):
I think success is different for every person,
because what's meaningful toeach person varies.
So I would say success is ahigh level of achievement and
something meaningful where youcan enjoy it yourself and also
impart something to someone else.
I know that's kind of vague.

J.R. (53:56):
Yeah, no, but I like that.
It's a good framework.
You're doing something that'smeaningful to you and then you
can share that with other people.
Is there anyone that comes tomind that embodies that?
Someone you know, someone youdon't know?
Famous, not famous.

Arnel (54:06):
I would say my husband.
I think it's important toreally admire and respect your
husband while also knowing whatyou bring to the relationship.
But what I admire and loveabout Dustin is that he doesn't
care a lot about what otherpeople think, and so he's fully
present in everything he doesand he's a hundred percent.
But he also balances that with.
He's such a compassionate andkind person.

(54:29):
So I think that's successbecause he he can more boldly
jump into things, because hedoesn't really care about what
what people think as much youknow.
So I admire that in him, yeah,and he's so successful in all
the most important things, whichis being a good to your family,
being good to your partner andbeing good to yourself.

(54:50):
He's so great in all of thosethings I love it um, if you knew
you couldn't fail, what wouldyou try?

J.R. (54:57):
or what would you be doing now?

Arnel (54:59):
if anything different, if I knew, I couldn't feel I would
probably move from the tedx tothe ted space.
Yeah, just go for it.
I still think that's somethingI'm just going to continually to
grow personally, to get thatspace.
But I'm very afraid to do thatbecause the tedx was already its
own journey.
But, yeah, I would just gostraight for that TED space and

(55:23):
yeah, go for that.

J.R. (55:25):
Question.
I don't know if you'd know theanswer, but what are the steps
to getting to the TED stage?

Arnel (55:31):
That is something I'm still exploring, because I feel
like it's by invitation and Ithink your TEDx talk, like a
TEDx talk, needs to be a certainamount of like impact and reach
, and then they'll pull you tothe TED space Might be an invite
, amount of like impact andreach, okay, and then they'll
pull you to the ted space, sortof thing.
Yeah, but also, I think theremust be some kind of investment,
because to go to a tedconference is like a lot of

(55:51):
money, so even to be in thatspace requires a true investment
for me.
I'm not willing to spend thatmoney to be in that space, but
if I'm I end up being in thatspace, I will fully be grateful
for it.
But it's just mainly maximizingimpact.
If I have any opportunity onthat scale to share anything

(56:12):
from my story that might helpother people, that would
probably be.
That's.
The scariest thing I've everdone is my TEDx talk, because
you're talking.
Talking about other people andbuilding for other people is fun
and it's not as scary for me.
I can speak.
Public speaking is not hard forme.
For other people is fun andit's not as scary for me.
Public speaking is not hard forme for other people, but
talking about somethingvulnerable is really scary for
me.
That's why I actually went, forit is to really challenge
myself and it was the mostfrightening experience but also

(56:35):
liberating at the same time.
So, that's the one that I woulddo if I wasn't scared.
Ah, I see, right now.
Yeah definitely In reality.
I'm like I need to build overthis for a couple of years.
Nice, I like that I can seethat, though I'll manifest that
for you.

J.R. (56:50):
Thank you.
What is one of the best or mostworthwhile investments that
you've ever made in either time,money, energy or anything else?

Arnel (56:58):
The most worthwhile is always going to be my family and
Dustin, my doggy.
It's truly unconditional, youknow, and so it's the most
important thing in my life rightnow.
Everything I do is for my lovedones and for myself, and you
know so that's always going tobe the most important investment

(57:20):
of my time.
Yeah, and hopefully be it,because my goal right now is to
be the most important investmentof my time.
Yeah, and hopefully be a,because my goal right now is to
be a dad, so.
So everything feeds that, likeeverything I do with work, feeds
that dream for dustin and I.

J.R. (57:32):
So, yeah, I love that last couple favorite recent purchase
in the 50 to 100 range that hasimpacted your life the most,
and let's say the last sixmonths.

Arnel (57:43):
Oh God, that's such a good question.
I've never been asked that, oh,50 to 100.

J.R. (57:47):
We can change the parameters.
But that's kind of the base.
It's like a relativelyinexpensive purchase recently.
Nothing too crazy, but it couldbe.

Arnel (58:01):
Trying to think Sorry, I know this is rapid rapid fire,
it's okay, I'm gonna say.
I'm gonna say this chain, sothis is from rare vintage um, it
says yoda on it and it's a giftto myself.
So, um, I just feel reallypowerful and I feel like it's a
gift to myself.
Yeah, so I just feel reallypowerful and I feel like it's

(58:24):
taking me into like my nextchapter of life.
So I think this is a goodpurchase, like right now, like
symbolically, because it has anenergy that's carrying me
forward.
So, yeah, I'm going to say thispiece, this.

J.R. (58:37):
Yoda piece.
I like it.
It looks good Last rapid fire.
Any favorite books looks good,last rapid fire.
Any favorite books, movies,videos, articles or media that
you share or recommend the most.
Let's see, besides your tedtalk, which is great, and
besides the book with love,which I think everyone should
check out, besides any othermedia you recommend, I mean, I
love podcasts so I'm trying tothink well, what I like?

Arnel (59:00):
have you seen words that move me by Dana Wilson.
I haven't yeah, that one'sreally good for dancers because
she interviews all kinds ofdifferent experts in dance and
I've been enjoying that one alot lately.
Young Pueblo have you heard ofhim?
So, young Pueblo's.
I started following him firston Instagram and I love his
writings, but his books are likeincredible.

(59:21):
They're just poems and again,it's just what I like, like it's
short, easy to read, but hiswriting is really impactful to
me and I think it just resonateswith where I am in my life.
So he has several books andthey're all great.
My favorite one is the wayforward.
But young pueblo he's the bombnice.
On instagram.

(59:42):
I also like this illustratorcalled dev dev.
I'll say dev the pineapple.
Let me just look at it up realquick because she, her stuff, is
artistically fun, but is it'sreally says a lot of things, a
lot of social justice themesthat are on hers.
Oh yeah, dev at dev thepineapple, devon blow she's

(01:00:05):
incredible.
I love her art but it's reallythe messaging and the words and
I'm a quote person, so shesometimes takes these incredible
quotes and then puts like anillustration with it and it's
really powerful and I thinkwe're just navigating such crazy
times and next year is seemslike it's going to be even
crazier, but her stuff reallymobilizes me, empowers me and
also grounds me.

(01:00:25):
So dev the pineapple, I alsolike.
We the urban.
Oh yeah, yeah I also like we theurban okay nice, cool.

J.R. (01:00:34):
Yeah, we'll link to all of those.
I think those are really goodwrecks.
Okay, so we're in the finalsection.
So I I would like to end withgratitude Shout out to my mom
for teaching me.
Gratitude, arnaud.
What are you grateful for?

Arnel (01:00:46):
I'm grateful for loved ones chosen and blood.
I'm grateful for my journey youknow wherever it's going to
lead me.
I'm grateful for Dustin andKenobi's our puppy girl.
I'm grateful for this time, youknow.
And, yeah, I'm grateful for thepossibility of something better
.

J.R. (01:01:06):
And last, any final ask for the audience and ask from
them and or any final takeawaysthat you'd like them to take
from this conversation.

Arnel (01:01:15):
I think the last takeaway I would say is like to ever be
a master, an expert in anythingrequires a commitment and
embracing of always being astudent.
So everyone carries worth.
Everyone has a unique purpose,or multiple purposes, for why
there are here on earth, and sojust lean in with you, know

(01:01:37):
growth, mindset and always knowthat, like who you are matters
and you, you're also never alone.
We're all connected.
And if I have an ask, I wouldask people to also flourish
yourself, but also flourishother people as well.
I think where we go in thisworld requires us, requires both

(01:01:57):
self-care and community careand they're intertwined.
And for us to go further ashuman beings, we need to to
really invest.
We need to go back to basicsand really invest in self-care
and community care all right,arno that is it for questions.

J.R. (01:02:13):
Thank you so much for everything.
Honestly, this is one of thoseepisodes where I'm just going to
listen again for myself so much.

Arnel (01:02:19):
Well, I also want to give you your flowers because it
makes me happy that, first ofall, you're doing this
incredible podcast.
I love the ethos that'scarrying this podcast forward
and also that even the TikTokstuff that you do with your
girlfriend and the dance stuffyou do outside on top of your
career, you truly are an exampleof someone who isn't defined by

(01:02:40):
one identity.
Like you embrace it all.
It all helps each other and youknow, as a founder of Kyle of
Modern, it makes me superincredibly fulfilled to see
someone from my family likeliving their truth in such a
loud and amazing way.

J.R. (01:02:54):
So oh, thank you so much, arnel.
You're gonna make me tear up.
Yeah, I'm happy to, you know,make someone like you proud,
just to be my authentic self.
Until you know, following yourexample too, you're like.
Everything that you do, I feel,is an example for people like
me to live our truth and dowe're passionate about to give
back to other people especially.
So thank you so much.
All right, so I'll do my finalsign off.
So thank you guys for tuning in.

(01:03:15):
I hope you guys learned a lotas much as I did in this and
enjoyed this episode.
Just a reminder to always bekind to others, especially
yourself, and remember that youcan always learn something from
someone if you just take thetime to listen.
So thank you guys for tuning in.

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#21: Dr. Arnel Calvario Ripkens - From KM to TEDx, Asians in Hip-Hop, and Cultivating Leaders of the Future

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#21: Dr. Arnel Calvario Ripkens - From KM to TEDx, Asians in Hip-Hop, and Cultivating Leaders of the Future