About us
Paruparo is a QTPOC-centered artist and healing venue that offers classes, workshops, and practice space. We center the liberation of trans and queer people of color providing safe(r) containers to deepen our spiritual and creative practices.
Paruparo, pronounced peru-peru, is a Tagalog-Austronesian word for “butterfly”.
We like to subscribe to the belief that this word is an onomatopoeia, emulating the sound of the wings fluttering.
In this case, we see this word more as a trans type of noun as it is derived from the action of fluttering, or being a butterfly which is an embodiment, a journey more than it is a destination.
We called in the spirit of Paruparo to the space we want to build, hoping it would extend its wisdom of gentle action and the way it can initiate the flurries of individuals to flutter collectively to places we’ve been, places we’ve dreamed, and places we’re going.
In the spirit of kapwa*, this word is the mascot for the space we want to build, as it is in solidarity with the many Black, Brown, and Indigenous cultures that also have a reduplicating, p-shaped-onomatopoeic word to describe butterflies.
We chose this symbol to reclaim the natural way that cross pollination of ideas, culture, migration and metamorphosis occurs across diaspora.
*kapwa is a Tagalog word for togetherness or a shared identity to all humans, living creatures, land, water, etc; “shared self”
1,000 square feet with high vaulted ceilings and newly installed flooring! Perfect for film screenings, live performances, and more!
the space
The physical space is 1,000 square feet in what was held as a community meditation space for the last two decades.
We prioritize COVID-conscious practices. We provide masks and COVID tests for community members. There is also an air purifier and updated HVAC system in the space.
We also have a mutual aid pantry where we will source shelf-stable food items and snacks, personal hygiene products, PPE, and supplies for sex workers.
There are two single stall gender neutral bathrooms as well!
The space is inside a building that has a ramp up towards the building. At this time, Paruparo lacks accessibility for folx with varying mobility access needs as there is one flight of stairs up.
Paruparo is a Covid-conscious venue that features skylights and color-changing lighting. A beautiful community-centered space for your next art exhibition, workshop, and more!
@m00nyeka
Meet our
co-founders
@kaidal.waves
kai
kai alviar horton (they/he) is a Trans, queer, gender expansive, neurospicy, Filipinx/Latinx activist, poet, healer, and brujx born as a settler on the unceded homelands of the Chumash and Tongva people. They have the honor of being the co-founder/director of Paruparo and the executive director of The House of Kilig.
Growing up in an immigrant, working class household, kai held this dream of opening a space like Paruparo for over a decade but was never sure how or when it would ever be possible. Through the abundance of love and community as a resource, this dream is finally becoming a reality. As a self-proclaimed dharma, somatics, and astrology nerd, he has yearned for a world where other QTBIPOC folx could come together in spiritual and creative practice that centers our joy and creates space for our collective grief outside of the gaze of white cisheteropatriarchy.
They have a dream of dismantling the barriers that artists and healers often face to simply exist and offer their practices both to themselves and to the collective. Their biggest hope and dream for Paruparo is that it can act as a place for embodied liberation, pleasure, joy, and solidarity through building a collective practice of love.
You will likely find kai reading “All About Love'' by bell hooks for the thousandth time, in a monotropic state about astrology, sharing interesting animal factoids, writing poetry, making connections between transexuality and nature, or cooking an epic feast for his beloved spouse and community in his free time.
nawa
nawa alviar horton, known as "Moonyeka" (they/them) is a mixed heritage nonbinary Ilocano-Filipinx shapeshifter who takes form as an interdisciplinary performing artist, writer, choreographer, curator, and brujx. They have the honor of being the Artistic Director of The House of Kilig. Eager to channel their development prowess, they join Paruparo as co-founder/director. With a specialty in offering sensually sacred dance and movement-based storytelling experiences, Moonyeka's performance, community organizing and divination work centers kapwa and kilig as a compass to imagine worlds where their communities can thrive.
They’re currently developing an upcoming work, Harana For The Aswang. Harana for The Aswang is an interdisciplinary performance work centered on the research of harana, a Filipinx serenade song form rooted in courtship and grief rituals.
nawa also plays in the fields of gamewriting, chimeric and biomythographic writing practices and is working towards publishing their first book. They were recently published in smoke and mold with their multiverse of work centering Waling-Waling Orchids. Am I Hot Enuf 2 Kill? is series of hybrid poetic texts that will be released in The Holy Hour, by Working Girls Press, Spring 2024.
Contact us today for your next event, photoshoot, art installation, or performance!