Rupert Estanislao is a bi-lingual performer and vocalist who immigrated from the Phillipine Islands in 1993. After winning his first poetry slam in 2000, his trademarked guttural roar, raw vulnerability and blistering vocal pyrotechnics have won him slots on slam teams every year since, scoring 5th in the nation in 2003, and becoming an Ill List Finalist, New Word Series Finalist, and winning the “Heavyweight” Belt in the War of Words two times in a row. He has been aired on the premiere episode of the third season of Russell Simmon's Def Poetry Jam and in 2004 was awarded “Best Spoken Word Artist” by the East Bay Express.
Rupert’s radio appearances include Pacific Time, NPR, KPFA in Berkeley, KZSU in Stanford and NU107 in the Philippines. Rupert has performed in colleges throughout the country and featured with numerous Asian American writers and artists. He works with San Francisco's Filipino cultural center, Bindlestiff Studios along side 8th Wonder, Dennis Kim, Al Robles, Oscar Penaranda and Barbara Reyes. He also works with the Campaign for Human Rights in the Philippines to help further various labor movements and alternative political parties. He was also a featured performer at the Asian Pacific Islander Conference in Minneapolis, the Aperture Asian American Arts Festival in San Francisco and Youthspeaks’s Living Word Festival with Jessica Hagedorn and Robert Santiago Boca.
Rupert is a member of the poetry trio, The Suicide Kings, and also performs with Proletariat Bronze, an Asian American spoken word collective. As a vocalist, he plays with the hardcore punk band Eskapo, and sings in both Tagalog and English on the topics of US imperialism to the Diaspora of their own people. Eskapo has played almost every venue in the Northern California and toured Southern California and Mexico. Their album titled Kalayaan (Liberation) is available at independent music stores throughout the Bay Area. He lives and writes in Oakland, CA.
Rupert can be contacted at bringthedarkness@yahoo.com.
RUPERT ESTANISLAO PRESS:
"MAJOR THREAT"- East Bay Express BEST OF THE EAST BAY 2004: Rupert Estanislao Best Spoken Word Poet: Sexy metaphors and smart love ballads “Forget the nine galaxies orbiting around your chocolate mustachioed skin, the fire-and-brimstone narratives about my ancestors who died because of your ancestors, and the dude who likes to rhyme about cunnilingus -- thanks, but we've heard it all before. Actually, spoken-word poets are sexiest when they're not trying to showboat -- when, in fact, they seem completely unaware of what they're saying. Which is true of Rupert Estanislao, that baby-faced neo-hoodlum from the East Bay outfits Suicide Kings and Proletariat Bronze. Born in the Philippines and currently living in Oakland, he loops his personal desire for home into his longtime romance with international street punk cultures (incidentally, he also sings in the Vallejo punk band Eskapo). What's best about Rupert is that he is always straining to say what is unsayable, in a tone and form so angry it's liable to burn straight through the audience's brains. On one of his signature numbers, "Empress," he rasps: I would breathe this poem down her mouth, to mend her broken English ... Because all Asian women in this world should be called 'Empress.' Now how's that for a love ballad?” |
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