ABNER TORRES
DELINA JR.
Artivist Storyteller.
Performance-maker. Arts Educator.
Artist Leader. Cultural Worker. Eco-healer.
Abner Torres Delina Jr. is a Filipino multi-platform artivist-storyteller, performance-maker, cultural worker, arts educator, eco-healer, martial artist and the founding leader-artistic director (MaPa) of BLACK CANVAS- a multi-arts collective nurturing care culture, global justice, and ecological healing.
He partners with various communities, organizations and institutions such as the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Department of Education and Disaster Risk Reduction Management Services for arts therapy (Yolanda, Marawi crisis) and arts education (Special Program for the Arts, K-12) and arts for development programs in the Philippines. Through the years, Abner has trained thousands of students, youth leaders, artists, first responders and arts educators in the Philippines.
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A Theater Arts Academic and Artistic Excellence Awardee of the Philippine High School for the Arts, he finished Arts Management at De La Salle- College of St. Benilde under the School of Design and Arts grant. Abner is also a Southeast Asia (SEAsia) scholar finishing MA Arts and Cultural Leadership at LASALLE College of the Arts - University of the Arts Singapore researching the rationale, experiences, possibilities, challenges, intersectionalities, strategies and cultural policies of arts for climate action and the impact of care ecologies in local and global contexts.
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Abner's artistic and cultural work ranges from contemporary performance-making to socially-engaged projects, from embodiment to care-based collective healing, and from community development to intercultural collaborations.
His projects received awards & citations from PHILSTAGE, LEAF, ALIW, KBP, Star Awards among others. He also top-billed in award-winning Filipino productions and international films, hosted TV5’s Batibot and Cultural Center of the Philippine’s Arts online program. As an arts and cultural leader, he has curated and directed projects such as SACLAW (Social Action and Community Leadership Arts Workshop), ARTIVISTAYO (art-activism), WALANG SAYANG (Young Artist-Leaders Climate Action Camp), BALANGAW (Children’s Multi-Arts Biennale) and WOMB (World Of My Bodies).
Abner has represented the Philippines at Kuandu Arts Festival (Taiwan), Asian Performing Arts Forum (Japan), and is a recipient of Asian Cultural Council Grant (USA) researching contemporary theater, ecological arts and regenerative practices. He has been an invited resource speaker for various institutions including The Gardarev Center, Department of Foreign Affairs, ITAC, NCCA, CCP, among others. Abner is a Global Fellow for Georgetown University’s Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics (The Lab), a Climate Impact Artist for the International Teaching Artist Collaborative (ITAC), a Tzu Chi International Youth Leadership Program Fellow and a member of International Interdisciplinary Artists Consortium (IIAC).
Advocating for liberation and empowerment, he has developed KaMaLayaAn, an eco-embodiment practice to reclaim cosmic consciousness. Abner (meaning: father of light) lives to liberate the world through embodied, posthuman, queer, eco-feminist, and intersectional perspectives.
Philippine Educational Theater Association's all-male post-apocalyptic adaptation of King Lear.
Working as a director for the adaptation of Elaine Faeinstein's Lear's Daughters
For Disaster Risk Reduction Management's Disaster Preparedness program
Facilitating Theater Training for teachers all over the Philippines for Special Program for the Arts and K-12 Arts and Design Track implementation.
Played the lead in one of the longest running children's touring musical Batang Rizal in the Philippines.
Hosted a revival of a famous Filipino children's show called Batibot. Toured the country for mall, school and several advocacy shows educating children on creativity and Filipino values.
Played the lead in a a psychological thriller Deadline about a gay Chinese highschool student trapped into the expectations of his parents and his society.
Been facilitating arts-based therapy workshops for Filipinos who are survivors of disasters and calamities such as Sendong, Yolanda and Marawi Crisis.
In over a decade, I have performed in various plays in Virgin Laboratory Festival featuring untried, untested, unpublished works.