Allow me to reintroduce myself…
I’m LeLe. I’m also Alethea, which is Greek for truth. And as of this year, I’m also Bai Madigar, a name given to me by the Bagobo Tagabawa tribe of Binaton, Davao del Sur. It means Queen of Goodness.
Three names. I’m still learning how to carry all of them.
I keep trying to write a clean version of the last few years and I can’t, because none of it was clean.
First, Palestine broke my heart and pierced my soul. Then the Philippines, in 2023, changed my perspective and asked me to shift the way I work. Then someone I trusted with the whole of me broke that trust, and the loss is still teaching me things I didn’t want to learn. Then April 26, 2025 happened, and our community held a grief I don’t have language for yet.
And somewhere underneath all of it, I was trying to heal. Slowly. Imperfectly. In public, mostly, because that’s what this work asks of me.
My practice moves between tattooing, calligraphy, painting, and community organizing. They’re all the same work to me. I’m also the founder of @tahananstudio , which means home in Tagalog, and which I’m still trying every day to make into one. For our community. For myself.
But more than any of that, I’m someone who’s still becoming. Still asking. Still figuring out how to hold grief and joy in the same hand without dropping either.
If you’ve been here a while, you’ve watched a lot of this unfold. Thank you for staying.
If you’re new, hi. Welcome. Pull up a chair.
🫶🏽
International Women’s Day | March 8, 2026
I was adopted into the Bagobo Tagabawa tribe of Binaton, Davao del Sur, Mindanao today and given the name Bai Madigar (Queen of Goodness), and I am still holding that gift close to my chest.
A profound thank you to Bai Baby, Jerlina Owok, for the extraordinary honour of accepting me into her tribe, into her circle, into her people. To be seen and welcomed by a woman of such grace and power is something I will carry with me always.
To be embraced by the Bagobo Tagabawa on this day of all days, a day set aside to honour the strength and resilience of women, felt deeply intentional. Like the universe had quietly been arranging this moment for a long time.
Dressed in traditional attire, adorned with beads and feathers, surrounded by a tribe of the most powerful and grounded women… it didn’t feel like ceremony. It felt like belonging. Like being called home to something ancient and true.
These women know exactly who they are and where they come from. Standing in their circle asked something of me too…to show up fully, to honour what I carry, and to live up to the name I’ve been given.
Bai Madigar. Queen of Goodness. What an honour. What a responsibility. What a beautiful way to step into it, held by women like these.
Happy International Women’s Day to every woman who has ever been made to feel small. You were always a queen.
@tahananstudio
I have this little studio
where the floor creaks just right
and the light hits my plants like a blessing.
It’s filled with my favourite things
books and brushes
card games and quiet corners
snacks I pretend are for guests
and people I love more than I know how to say.
It smells like incense and ideas.
There’s always music
sometimes tears
and laughter that makes your belly hurt in the best way.
This space has held my softness
my rage
my grief
my healing
and now it holds yours too.
I didn’t build it to be perfect
I built it to be honest
and I’m so grateful it exists.
Still learning how to do this with my own two hands…
This is puni, the Filipino art of weaving palm and pandan leaves into shape. Little birds, fish, stars, all folded from a living leaf. It used to be everywhere. Offerings, decorations, toys for kids. Something our ancestors just knew how to do.
I’m teaching myself slowly. My fingers are clumsy, the leaf is patient, and every time I get one right it feels like remembering something instead of learning it.
I’m doing this so I can eventually bring it to you, as a workshop at Tahanan. Something our hands almost forgot, finding its way back. 🫶🏽
Ginawang
The standing eagle, a spiritual messenger and symbol of strength, freedom, and guidance. Below, the spearhead, a foundational motif in Austronesian batok that carries the warrior spirit. Courage, protection, and the work of providing for kin.
On red, the colour of lifeblood and bravery, of ancestral dye and offering. For those who walk with both guidance from above and the strength to stand for what they love.
One of eight custom, hand engraved tumblers, available at Tahanan Studio and tahananstudio.com.
🎥: @zennawong & @nathanielgumapac
Things I’m still working through…
None of these are finished thoughts, just some I keep coming back to.
Add your own in the comments, if you’d like. I’d love to hear them. 🫶🏽
These are the conversations we’re having at Usap Tayo, a new diaspora conversation series at @tahananstudio with me and @francisarevalomusic .
First night: Thursday, June 4 · 6:30–8:30 PM
$10 drop-in, free with membership
Space is limited, registration required
Sign up at /usaptayo
Gayaman
Centipede, friend of the warrior, carrier of safety, long life, and protection. The stars above are for guidance, for finding your way home.
One of eight, available now at Tahanan Studio and tahananstudio.com.
🎥: @zennawong@nathanielgumapac
I had a dream and woke up with these designs in my head. Every one of them rooted in Philippine symbols and motifs, the kind that carry stories our lolos and lolas knew by heart.
So I engraved them onto 20oz skinny tumblers, stainless steel, double walled, vacuum insulated, with lid and straw included. Keeps your water cold for over twenty four hours even with ice. Functional, beautiful, and carrying something ancestral with you wherever you go.
I really do believe each one will find the person it’s meant for…the same way my tattoos do. One of these will call to you, and that’s the one.
Only eight available, and every one is unique. No repeats. $45 each for my 45 trips around the sun. They’ll also be available online soon, or pick yours up in person at Tahanan Studio.
🎥: @zennawong & @nathanielgumapac
Introducing Usap Tayo 🪑
A new conversation series at Tahanan Studio for anyone navigating Filipino identity from the in-between.
The diaspora kids. The mixed kids. The ones who grew up half-fluent or not fluent at all. The ones whose last names get mispronounced. The ones who feel “too Filipino” in some rooms and “not Filipino enough” in others. The ones still figuring out which parts were passed down, which got lost along the way, and which we get to claim for ourselves.
Every two weeks, we’re pulling up chairs to talk about the stuff that doesn’t fit in a caption. Faith. Gender. Identity. Colonialism. Family. Language and the loss of it. What we inherited, what we’re unlearning, what it means to be Filipino on our own terms, whatever that looks like for you.
No experts. No hot takes. No wrong answers. No gatekeeping. Just us, finally saying the thing out loud.
Snacks and refreshments on us.
First night:
Thursday, June 4th
6:30 to 8:30 pm
Tahanan Studio
310 East 5th Avenue, Mount Pleasant
$10 drop-in / free with Tahanan membership
Space is limited. Registration required.
Sign up at to join the conversation. (Link in bio)
