On Friday, October 23, the William J. Cooper Foundation and the Swarthmore College Department Of Music present rising emcee, spoken word artist, rapper, and director Ruby Ibarra in concert.

Born in the Philippines and raised in the United States, Ruby Ibarra embarked on a challenging yet exciting music journey, blending rap and spoken word in English, Tagalog, and Waray. Her fearless, genre-defying songs delve into multicultural identity, tackling themes of colorism, immigration, and colonialism. Her artistic identity - from being surrounded by Filipino music performed by her family members to engaging in the percussive hiphop of San Francisco - blended in harmoniously with her fluency in three different languages of English, Tagalog and Waray, allowing her to sophisticatedly encapsulate the experience of an immigrant struggling to find a place for themselves in society similar to her own. 

Ibarra’s broad body of work transcends multiple mediums and formats. Following the success of CIRCA91, Ibarra went forward to co-found Pinays Rising Scholarship program with Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales to empower Pinay/x youth in pursuing higher education. Her single, "Bakunawa," a genre-blending track rooted in the myth of a moon-swallowing dragon, won NPR's 2025 Tiny Desk contest out of nearly 7,500 submissions, earning praises from NPR for her "striking originality, lyrical depth and commanding presence." (“NPR Music's 2025 Tiny Desk Contest winner is Ruby Ibarra”). That same year, Ibarra toured the United States for the Tiny Desk Contest On The Road tour with her bandmates Anna Candari, Han Han, June Millington, Ouida, Camille Ramirez and Jojo Ramirez.

Her early encounters with professional music took shape during her time at the University of California, Davis, where she performed with the spoken word collective SickSpits, an experience that soon led to the release of her explosive debut mixtape, Lost in Translation, on December 12, 2012. In 2015, Ibarra released her debut album CIRCA91 The album, which revolves around the experience of growing up Filipino in the East Bay during the ’90s, became a breakthrough hit, propelled by its lead single "Us." For Ibarra, music extends beyond performance; it is the means of “preservation, visibility and advocacy” for often overlooked communities. Growing up in a country that endured through countless tragedies of colonization, imperialism and martial lore but at the same time full of relentless spirits fighting for liberation, Ibarra Ibarra strives to use music as a powerful platform to share the stories of her people, her cultural identity and express her opinions that are underrepresented elsewhere. 

"The approach and what I hope to accomplish with my music is to show the stories that come from these communities who are often voiceless, who are often marginalized, whose stories don’t get told, and especially in moments like this where it’s more powerful than ever, to showcase the diversity, especially here in the Bay Area," Ibarra said in an interview with Fox News (Méndez). "There’s so many beautiful diverse cultures and communities and I think it really is on us to highlight and celebrate that all the time." 

After attending Ibarra’s tour following her NPR Tiny Desk winner tour in summer 2025, Professor Lei Ouyang (Associate Professor of Music) was deeply impressed by the “powerful visibility” Ibarra brings to Asian American and transnational Asian communities.

“She’s a phenomenal artist and I’ve written about her work in my own scholarship on Asian American artists, most recently in her work addressing rising anti-Asian racism during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. I am drawn to the way she speaks of her own experience as a Filipina American woman while simultaneously staying grounded in the community” Professor Ouyang said of Ibarra.

Connecting with her ethnomusicology class “Music & Asian American Experiences,” Professor Ouyang believes that Ruby Ibarra’s visit will offer the community an opportunity to explore questions of cultural identity and belonging while establishing a deeper appreciation for the diverse experiences and stories that shape AsianAmerican communities.
“Hip Hop culture emerged from Black and Latino working class communities as a form of both solidarity and resistance. Ibarra's work honors these roots as she continues to unapologetically make inequalities visible and reclaim cultural narratives” Professor Ouyang further commented.

Ruby Ibarra will perform October 23 at 8 p.m. in Pearson-Hall Theatre at the Lang Performing Arts Center. From hip hop to spoken word, from English to Waray, Ibarra's performance promises an evening of music that defies genre and gives voice to Filipino American and Asian American communities. The event is free and open to the public.