In 2018 Michael Arcega, Paolo Asuncion, and Rachel Lastimosa began working together in the SOMA Pilipinas Cultural and Heritage District. Michael and Paolo started the TNT Traysikel project with support from the San Francisco Arts Commission grant. Rachel officially joined the team on their second SFAC grant to produce a short film called Lost and Found: TNT in America.

In 2016, SOMA Pilipinas became officially sanctioned by the county of San Francisco and the State of California. The community came together to express their needs for visual markers in the landscape. In response, TNT Traysikel was conceived. The roaming sculpture would signal the presence of the Fil Am community. The project began with a grant from SFAC for a sculpture that holds space in the streets of SF. Their efforts rapidly expanded to include three concurrent projects: 1) TNT SideCaraoke, karaoke activations of joyful sing-alongs; 2) Lost and Found: TNT in America, a short film that centers an immigrant object searching for a home in America; and 3) TNT SideNotes, listening sessions to give community members space to share their stories.

TNT Traysikel has been the anchor for many of their recent efforts. their activities blur traditional practice and disciplines taking sculptural, spatial, relational, performative, and cinematic form. For example, during a four-month long artist residency at Saint Joseph’s Arts Society (once home to the largest congregation of Fil-Am Catholics in the US), they produced non-traditional “artist panels” called More Awareness Something Something (M.A.S.S.). They filmed over 60 experts on four Filipinx American topics- History, Visual Arts, Cuisine, and Performing Arts. Every M.A.S.S. panel concluded with a TNT SideCaraoke sing-along.

In five years, they have co-produced over two dozen events involving hundreds of culture producers who intersect visual, culinary, literary, and performing arts, as well as motorcyclists. TNT Traysikel events occur in museums, galleries, plazas, parks, and sidewalks. They never charge the public and welcome all.

TNT Traysikel is currently a Rainin Arts Fellow for public space.