04/27/2011: Rosemary Graham and Rashaan Alexis Meneses @ St. Mary's College of California

ROSEMARY GRAHAM & RASHAAN ALEXIS MENESES

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27, 7:30 P.M.
SODA CENTER

1928 Saint Mary’s Road, Moraga, CA.

Rosemary Graham holds a Ph.D. in American literature from the University of Virginia. She is the author of Thou Shalt Not Dump the Skater Dude and My Not-So-Terrible Time at the Hippie Hotel. Her third novel, Stalker Girl, was published in August of 2010. She is a professor of English at Saint Mary’s College. 

Rashaan Alexis Meneses earned her MFA from Saint Mary’s College, where she was named a 2005-06 Jacob K. Javits Fellow and awarded the Sor Juana Ines de La Cruz Scholarship for Excellence in Fiction. She has recently published in UC Riverside's Coachella Review, Pembroke Magazine and Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults .

In Memory: Andy Imutan, Filipino American farm labor pioneer

Remembering UFW leader Andy Imutan on Cesar Chavez Day

Andy Imutan on uniting Filipino and Mexican laborers
Larry Itliong and I decided to take action by seeing Cesar Chavez, the leader of the National Farm Workers Association. We met to come up with a plan that would be beneficial for everyone, including the Mexican workers. However, Chavez said his organization wasn't ready to go on a strike. It took several discussions and a lot of faith, but finally the Filipinos and Mexicans joined as one on September 16, to picket the Delano growers. On March 17, 1966 we set out on a march from Delano to Sacramento that initially only had 70 farm workers and volunteers. But by April 11, as we climbed the steps of the state Capitol, there were 10,000 supporters who had joined us in the cause.

A few months later our union, AWOC, and the NFWA joined as a single union. Out of this union the United Farm Workers was born. (Complete article can be found at UFW: What happened when Mexicans and Filipinos joined together.)

The UFW Remembers Andy Imutan
All of us in the farm worker movement and the Chavez family were deeply saddened to learn of the recent passing on Feb. 2 in the Philippines of Andy Imutan, the last remaining leader of a largely Filipino American farm workers union that made history in 1965 by beginning the Delano grape strike and sparking creation of the first successful farm workers union in American history. Andy reached across racial barriers to join forces with members of the mostly Latino farm workers’ union led by Cesar Chavez who joined the grape walkouts. Andy was a key leader of the strike and of the merged union that became the United Farm Workers of America. (Complete article can be found at the UFW's Facebook Page.)

Left to right: Andy Imutan, Dolores Huerta, Larry Itliong, and Robert Kennedy at a rally in Delano, California before the breaking of Cesar Chavez’s 25-day Fast, Delano, California, March 10,1968. Photo by Dick Darby.

04/10/2011: Kularts Free Event: Meryenda Talks: Visual Arts

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=211826542164578

Time	Sunday, April 10 · 3:00pm - 6:00pm
Location	Bayanihan Community Center 1010 Mission Street @ 6th San Francisco, CA
Created By	Kularts Dot Org
More Info	Meryenda Talks: Visual Arts, a casual, intimate chop shop on Pilipino/Asian American VisArts FREE! BRING A SNACK TO SHARE! Kularts hosts a casual, intimate chop shop to discuss the current state of Pilpino/Asian American Visual Arts. A confluence of analog and digital techniques, 2D and 3D forms, real and imagined places, this much-needed space aims to draw visual artists out of their oftentimes isolated studios into a constructive group setting to collectively address issues impacting the field of visual arts…all over meryenda (a shared afternoon snack). Some topics of interest: How do visual artists working across a variety of media address social issues in their themes and/or techniques? How does ethnic/cultural heritage influence art-making? What opportunities are there for visual artists locally and beyond? What is the role of social responsibility in Pilipino/Asian American Visual Arts? What is currently influencing the visual arts market? What is the relationship between artists and community, artists and place? Artists Angela Angel Adrienne Aquino James GaNyan Garcia Mel Vera Cruz Weston Teruya For more information please visit kularts.org/calendar.php We can't wait to see you there!

Special Call for Anniversary Submissions: Room Literary Magazine by and about Women

Special Call for Anniversary Submissions: Room Literary Magazine by and about Women:

Deadline: 31 August 2011

In 2012, Room celebrates its 35th volume of quality writing and art by women. That's a lot of fine stories and poems, art images, and non-fiction. And over the last five years, we've also brought you interviews with some interesting women from all walks of life.


The collective of women who put Room together plan to spend the coming years in the same tradition- bringing you excellent work by women. Our special 35th anniversary issue will be out in spring 2012. We've chosen journey as our theme, to be edited by Clelie Rich. We're looking for quality writing and art images that reflect all aspects of journeying- the milestones and lessons, the vehicles and companions, the maps and misadventures.

Check out our guidelines and send us your very best work.

Call For Submissions for 2011 Winter Issue

Room's 2011 winter issue will focus on Sibling Relationships. Are the connections between twins different than that of other siblings? How are relationships with brothers different from those with sisters? When does a friend become family? Room is looking for original, unpublished fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and artwork that explores the multifaceted dimensions of these complex relationships. From the joyful connections to the troubling heartaches of sib relationships—we want to read them all.

Please submit to the attention of Amber Hitchen by May 15 2011.

Submission guidelines here.

04/09/2011: FilBookFest event at Hercules Library

PRESS RELEASE

Contact Persons:  

Tim Madigan (510) 245-2420

Estela Manila (510) 234-4523

HERCULES LIBRARY TO HOST TWO FILIPINO AMERICAN WOMEN AUTHORS

Two Filipino American women  -- poet Barbara Jane Reyes and memoirist Janet Mendoza Stickmon – will read from their books and talk about Living and Growing Up in America at the Hercules Library, 109 Civic Drive, Hercules, California, on Saturday, April 9 at 2 pm.

Sponsored by the Contra Costa County Library and the Literacy Initiatives International Foundation (LIIF), lead organizer of the forthcoming Filipino American International Book Festival (FilBookFest), Living and Growing Up in America will feature Reyes and Stickmon in conversation with Edwin Lozada, president of the Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA). Hercules Vice Mayor Myrna de Vera will also be present.The public is invited, admission is free.

Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Diwata, a striking collection of poems woven between The Book of Genesis and Philippine Tagalog creation myth. Diwata is a moving narrative of split heritage and in-between traditions. Reyes was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003) and Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish Press, 2005), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets.

Janet Stickmon is the author of Crushing Soft Rubies, a memoir that writes of struggle, independence, racial identity and self-acceptance. “From her childhood home being burned to the ground, to the joys and conflicts with her Filipino family, to seeking a connection to her African-American heritage, and then to the beautiful moment of her marriage, Janet navigates the rough waters of love, spirit, identity, and survival, maintaining a life filled with faith and wonder.” Stickmon is a teacher, a wife and mother, and a Spoken Word artist.

Living and Growing Up in America is part of the series of Conversations with Filipino/Filipino American Authors that will be held in various libraries, universities and other public venues in the Bay Area. Conversations is geared to promote the first-ever Filipino American International Book Festival, which will gather authors of Filipino heritage based in the U.S. and abroad, Philippine and U.S. publishers, librarians, book dealers, academics and artists.

FilBookFest will be held at the San Francisco Public Library on October 1-2, 2011 and is sponsored by the Literacy Initiatives International Foundation (LIIF) in cooperation with the Philippine Consulate of San Francisco and the Filipino American Center of the San Francisco Public Library. 

For more information about the festival, visit its website at www.filbookfest.info or athttp://filbookfest.wordpress.com.

For more information on how to be part of FilBookFest as an author, exhibitor, sponsor, donor or volunteer, email the Steering Committee at filbookfest@yahoo.com.

Nick Carbo: Poets on Adoption

Nick Carbo at Poets on Adoption:

I speak from the adopted child’s perspective. In 1964 I was adopted by Sophie and Alfonso Carbó in Legazpi City, Albay, Bicol, in the Philippines. A year and a half later, they also adopted my younger birth sister, Brigid. We lived a fairy tale life growing up in a big house in Cogon with the Mayon volcano majestically puffing steam from the top of the mountain. We would have Mormon missionaries, Catholic priests, and Peace Corps volunteers come to the house and have all-night parties. We were well cared for by our parents and the maids. 

Read more.

Announcing SIUniverse For Japan: Online Auction to Support Relief Efforts in Japan

From Secret Identities:

UPDATE: Available items include:

• Secret Identities + Signed Bookplate & Voltron Sketch
• Ultimate Better Luck Tomorrow Fan Package: signed DVD, one-sheet, CD soundtrack & more

Help the people of Japan by bidding on items donated by members of the SIUniverse family.

Two weeks ago, the world was stunned by the devastating earthquake and tsunami that ravaged northern Japan. Though the aftermath of the natural disaster and resulting nuclear crisis is no longer front page news, the people of northern Japan still need our help. This is why SIUniverse Media is announcing SIUniverse For Japan, an online auction to raise money for ongoing relief efforts in Japan.

Through ebay Giving Works, 100% of the final sale of any item sold throughSIUniverse For Japan will go toward GlobalGiving’s Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund. Search for eBay seller ID “siuniverseforjapan” or follow SIUniverse ontwitter and Facebook for regular updates on the auction.

Over the next several weeks, fans will be able to bid on everything from original artwork, action figures, t-shirts, DVDs, CDs, comics, books, and other unique items donated by some of the creative talent behind Secret Identities and know that all proceeds will go towards rebuilding the lives of the people affected by the disasters. The first item, a copy of Secret Identities plus a bookplate signed by Jeff Yang,Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma, will be up for bid beginning on Monday, March 28.

Call for Novels, Short Story Collections and Plays: Social Fictions Book Series (subtext: feminism) - Sense Publishers

From the Femministas blog:

Call for Submissions: Novels, short story collections and plays

Social Fictions book series (Sense Publishers)

Series Editor, Patricia Leavy, Stonehill College

The Social Fictions series emerges out of the arts-based research movement. The series will include full-length fiction books that are informed by social research but written in a literary/artistic form (novels, plays, and short story collections). Believing there is much to learn through fiction, the series only includes works written entirely in the literary medium adapted. Each book will include a brief academic introduction that explains the research and teaching that informs the book as well as how the book can be used in college courses. The books will be underscored with social science or other scholarly perspectives but are intended to be relevant to the lives of college students—to tap into important issues in the unique ways that artistic or literary forms can. Topics will center on the issues college and graduate students are interested in and that can be incorporated into courses— such as identity-building, relationships, life choices and women’s issues. The point of view and lessons—such as feminism, sociology, psychology, and/or history will be in the subtext. The books will also serve as examples of arts-based research or a/r/tography and may be used as exemplars by professors who teach courses in arts-informed research.

Submissions: Please email submissions to Patricia Leavy at pleavy7@aol.com

Submissions should include a brief letter about you and your work, a draft of the academic introduction to the book and the first 20 pages of the book. If interested, a complete draft will be requested.

More information here. 

Tripwire Re-Launch & Translator Microgrants

From New Pages:

Tripwire, a journal of poetics, was founded in 1998 by Yedda Morrison and David Buuck. Six issues were published between 1998-2002, with a special supplement published in September, 2004 for the RNC protests in New York.

Tripwire is being re-launched and is accepting submissions of essays (on contemporary writing, performance, and art), experiments in criticism, poetics statements and investigations, interviews, translations, black and white art work, long-form review essays (that consider several books or authors linked around central themes or questions), performance scores, etc.

Submissions should "engage or address" at least one of these "constellations," each further described on the Tripwire website: PERFORMANCE/WRITING; CONCEPTUALISM AND IDENTITY; NARRATIVE/PROSE; WHAT IS POETICS?

Tripwire also has initiated "Microgrants for Translation," a donation-based method of recognizing the important role of translators of contemporary avant-garde and experimental writing. 

Call for Submissions: Fourth River

From Fourth River:

Call For Submissions: The Fourth River Online

Submission Guidelines

The Fourth River Online is the literary journal of Chatham University’s MFA Program. We are looking for submissions that explore the relationship between people and their environments, both natural and built, urban, rural or wild.

Recent contributors to the print journal include Astrid Cabral, Laila al-Atrash, Hillary Wentworth, Michael Byers, and Evan Morgan Williams. Our contributors have published in Birmingham Poetry Review, Glimmer Train, Alaska Quarterly Review, Witness, and The Missouri Review; they have been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Prize Stories, and Best American Travel Writing. The Fourth River Online uses the same editorial staff and guidelines as the print version, and we look forward to providing contributor interviews and features on the site’s front page.

The Fourth River Online accepts unpublished poetry, literary short fiction, and creative nonfiction. Please send up to three poems or one prose piece up to 4,000 words.

• Reading Period: November 30-March 31, 2011
• We accept simultaneous submissions if indicated on the cover letter; please let us know immediately if a piece is accepted elsewhere.
• The Fourth River Online website goes live in the summer of 2011
• We do not publish writing for children or Young Adult audiences

Submission Address: 4thriversubmissions@gmail.com
Please attach all submissions as Microsoft Word or PDF documents. Poems can be in a single document. Include the cover letter in the document itself.

Please indicate your name, genre, and title in the email subject line. For example, John Smith’s short story “Red Bird” would appear as “Smith, fiction, “Red Bird.”

We look forward to reading your work!

04/02/2011: Rhymes & Rhythms at Manilatown

From Nancy Hom:

11 Poets at our next Rhymes and Rhythms event!

Join us!

April 2, 5-8 PM (Doors open at 4:30)

Adrian Arias, Oscar Bermeo, Karen Llagas, Oscar Peñaranda, Jules Damji, Lourdes Figueroa, Pete Yamamoto, Edwin Lozada, Naomi Quiñonez, plus Nancy and Avotcja

I-Hotel Manilatown Center
868 Kearny Street (and Jackson), SF
$5-$10 No one turned away

04/01 - 04/13/2011: 2nd Floor Window Projections: A survey of videos from Manila, Philippines

From Lian Ladia:

Check out the Luggage Store.

2nd Floor Window Projections is pleased to feature new media work directly from the Philippines and hand picked by curator, Lian Ladia. absolutely-NO-liability is the first of many programs featuring international artists.

absolutely-NO-liability 
A survey of videos from Manila, Philippines curated by Lian Ladia , Resident Curator for Green Papaya Projects (Philippines)

Featuring Artists: Roxlee, Jon Red, Jun Sabayton, Kaloy Olavides, Vic Balanon & Ferdz Valencia, Kiri Dalena, Lyra Garcellano, Ling Quisumbing, Kawayan & Kidlat De Guia

Video: Kul-X w/ Tagunggo

Kul-X,the emerging kulintang experiment/experience does 'Tagunggo'--- Danongan Kalanduyan-kulintang;Royal Hartigan-babandil/drumset;Bo Razon-dabakan/detuned tres;Titania Buchholdt/Patrick-agungs

Literary Translation: Cipher Journal

CipherJournal welcomes all submissions of works of literary translation and of creative variants along similar themes. This includes, but is not limited to, poetry, fiction, nonfiction, translation reviews, and non-academic essays that either are translations themselves or are in some way relevant to a broader understanding of translation as a concept. We welcome new & original translations, and will be happy to include the original version whenever possible. For a better sense of CipherJournal’s aesthetic, take a look at our Precedents page.

Because of the open nature of the internet, we will post new material as it arrives and as we see fit, and will follow no periodical schedule. Please keep posted regularly for changes, updates, and new literature.

Read more.

Video: Myrna Lim Interviews Marissa Aroy

OPEN CALL FOR ARTISTS: EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

From Root Division:

Exhibition dates: June 8-25, 2011

Curator: Karen Thomas

Deadline for Submission Monday, April 19, 2011

Root Division invites artists working in all genres to submit work for an exhibition called Eye of the Beholder.

Curatorial statement:

My mind is bent to tell of bodies changed to other forms. - Ovid, Metamorphoses

At once private and public, the body is an exceptionally loaded subject. It is capable of evoking multiple responses simultaneously, including eroticism, nostalgia, power, fragility, free will, and humor. The presence of a body in a work of art often conveys insights linked to the tension of its dualities - masculine and feminine, young and old, the repulsive and the alluring.

This call is for artists who incorporate these responses and tensions in their work, specifically through subversion, parody, or distortion of the body.

How does awkwardness and caricature covey another side of beauty? When we engage in looking at others, do we see aspects of ourselves? What happens when the “others” become the norm? What truths are revealed through the grotesque that is not in the ideal?

Eligibility requirements:
Artwork submitted for review (or work very similar in nature to that submitted) must be available for listed exhibition dates.

Artists who are not from the SF Bay Area must be able to cover any costs incurred in getting the work to and from the gallery.

Read more.

Call for Scripts: The Women's Theatre Project

From Femministas:


Deadline: 31 March 2011

Script Submissions

The Women’s Theatre Project spends many hours researching, meeting and reading scripts by female playwrights for production consideration. Each script meeting our submission guidelines is read by a minimum of two readers. All script decisions are acknowledged by a postcard.

The Women's Theatre Project produces four productions each calendar year. Royalties are paid to playwrights/publishing companies.

Guidelines for submission:

The Women’s Theatre Project seeks submissions of full-length plays with ALL FEMALE casts by female playwrights for our intimate, professional black box theatre. Submissions accepted via email at:

twtp@bellsouth.net or by mail at:

The Women's Theatre Project
505 NW 1st Avenue
Ft Lauderdale, Fl. 33301

The Women's Theatre Project, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida is presenting: GIRL PLAY, their Third Annual Lesbian Play Reading Series.

Readings will take place June 24, 25 and 26, 2011 at the Pride Center at Equality Park in Wilton Manors, FL. We will choose between 14-16 scripts and present them in two programs, Friday and Saturday night. Audiences will vote on their favorite scripts and the "Best of the Fest" will be presented at the Sunday matinee.

Seeking short plays (5-12 minutes-figure one minute a page); written by women with a lesbian theme; cast limit (women and men) is 2-8.

Call for Submissions: Sundryed Affairs

From Sundryed Affairs:

Sundryed Affairs is a new online collective of ideas, primarily by writers of color. We publish accessible nonfiction prose of all genres, sub-genres, and non-genres, including, but not limited to: essay, memoir, satire, list, personal narrative, instructional manual, reportage, and letter. Subject matter is also open to the imagination.

The name is a play on the words “sundry,” meaning various, and “sundried,” which calls up images of brown. We hope to make a space for writers of color to share an array of ideas, whether on politics or music, travel or family, from the very personal to the universal, in an environment that feels inclusive and familiar while still being distinctly fresh.

There are no guidelines for submitted work other than high-quality writing. Please direct all inquiries and submissions to Kyla Marshell, khellonmars@gmail.com, or Anthony Dean-Harris, anthonydeanharris@gmail.com. Accepted work will be edited for grammatical correctness only.

Call for Submissions: Barrier Islands Review (Myths, Legends, Folk Tales)

From Barrier Islands Review:

Deadline: May 15, 2011

Here at Barrier Islands, our mission is to help introduce new writers to the business of magazine publishing. Getting your feet wet, even in small markets, is valuable experience. We don’t care if you’ve been published a dozen times or if you’ve never published in your life. We aim to find excellence among the up and comers.

FICTION: We are looking for character driven stories that grip the reader without delving overtly into sentimentality. Genre fiction has its place, but unfortunately, that place isn't here, though we're not closed to elements of the fantastic. Subject matter will be judged on a case by case basis.

POETRY: Barrier Islands Review is also looking for well-written poetry. As with fiction, we're not looking for sentimentality, but well placed emotion doesn't hurt. Poetry may be on any subject and in any format, but special attention will be paid to traditional and invented forms. However, content should never be sacrificed for form.

Read more.

Stephanie Syjuco: scenes from new work: RAIDERS (International Booty)

Check out Stephanie Syjuco's scenes from new work: RAIDERS (International Booty):



More at the artist's blog.

04/29/2011: Diwang Pinay @ SFSU

DIWANG PINAY featuring PINAY STORIES

Friday, April 29, 2011
6:00-7:00pm - Doors open for the Art Gallery
7:00pm- Show starts!
Location: SFSU Jack Adams Hall
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco State University Campus

$7-$10 sliding scale
$5 for youth 10-17 years old w. a student ID
FREE for children 10 yrs and under

What is Diwang Pinay?

Diwang Pinay ("Spirit of the Filipina") is an annual performance and silent auction showcasing Filipina/ Filipina-American performers, writers, and artists. Diwang Pinay promotes the work of Pinay artists everywhere and represents the expanding cultural backbone of the Filipina diaspora. This event is one of the few venues solely dedicated to providing Filipinas and Filipina-Americans a platform to display their triumphs and struggles through art, linking history to the narrative of today's Pinay.

Call for Manuscripts: "Asian Visual and Performing Arts" (EAA Journal Spring 2012)

From Asia Writes:

Deadline: 10 November 2011

Education About Asia (EAA) is the peer-reviewed teaching journal of the Association for Asian Studies. Our approximately 2,300 readers include undergraduate instructors as well as high school and middle school teachers. Our articles are intended to provide educators, who are often not specialists, with basic understanding of Asia-related content. Qualified referees evaluate all manuscripts submitted for consideration. Most of our subscribers teach and work in history, the social sciences, or the humanities.

We are in the process of developing a special section entitled "Asian Visual and Performing Arts" for the spring 2012 issue of EAA. In this special section, we invite authors to submit manuscripts that assist instructors and students in secondary school and college/university introductory survey courses in the humanities or social sciences to better understand Asian cultures through learning about the visual and performing arts. We welcome manuscripts from teachers, scholars,
journalists, or others who have expertise in the topic.

Prospective authors should be aware that approximately fifty percent of our readers teach at the undergraduate level and the rest are secondary or middle school teachers. Please consult the EAA guidelines, available on the website under my signature before submitting a manuscript for this special section. Pay particular attention to feature and teaching resources manuscript word-count ranges. Prospective authors are also encouraged to share possible manuscript ideas with me via email. The deadline for initial submission of manuscripts is November 10, 2011.

Lucien Ellington
Editor, Education About Asia
302 Pfeiffer Stagmaier Hall
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, TN 37403
Phone (423) 425-2118, Fax (423) 425-5441
email: l-ellington@comcast.net

More information here.

Call for Entries for the San Diego Asian Film Festival

The 12th Annual SDAFF will offer nine days of films, discussions, panels, and events. SDAFF is seeking competitive entries in the following categories: narrative feature, narrative short, documentary feature, documentary short, and animation. Winners and the Grand Jury award will be announced at the Festival's Gala Awards Night on October 22, 2011. Films submitted must be directed or principally acted by an artist of A/PI descent, or whose subject matter is related to A/PI culture. More info, rules, and application here.

Early deadline: April 1, 2011 ($30 submission fee). Regular deadline: May 2, 2011 ($40 submission fee).

Rex Navarrete: One Serious Comic

From Filipinas magazine:

After 20 years of stand-up comedy, Rex Navarrete just keeps on tickling the Filipino American funny bone.

Rex Navarrete would be the first to tell you that, off stage, he’s a pretty “serious” guy.

“If you saw me on the street,” he told me during an interview, “you’d think I’d beat you up.”

That’s why on promotional pictures of him and on his CD and DVD covers, he doesn’t always strike a wacky pose, as perhaps you would expect a stand-up comedian to. Instead you’ll see a buttoned-up Rex Navarrete, unsmiling. In fact, if you dressed him up in shorts and a basketball jersey and sat him down with a bottle of gin in front of a sari-sari store in some kanto in the Philippines, he would be downright scary.

But Rex Navarrete on stage is a different story.

Read more.

Article: Identifying DC Filipinos

From Philippines Today:

Identifying DC Filipinos

by Cherie M. Querol Moreno

In “Pinoy Capital: The Filipino Nation in Daly City”, anthropologist Benito Vergara Jr. exposes the many faces of Filipinos in the “Gateway to the Peninsula.”  They are Filipino, Filipino American, and both.  Why do they live in DC?

The 205-page exploration was the subject of a recent discussion between the author and DC Council member Mike Guingona, at the Daly City Library Wembley branch.

Vergara’s study looks into the possibility of belonging to two places, as some Daly City Filipinos and/or Filipino Americans claim. Or deny.

“Daly City represents a certain class ideal that is both a product and a component of Filipino middle-class imagining,” asserts the University of the Philippines and Cornell-educated former professor at San Francisco State.  “And it represents an odd, disconnected form of Filipino national belonging as well.  But this ideal is fraught with the potential loss of the very markers that indicate belonging to this particular class and nation.”

Read more. 

Review: Nick Carbó, Chinese, Japanese, What Are These?

[Apologies for very belatedly posting this review, which was originally published in 11/2010]

From Fogged Clarity:

Chinese, Japanese, What Are These?, Nick Carbó
Pecan Grove Press, 2009, 978-1-931247-64-1, $15

In a scene in the 1982 Ridley Scott movie, Blade Runner, Rachel, the lovely android replicant, corrects her human suitor Rick Deckard, “I am not in the business; I am the business.” Nick Carbó is a tricky author. His work is not about hybrid; it is hybrid. That is not meant in anyway as a condescending diminution of Carbó’s English poetic force. To the contrary, Carbó’s poetic energies are radiant and fierce.

Chinese, Japanese, What Are These? is Carbó’s fourth collection. The previous three books are attractive and built around three very different valences – but all reference the Filipino–American experience. In his new book, there is a continuity that runs its own gauntlet from native insight, colonial enrichment, colonial degradation, to popular culture and high art. There are fundamental effects of shifts in language, food, religion, sexuality, finances: survival. As if walking cemetery stones: To the colonizer, all of the colonized look the same, Chinese, Japanese, what are these? But for Carbó, the cultural landscape is not only a concrete and abstract mosaic, it is also highly personal...

Read more.

04/05 - 05/17/2011: Poetry (&) Comics with Paolo Javier

Poets House
10 River Terrace
(between Murray and Barclay Streets)
New York, NY 10282
Tel: (212) 431-7920

Tues, April 5, 2011 – Tues, May 17, 2011
6:30 pm – 9 pm

Poets and artists have long turned to the modern cartoon strip as a source for innovation. In this workshop, students work collaboratively and create comics and poems based on examples from writers and artists associated with the New York School, the Four Horsemen and Surrealism. Paolo Javier is the current Queens Poet Laureate and the author of the time at the end of this writing (Ahadada Books), among other poetry books. He has taught at the University of Miami and co-edits the press 2nd Ave Poetry.

Directions: Subway: A, C, 1, 2, 3 to Chambers Street. Walk west on Chambers to River Terrace. Turn left, walk two blocks south to Poets House.

About this Organization
Poets House
Founded in 1985 by the late U.S. poet laureate Stanley Kunitz and arts administrator Elizabeth Kray, Poets House is a 50,000-volume poetry library and meeting place that is free and open to the public.

04/02/2011: Rhymes & Rhythms @ Manilatown

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=112119615533843

Time	Saturday, April 2 · 5:00pm - 8:00pm
Location	International Hotel Manilatown Center 868 Kearny Street San Francisco, CA
Created By	Manilatown HeritageFoundation
More Info	April 2, 5-8 PM Rhymes & Rhythms Pete Yamamoto, Edwin Lozada, Karen Llagas, Oscar Penaranda, Jules Damji, plus Nancy and Avotcja and others I-Hotel Manilatown Center 868 Kearny Street (and Jackson), SF

03/26/2011: Rock the School Bells @ Skyline College

http://rocktheschoolbells.com/

Review: Eileen R. Tabios, SILK EGG

From Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene:

Silk Egg
by Eileen R. Tabios
Shearsman Books
Exeter Books
Copyright © Eileen R. Tabios, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-84861-143-1
Softbound, 131 pages, $17

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

Some poets just slap you across the face and say, “Here is something new, find it exciting or not, conventional or not, I have written for those who understand and those who do not will come to understand.” There have been more than a few American poets who slapped faces with their “new” poetry. Walt Whitman, was certainly one. The Imagists, Objectivists and the Beats were among the more notable. There are other poets as well who have changed the way we read and write poetry, who have gone one step beyond.

Now along comes Eileen R. Tabios – actually she is not just coming along – she has been around for a while having “released 18 print, 4 electronic and 1 CD poetry collections, an art-essay collection, a poetry essay/interview anthology, a short story book and a collection of novels.”* For these efforts she has received numerous awards and grants and is well known on the west coast, if not the entire country. She also founded Meritage House, a multi-disciplinary literary and arts press based in San Francisco and St. Helena CA.

Ms. Tabios’ “slap” didn’t start with the title, it began when I opened the book of “novels.” Each chapter is a self contained novel and novels making up what I would call the total novel. In other words the sum is as great as the parts, the parts necessary for the sum.

Read more.

Words in Art: How does Manuel Ocampo avoid alphabet soup?

From Art Radar Asia:

Manuel Ocampo on… Words in art

For this article we are exploring the use of text in contemporary art production. When did you start incorporating text into your works?

I got into painting via drawing cartoons as a kid. Actually I have been incorporating words in my work ever since I started exhibiting my paintings. I use multiple words and sometimes unfinished words and letters.

Could you tell me what language means to you? What about the written word?

Language is a means to communicate and the written word is a form of language. Making art is a way to communicate in a specialised way. In some sense, in painting there is a collision between word as image or word as text. But also in painting when one is using text or words they become a formal element that turns into an ornament.

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[Image: Manuel Ocampo, 'A responsibility in the name of ideas', 2000, acrylic on canvas. Image taken from artnet.com.]

ForeWord Reviews: Book of the Year Finalists Announced

Congratulations to Jon Pineda and J. Torres, who have been listed as finalists for ForeWord Book of the Year, in Autobiography/Memoir and Juvenile Fiction respectively.

From the ForeWord website:
ForeWord Reviews is pleased to announce the 2010 Book of the Year Awards list of finalists. Representing more than 350 publishers, the finalists were selected from 1400 entries in 56 categories. These books are examples of independent publishing at its finest.

The winners will be determined by a panel of librarians and booksellers selected from our readership. Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners, as well as Editor’s Choice Prizes for Fiction and Nonfiction will be announced at a special program at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans this June. The winners of the two Editor's Choice Prizes will be awarded $1,500 each and ForeWord’s Independent Publisher of the Year will also be announced. The ceremony is open to all ALA attendees and exhibiting publishers.

ForeWord's Book of the Year Awards program was created to spotlight distinctive books from independent publishers. What sets the awards apart from others is that final selections are made by real judges—working librarians and booksellers—based on their experiences with patrons and customers.

04/14/2011: Verse, Fiction, and Jazz from the Filipino Diaspora (Stony Brook University)

Verse, Fiction, and Jazz from the Filipino Diaspora

4/14/2011 at  7:00 PM

See life through the prism of award-winning Filipino-American writers living and working across the United States, with readings from R. Zamora Linmark’s newest book Leche, Fidelito Cortes (Everyday Things), Sarah Gambito (Delivered), and Lara Stapleton (The Lowest Blue Flame Before Nothing). Accompanied by innovative jazz saxophonist Jon Irabagon, this is a night of the poetic and chaotic from the heart of the Filipino diaspora. Book signing to follow.

First come, first served. Seating is limited.

West Campus - Wang Center
Nicolls Road, Main Entrance
Stony Brook, NY 11794
Phone: (631) 632-6000
Room: Theater

Contact Information:
Phone: 631-632-4400
Email: wangcenter@stonybrook.edu

04/02/2011: Filipino American Jazz Celebration @ SFPL

03/27/2011: Little Brown Brother @ Savanna Jazz (SF)

03/25/2011: First FilBookFest Youth Event @ Crema Coffee Roasting Co.

From http://filbookfest.wordpress.com:

Vince Gotera: On "Born from Bamboo"

From Vince Gotera's blog:

The writing of this poem was an interesting case because it was composed specifically for this book. The bamboo is after all, a reed, and it's used to make musical instruments . . . the application of reeds in music is one of the themes of the anthology. Go buy Reeds and Rushes; it's a marvelous anthology.

This poem also afforded me the opportunity to explore how myth and family can interweave; in the poem's frame scene, my lola tells my father, still a child, one of the central Philippine creation stories: how people came to be. For years, I have toyed with the idea of a collection of poems based on myth, and this is a good start for this project, though there are other earlier poems which will probably be included, such as the poem "Aswang."

In terms of craft, this poem uses terza rima — interwoven triple rhyme (aba bcb cdc etc.); as you may know from other poems of mine, I more often use distant slant rhyme rather than straight rhyme. For example, northeast / feet / starfish . . . where the long e and the t in the first word rhyme pretty straightforwardly with the second word while the f in feet and the s in northeastrhyme with the f and sh (sorta) in starfish. I suspect that some readers will not agree that my rhymes work . . . and that's just fine with me.


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03/24/2011: Karen Llagas at the Kaleidoscope Series

The Kaleidoscope Reading Series

Thursday, March 24 · 8:00pm - 10:00pm
Kaleidoscope Free Speech Zone
3109 24th Street at Folsom
San Francisco, Ca

Featuring Brian Teare (The Room Where I was Born, Sight Map, Pleasure), Karen Llagas (Archipelago Dust) and Benjamin Bac Sierra (Barrio Bushido)

RSVP: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=172958959421621

Tony Robles: "Books Have Feelings," at Doveglion.com

“How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live” —Henry David Thoreau

I sit at my desk at work and think about a man named Sanford Chandler. He was my homeroom teacher in high school. I remember sitting in homeroom at George Washington High School, half-dozing, when he said, “Books have feelings.” I didn’t think much of it at the time. I didn’t read many books, didn’t have the patience to read—short stories, novels, the newspaper or the back of a soup can. Mr. Chandler saw something in me that I didn’t see—a writer. He’d urge me to write. “Write what?” I’d ask myself. I’d sit at the desk half-dozing /half-waiting for something to happen.

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04/15 - 04/16/2011: Kularts Presents Kwentong Kalifornia: Dispatches from Intrastate Pin@ys Featuring Francis Lansang & Nicole Maxali

Kwentong Kalifornia: Dispatches from Intrastate Pin@ys
Featuring Francis Lansang & Nicole Maxali
April 15, 8PM
April 16, 8PM
Bayanihan Community Center
1010 Mission St @ 6th St
San Francisco, CA 94103

Tickets: $13 Advance, $16-20 @ the Door, $12 Student/Senior
http://brownpapertickets.com/event/163380 or call (800) 838-3006

In Kwentong Kalifornia, Bay Area performer Nicole Maxali and LA performer Francis Lansang explore loss, friendship, synchronicity, and the complex experiences of 2nd & 3rd generation Pilipino Americans through an adventurous blend of intimate storytelling, fresh humor, and live art-making. 

04/09/2011: EarSay Benefit Performance, Transforming Trauma Into Art

Review: Eileen R. Tabios, SILK EGG

From New Mystics Reviews:

Silk Egg:Collected Novels (2009–2009), Eileen R. Tabios
(Exeter: Shearsman Books, 2011, ISBN: 978-1-84861-143-6)

Eileen Tabios is an innovator in the best sense of the word.

If her impressive list of publications, multi-media projects, and awards were not proof enough, one need only consider her development and promotion of the Hay(na)ku form, which has spawned three anthologies and several works from individual writers. If even that is not enough, one would be hard pressed to discount her place at the forefront of the post-postmodern language and literature movement after reading (and engaging with) Silk Egg.

Having read many and reviewed several of Tabios’ works, I have been most impressed and enthused by the requirements made on the reader (or reviewer) to partner in the product being created. This, to me, is what keeps the very short “novels” (and their even shorter chapters) from being just another experiment in what is alternately called, among other names, “Nano-fiction,” “microfiction,” and “flash fiction…”

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Ploughshares: Adrian Matejka Interviews Oliver de la Paz

From Ploughshares:

Oliver’s work has evolved dramatically in the last eleven years, but I have continued to read his poems with the same kind of consideration I did while copy editing. His poems are so multifaceted, so specific in their mechanisms, that reading them in their typographic entirety becomes the best way to experience the work.

If I was to try to sum up all that is going on in Oliver’s stunning new collection, Requiem for the Orchard, I would say it is a meditation on youth and what it means to be an “other” inside of a geographic space that is traditionally “American.” A space full of small towns and football games and pick ups. But that summary would seriously short change the scope of the book.

So let me say this. One of the many things I admire in the collection is Oliver’s vision of how language and imagery work in concert to create the moment we know as “poetry.”

Read more.

Filipino-language cantata on caregivers and Filipino workers (Project by Maria Josephine Barrios-Leblanc)

Piketlayn Cantata: A Worker’s Song Cycle

From Joi Barrios:

About this project

I have written a cantata-like theater piece in Tagalog/Filipino because it is the language of its characters, caregiver Pedro, factory worker Biyang, and their co-workers and because I believe there is space for ethnic-language theater and its audience: first-generation immigrants, Filipino Americans who want to learn more about their roots,  advocates for Philippine concerns, and theater lovers.  

Piketlayn Cantata is about the plight of caregivers in the Bay Area and workers in a pineapple canning factory in Cotabato, Philippines; but their stories are told in a light-hearted and humorous way. So it's about unions and militarization in the Philippines, a little bit about the history of labor, and the importance of fighting for one's rights. The narrative is moved along by songs, comedy, and references to popular icons like Manny Pacquiao.   

Because theater relies on collaborative work,  musician composers Chat and Pendong Aban of the award-winning Grupong Pendong, director John Caldon, visual artists Marconi Calindas and Aimee Espiritu, translator Roseli Ilano,  and book project editor PJ Nadal will be breathing life into this project.  We are also privileged that Alleluia Panis's Kularts has agreed to present our workshop production. Hopefully, with community and organizational support, we can do a full-scale production at the end of the year.  

Who's performing?  Believe it or not, two of my kindergarten classmates (from 40 years ago in a girls' school in the Philippines), an acting major,  Southeast Asian studies and Filipino language students, a Pastor, a public health worker, and several professional singers-- all of them with a lot of energy, generosity of spirit and talent!

We aim to  apply the donations to pay for a good sound system, production expenses, food for rehearsals, transportation stipends for the cast and crew, and documentation. Please help us make our project a reality.
---
Piketlayn Cantata | Saturday, April 30 6:00pm & Sunday, May 1 3:00pm | Bayanihan Community Center

Featuring
Cynthia Coloma-Aban, Pendong Aban, Alex Acenas, Lily Acenas, H. Wilson De Ocera, Lean Bayle Deleon, Bobby Dulay, Nikki Geluz, Kathleen Gutierrez, Tisay Opaon-Ali, Marlo Ramos, Joy Regullano and Paulene Rejano

With production support provided by
Mara Ibarra, Panayiota Kuvetakis, Robert McCauley, Mauro Tumbocon, Marma Urbano and Lily-Ann Villaraza

Project location: San Francisco, CA

Blue Scholars: CINEMETROPOLIS PROJECT

Blue Scholars "Cinemetropolis" Kickstarter Campaign from Blue Scholars on Vimeo.

Check out Blue Scholars:

CINEMETROPOLIS is coming. And we’re bringing it back home.

After weighing all options for the release of our third full-length studio album, Cinemetropolis, we’ve decided to forego all traditional channels and return to the independent approach that made Blue Scholars who we are. No record label. No marketing and distribution deal. No middlemen. No bullsh*t. 

Instead, we’re going to sign a deal with the people. Specifically, you.

An industry-standard release leaves very little to the imagination or creative diversion. A set amount of singles, videos, and a tour, constantly negotiated by a contract that dictates the “life cycle” of an album. Thing is, Cinemetropolis is our most ambitious release yet, and we don’t want to stick to the script.

Our philosophy has always been to create our music and our media with creative freedom while still being able to sustain and grow ourselves. And at this point, we don’t believe that the tired music industrial model is necessary for people to pick up what we’re putting down. We don’t need to compromise our vision by ascribing to the “deal.” We believe the power of word-of-mouth far more than industry-induced hype, recognizing that it’s been the support of our fans and not what we’ve signed that have gotten us where we are. 

With your support, we’ll be able to release Cinemetropolis to you directly. Those who pledge in this campaign will receive the digital album weeks before it’s actually released in June, and will get special exclusive-to-Kickstarter swag, not to mention be the first people to find out about when our Cinemetropolis singles, videos, and merch gets released.

ABOUT CINEMETROPOLIS

Cinema has always played a major influence in Blue Scholars music, and this collection of songs is the most complete expression of that source of inspiration. During the creation of this collection of songs, an idea emerged: how does music influence cinema? 

With your help, Cinemetropolis will be both an album and a collection of films inspired by the music. A sort of reverse movie soundtrack. With this project, each song, through collaborations with an array of filmmakers, will take on a life its own. We got a gang of music videos, short films and multimedia projects in the works, anchored by a featurette directed by longtime Blue Scholars collaborator Zia Mohajerjasbi. 

Cinemetropolis, our first full-length release since 2007′s Bayani, will drop in June 2011, followed by a Fall tour. Kickstarter is the only way that you’ll be able to get the album *before* the official release date.