05/05/2011: Dramatic Reading of Novel "In Her Mother's Image" by Cecilia Gaerlan

Thursday, May 5, 2011 at 6PM at the Mechanics' Institute
57 Post St., 4th Fl., San Francisco, CA

Berkeley, CA – April 3, 2011 – In celebration of Mother’s Day, Artis Mundi is proud to present a dramatic reading of excerpts from In Her Mother’s Image, a novel by playwright, Cecilia Gaerlan on Thursday, May 5, at 6PM at the Mechanics’ Institute at 57 Post Street (near Montgomery and Market) in San Francisco.

In Her Mother’s Image is the story of a mother and daughter, Consuelo and Chiquita, who are entangled in a web of longing and antipathy set amidst the chaos of World War II in the Philippines and thirty years later in 1971. The war is seen through the eyes of a headstrong eight-year-old child, Chiquita, who bears witness to an act of betrayal committed by her formidable mother, Consuelo. A betrayal that will be revisited thirty years later when Chiquita goes back to the land of her birth to face the source of her lifelong torment – her own mother.

Artis Mundi is a multicultural theatre arts group dedicated to the production of original works. The dramatic reading of In Her Mother’s Image will consist of several actors reading in character from the book. The reading will feature Maria Luisa Peñaranda, Ging Cavestany, Earlene Somera, Melody Sasis-McClosker and Edith Borbon. This performance will be repeated on August 7 during the San Francisco Theatre Festival at Fort Mason and on Oct. 1 and 2 during the Filipino-American International Literary Festival at the San Francisco Public Library.

http://www.ceciliagaerlan.com/news--events.html

Call for Art: 'Man as Object - Reversing the Gaze' - WCA National Call for Art

'Man as Object - Reversing the Gaze' 

The goal of this exhibition Man as Object - Reversing the Gaze is to turn the tables and to exhibit works that put the male in the position of art subject and spectacle. What does it mean to objectify men? What does it mean to reverse the (male) gaze? What are the visible signs of maleness and masculinity? How are feminist artists challenging societal views regarding men and masculinity?

The exhibition will examine the visibility of men and masculinity from female/feminist/transgender perspectives. In so doing it necessarily problematizes notions of 'men,' 'male,' 'masculinity,' 'women' and 'female' while exploring new possibilities for the gaze. This is an inclusive show, and we welcome women and transgender artists to challenge what it means for 'women' to look at 'men.'

Not only will the male figure be taking on the historically 'female' or passive role as object of the gaze, but the surveyor is now positioned as active and critical of traditional gender roles, thus creating a truly feminist stance. The male body and its gender expression become spectacle for a woman's viewing and contemplation. Surveying the ways men are represented in contemporary art by women, this exhibition will open new dialogues regarding the myriad of ways how women view men in today's culture and society.

This exhibition will explore women's responses to a male dominated world in a different way than an exhibition of women's images of themselves. It will mark an important development in Feminist Art, which has long concentrated on images of women meant to challenge stereotypical notions of womanhood. A gallery filled with works depicting men, created by women, actively resists the prevalence of the male gaze in art as well as the continued domination of male artists exhibiting in galleries and museums.

Call for Submissions: Global Graffiti #4 (CITIES)

Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives are deceitful, and everything conceals something else.” –Invisible Cities, Italo Calvino

Global Graffiti (http://globalgraffmag.wordpress.com) is an online journal dedicated to world literature, arts, and culture. Our first three issues have featured creative pieces and interviews with exciting local and international authors, along with edgy scholarly work.

We are currently seeking creative work (poetry, stories, essays), critical essays (book reviews, academic articles), literary translations, and artwork centered on the theme of our fourth issue: CITIES. We conceive of this theme broadly, encompassing various perspectives of both urban and suburban spaces, lifestyles and experiences.

Please send English-language submissions (foreign language works translated into English also gladly accepted) and your bio/c.v. to globalgraffmag@gmail.com by May 15, 2011.

Kindly re-post or share this call with anyone potentially interested in submitting.

Jose Garcia Viila: Poetry Magazine (June 1932)

Here's Jose Garcia Villa from Poetry magazine (June 1932):

• JOSE GARCIA VILLA
  Communion
• JOSE GARCIA VILLA
  Songs to Be Whispered
• JOSE GARCIA VILLA
  Invisible

04/30/2011: Toxicology: Jessica Hagedorn and Campo Santo Reading – a special Intersection and City Lights Books Event

Sat, Apr 30 | 5pm - 6pm | suggested donation $5- $15, sliding scale (your choice)

Get tickets now through Brown Paper Tickets

A special event presented by City Lights Books, Intersection and Campo Santo, in conjunction of the book release of writer Jessica Hagedorn’s latest novel, Toxicology. Award-winning novelist, poet, playwright and performance artist Jessica Hagedorn returns to the Bay Area for this performance reading event. Jessica Hagedorn will be joined by members of Campo Santo, including Catherine Castellanos, Margo Hall, Sean San Jose, and Jonsen Vitug as they perform readings from her new novel, Toxicology, and selections from the plays Hagedorn has written for Campo Santo. The new book, Toxicology, and others from the Hagedorn library will be available for purchase and signing by Miss Hagedorn.

About Jessica Hagedorn:

Jessica Hagedorn was born and raised in the Philippines and came to the United States in her early teens. Her novels include Dream Jungle, The Gangster Of Love, which was nominated for the Irish TimesInternational Fiction Prize, and Dogeaters, which was nominated for a National Book Award.

Hagedorn is also the author of Danger And Beauty, a collection of poetry and prose, and the editor of Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction and Charlie Chan Is Dead 2: At Home In The World. Her poetry, plays and prose have been anthologized widely.

Recent work in theatre includes the musical play Most Wanted, a collaboration with composer Mark Bennett and director Michael Greif at La Jolla Playhouse; Fe In The Desert andStairway To Heaven for Campo Santo in San Francisco, and the stage adaptation of Dogeaters, which was presented at La Jolla Playhouse and at the NYSF/Public Theater (dir. by Michael Greif), at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City (dir. by Jon Lawrence Rivera) and in Manila (dir. by Bobby Garcia).

Hagedorn wrote the screenplay for Fresh Kill, a feature film directed by Shu Lea Cheang. She wrote the scripts for the experimental animated series The Pink Palace, which was created for the first season of the Oxygen Network.

From 1975-85, Hagedorn was the leader of a band called The Gangster Choir. One of her signature songs, “Tenement Lover”, is included in John Giorno’s ‘80s downtown music anthology, A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth Of A Corpse.

Honors and prizes include a Lucille Lortel Playwrights’ Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fiction Fellowship, a Kesselring Prize Honorable Mention for Dogeaters, an NEA-TCG Playwriting Residency Fellowship, as well as fellowships from the Sundance Playwrights’ Lab and the Sundance Screenwriters’ Lab.

Hagedorn has taught in the Graduate Playwriting Program at the Yale School Of Drama, and at the MFA Creative Writing Program at Columbia University. She is currently the Parsons Family University Professor of Creative Writing at Long Island University in Brooklyn.

Her new novel, Toxicology, from Viking Penguin, will be available at this event, at City Lights Books, and elsewhere.

LOCATION

Intersection for the Arts
925 Mission Street at 5th Street in the historic San Francisco Chronicle Building- Intersection 5M
San Francisco, CA 94110

MORE INFORMATION

(415) 626-2787 x107, (415) 626-2787 x109

Tonight at Manilatown: R. Zamora Linmark's LECHE!

Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Filipino American International Book Festival, Philippine American Writers & Artists (PAWA) and Coffee House Press present a book launch of

LECHE by R. Zamora Linmark

Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 6:30 pm

I-Hotel Manilatown Center
868 Kearny Street
San Francisco

A novel by R. Zamora Linmark

A young Filipino American’s riotous adventures through the sprawling, tragicomic landscape of modern-day Manila.

After thirteen years of living in the U.S., Vince returns to his birthplace, the Philippines. As Vince ventures into the heat and chaos of the city, he encounters a motley cast of characters, including a renegade nun, a political film director, arrogant hustlers, and the country’s spotlight-driven First Daughter. Haunted by his childhood memories and a troubled family history, Vince unravels the turmoil, beauty, and despair of a life caught between a fractured past and a precarious future.

Witty and mesmerizing, this novel explores the complex colonial and cultural history of the Philippines and the paradoxes inherent in the search for both personal and national identities.

Leche includes 31 postcard images.
Reviews

“As quirky and funny as its oddball characters, Linmark’s latest is a unique, colorful portrait of cross-cultural experience and a view into the complexities of modern-day Philippines through the prism of an ex-pat’s self-discovery and quasi-homecoming.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“[A]s cheeky a novel as you’ll encounter. . . . the book’s nonstop energy and nonstop attitude are addictive. And in Vince you won’t find a less predictable tour guide. A lively satiric return to early ‘90s Manila, seen from both sides of the Filipino American divide.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Linmark delivers a harrowing tale of love, family, and cultural bewilderment, a sardonically funny and vibrant novel about one man’s journey to his past. . . . Linmark’s novel reads like a bittersweet love letter to a vast and perplexing nation. This is a story of heritage, sexuality, and self-discovery that is as riveting as its locale is complex.” —Booklist

N.V.M. Gonzalez Writers' Workshop: July 1-3, 2011

N.V.M. Gonzalez Writers' Workshop: July 1-3, 2011

Sonoma State University Campus

Please check this site for workshop updates.

Sponsored by:
American Multicultural Studies, Sonoma State University, Literacy Initiatives International Foundation (LIIF), Filipino American International Book Festival

About N.V.M. by Michael Gonzalez

Growing up a homesteader's son, in a land called Mindoro, unforgiving of its malarial airs and devastating droughts, NVM drew on literature and writing to claim and remake the landscape into a forgiving place of grace, blessings and spiritual bounty. Like the Mangyan, Mindoro's original inhabitants whose culture celebrates discovery and poetic imagination , NVM created clearings in every field of literature, genre, and themes by creating fictional habitats and individuals who imbue the the character of the land - always struggling, joyful of its rewards, and hopeful.

Literary expression through the act of writing becomes itself the practice of establishing presence in a world beset by many insecurities. It offers a place for gestating ideas and creating images that forge new visions of life.

Like the clearing of land, the planting and harvesting, writing is a skill that must be learned, mastered and practiced. In a global world of multiple and competing images, clarity of vision and expression is required.
NVM Gonzalez, in addition to his professorship at California State University, Hayward, taught at UCLA in the 1990s and was a University of California Regents Lecturer. He mentored many Filipino and Asian American students at UCLA and was also a contributing editorial board member of Amerasia Journal.

Michael Gonzalez is the youngest son of NVM and Narita Gonzalez, and worked at the Stanford University Libraries and lectured at City College San Francisco, Cal-State East Bay and U.C. Santa Cruz

About the Workshop

July 1-3, 2011, Sonoma State University campus. The NVM Gonzalez Writers' workshop in the United States aims to provide the venue to practice and master the tools of literary presence. It addresses in particular, but not limited to, the growing presence of Filipino-American writers in the American landscape. It hopes to provide ample and secure scaffolding to those who aspire to claim their "clearings" and invent and imagine new worlds to inhabit and make their presence felt.

The Workshop addresses and hopes to attract young, aspiring and even well-published writers willing to mentor others from the Filipino-American community, as well as other communities, although Filipinos living elsewhere are encouraged to join.

It hopes to foster greater and deeper appreciation of the works of present and past Philippine and Filipino-American literature, recognizing these works as expressive productions of a society and culture that is still in the process of defining its presence in the United States and in the world.

As a tool for capturing the expressions of life in the now diasporic world of the Filipino, good writing becomes essential to articulate, to explore, and to share these new worlds and vocabularies that many Filipinos now inhabit, from Hong Kong, the Middle East, Western Europe and the United States. " There is not a place in the world, including Antarctica where a Filipino cannot be found." It will be through literature that these global ties can be bound.

Future Plans and Goals

International writers' workshops to include writers from the Philippines and other world literature authors are planned. The aim is to foster stronger collaborative projects and critical perspectives. Rather than paint both regions as unique literary environments, imagine that both exist in a global interconnected sense. The NVM Writers' Workshop is both a coming home and a going home for all writers-participants.

http://www.nvmgonzalez.org/writersworkshop/index.html

Kearny Street Workshop: DIVERSITY IN YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Kearny Street Workshop and the SFPL Main Teen Center present

Diversity in Young Adult Fiction:
A reading, panel discussion, reception and book signing featuring authors
Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Gene Luen Yang and J.A. Yang

Saturday, May 7
3:00 – 5:00 pm
FREE admission
Facebook Event Page

San Francisco Main Library
Latino-Hispanic Room
100 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA 94102

Meet four Asian American authors making breakthroughs in young-adult fiction with their popular books and graphic novels. Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo, two friendly writers, founded DIYA to find other writers and readers from all walks of life who want to see more diversity in young adult fiction. This event kicks off DIYA’s nationwide tour. For further information, visit diversityinya.com.

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, will be published in April 2011. cindypon.com

Malinda Lo is the author of Ash (Little, Brown, 2009), which was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, and named one of the Kirkus Best Young Adult Novels of 2009. A companion novel to Ash, titled Huntress, will be published in April 2011. malindalo.com

Gene Luen Yang began self-publishing comic books in 1996. In 1997, he got the Xeric Grant for Gordon Yamamoto and the King of the Geeks. Since then he has written and drawn a number of stories in comics. American Born Chinese, released by First Second Books in 2006, became the first graphic novel to be nominated for a National Book Award and the first to win the American Library Association’s Printz Award. It also won an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album – New. The Eternal Smile, a collaborative project with Derek Kirk Kim in 2009, won an Eisner for Best Short story. In addition to cartooning, Gene teaches computer science at a Catholic high school in California. humblecomics.com

J.A.Yang has slummed it in the valley with the Wakefield twins; slumber partied with Huey, Dewey and Louie; joined Krakow in stalking Angela; and climbed every mountain with the Von Trapps. He is the author of Exclusively Chloe. He lives online at jonyang.org.

Sponsored by the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center

Community Partners:

Oakland Asian Cultural Center
Philippine American Writers Association

Books available for sale from Eastwind Books

Carlos Bulosan: Poetry Magazine (February 1936)

Published as "Carl Bulosan," here are six poems by the author we know and love as Carlos Bulosan, from Poetry magazine's February 1936 issue:

• CARL BULOSAN
  Without Ceremony
• CARL BULOSAN
  Letter from America
• CARL BULOSAN
  In Time of Drought
• CARL BULOSAN
  Secret
• CARL BULOSAN
  No Story
• CARL BULOSAN
  Monuments

05/01/2011: The 3rd Annual Filipino-American Cultural Arts Festival at San Lorenzo Library

You are invited to:

The 3rd Annual Filipino-American Cultural Arts Festival at San Lorenzo Library
Sunday, May 1, 2011
1:30-4:30 PM

with Marianne Villanueva, Joan Iva Cube, Elsa Valmidiano, David Maduli
Music by: Carlos Ziálcita (of Little Brown Brother), Bo Razon, Myrna del Río

There will be merienda (of course).

395 Paseo Grande · San Lorenzo, CA

Presented by the San Lorenzo Library, Filipino American International Book Festival and Philippine American Writers & Artists (PAWA)

Call for Submissions: High Chair Poetry Journal Issue 14 (Philippines)

From Asia Writes:

Deadline: 15 June 2011

We are inviting interested writers to submit poems, essays, and reviews for possible inclusion in the 14th issue of High Chair’s online poetry journal (www.highchair.com.ph), which will be released in July this year.

We welcome submissions in Filipino and English. Please visit our site to get a more comprehensive idea as regards the work we do and the poetry and essays we publish. We also welcome reviews of published poetry collections, especially of Filipino authors.

The deadline for submission is on June 15. For poetry submissions, please send no more than five (5) pages of verse. There is no page limit for essay contributions.

High Chair is a non-profit independent press based in the Philippines. Its first online issue went live in 2002 and has, over the years, published more than 19 chapbooks and full-length collections in English and Filipino.

Please email your submissions or enquiries to highchair@gmail.com (subject heading: High Chair Issue 14). Feel free to circulate this call for submissions to other interested parties.

Jose Perez Beduya and Rosmon Tuazon (Issue Editors)

Contact Information:

For inquiries: highchair@gmail.com

For submissions: highchair@gmail.com

Website: http://www.highchair.com.ph

Review: Jose Garcia Villa's Have Come, Am Here (Poetry Magazine, February 1943)

From Poetry Magazine (February 1943):


"Language for God," by Harvey Breit, a review of Jose Garcia Villa's Have Come, Am Here: I doubt that one can write many lyrics on discovering God. Villa writes innumerable lyrics about it, each one equally enthusiastic and energetic. Ideas and things, resolved into a few images, are threads that Villa pulls through the eye of his needle (a near-equation, God-Himself). Consequently everything gets unified. All things are strands that lead to the eye of the needle. But in a genuine needle only cotton, cord or wool, get threaded. There is no equivalent in Villas' vision for cotton, cord or wool, that is, there is no criteria. The result us willful and arbitrary, even repetitious. It is as though the poet went over to any object at all and said "God": the poet has now made a world in which things are illuminated by God. I, however, am unconvinced.

Read more.

05/17/2011: Arlene Biala at SOMArts, a place of her own

What: Feast of Words: A Literary Potluck, “A Place Of Her Own” edition
When: Tuesday May 17, 2011. 7:00p.m. to 9:00p.m., doors open at 6:30
Where: SOMArts (934 Brannan Street, between 8th and 9th)
What Else: Tickets are $10 advance, $5 with a potluck dish and $12 at the door. For more information visit http://feastofwords.eventbrite.com

SOMArts Cultural Center presents Feast of Words: A Literary Potluck, a monthly potluck where writers and foodies come together to eat, write, and share. Join co-hosts Lex Leifheit and Irina Zadov on the third Tuesday of each month.

May’s theme is “A Place of Her Own,” inspired by the exhibition A Place of Her Own on display at SOMArts through May. The monthly potluck will include a reading by literary guest Arlene Biala and will include a creative competition of on-the-spot writing inspired by the theme. House opens at 6:30pm on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 and space is limited. Tickets are $10 in advance, $5 with a potluck dish, or $12 at the door and include refreshments and delicious eats. Cash bar.Arlene Biala is a Filipina poet and performance artist, born in San Francisco, CA. She is the author ofbone, her first chapbook of poetry published in 1993, and continental drift, published by West End Press (through University of New Mexico Press distribution) in 1999. She received her MFA in Poetics & Writing from New College of CA, and was the recipient of an artist residency at Montalvo. Arlene has taught and performed as guest artist in the Manikrudo poetry and performance workshops led by Juan Felipe Herrera of the CSU Summer Arts Programs in Long Beach and Humbolt, CA. Performances include University of Texas at El Paso, Writers’ Week at UC Riverside, DiVERSEcity in NYC, San Francisco Asian American Jazz Festival, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Manilatown Center at the I-Hotel, La Pena Cultural Center, APAture at Intersection for the Arts, Santa Clara University, and SOMArts in San Francisco. She has also performed for and taught creative writing workshops with elementary and high school youth. She lives in Sunnyvale, CA with husband Carl, (blue) Queensland Heeler Pepper, and their three children: Kai, (aries)11; Josh (scorpio)8; and Kiana (scorpio, again) 6.

The exhibition A Place of Her Own is co-presented by The Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA) and API Cultural Center (APICC) as part of the 14th United States of Asian America Festival. For more information about events, participating artists, and gallery hours, visit www.aplaceofherown.org.
For more information about Feast of Words, follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

About the SOMArts Studio Series
The SOMArts (South of Market Arts, Resources, Technology, and Services) Studio Series is an informal assemblage of arts classes and events designed to encourage the production of contemporary work by artists of all ages and skill levels in San Francisco.

Review: Kristin Naca's Bird Eating Bird

From Poetry magazine!

Kristen Naca’s often mellifluous first collection delivers sound in concert with sense, but—in accordance with the lyric poet’s theory—the former lures attention away from the latter, so that on first reading, you hear the poetry rather than understand it. She estranges American readers from our own language even as she introduces us to its musical undertones:

Her lips, red gathering in the creases when she puckers.

Endings that are dirty tricks and also feathers.

Red water out the pipes, teeming from the rusty gutters.

—From “Speaking English is Like”

When her uneasily bilingual poetry incorporates Spanish, she at once draws English speakers closer to her own experience—a Filipina-American, Naca grew up with Spanish and English in her ears—and alienates those of us who don’t know the other language well. Like the Nuyorican Poets, Naca occupies one of America’s many linguistic borderlands, and seems at home neither in Spanish nor in English: when using one, she must always negotiate with the other. In Bird Eating Bird, that discord echoes through the reader’s experience too.

Read more (scroll down).

05/12/2011: APIA Heritage Literary Night at OACC

More info at the OACC website.

Janet Mendoza Stickmon: Midnight Peaches Two O'Clock Patience Fundraising Campaign

Review: Aimee Nezhukumatathil's LUCKY FISH

Reviewed by Rigoberto Gonzalez at the Poetry Foundation:

Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s third book, recently released by Tupelo Press (which also published Miracle Fruit and At the Drive-In Volcano) affirms her reputation as one of the master miners of the curios fact in science, history, nature and culture. With unparalleled ease, she’s able to weave each intriguing detail into a nuanced, thought-provoking poem that also reads like a startling modern-day fable.

For example, the poem “Foosh” (the medical term for “falling on out-stretched hand”) spirals out into a series of “hand stands:”

I am a lucky fish. The kind that curls up red
and flimsy in your hand. And the broken center
of it is a spiderweb, threaded through a chico tree
to catch bats…

Cabbage butterflies can still soar if you pull

off their wings, but they cannot pivot
into curlicues like before. The sea snake
has no hands so it’s no surprise
it rarely gets hurt.

Read more.

Call for Prose/ Poetry: Inaugural Issue of ShuoMii LGBT Magazine for People of Color

From Asia Writes:

Deadline: 16 May 2011

ShuoMii is a dynamic, responsive and collaborative not-for-profit based media Mega-source set with the purpose of changing the LGBT dynamic within itself and society. ShuoMii’s goal is to revolutionize the stereotypical opinion of our community by enabling a platform that will facilitate a positive image by influencing people with art poetry, film, photography, music and other literary works. Through empowerment ShuoMii plans to create a safer environment dedicated to promoting a positive image for the LGBT POCC, so that we may promote acceptance and understanding. At this moment, there is no major magazine which brings LGBT People of Color writers and artists to the forefront. We believe it is time to publish such a magazine!

ShuoMii will:

• Introduce a wide audience to literature and art (film, music, and photographs) by the LGBT community.
• Provide a unique opportunity for underrepresented writers and artists viewpoints.
• Discover and publish emerging and developing writers and artists.
• ShuoMii will be published both in print and on the web. Print costs are high, so our agenda is to build a website first and print four magazines a year when we have the funds. We are currently seeking submissions for our inaugural issue! All LGBT people of Color artists, musicians, performers and writers are encouraged to submit work.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Prose and Poetry: Submit up to 3 pages of work(double-spaced, 12 pt.). It is best to send all of your work in one Microsoft Word (.doc) or text (.rtf) attachment.

Graphic files: Submit up to 5 visual art images or photographs. Photography and visual art should be sent using .tif files ( at least 300 dpi /300 pixels per inch resolution) or .jpeg files. Please include a short artist’s statement about the work submitted.

Songs and Sound Art: Submit up to five MP3 files. Please include a short artist’s statement about the work submitted. All sound art and music will be featured mostly on our website.

Video Art/Movies: Please send a URL to the work if it is online. If not, fill out the submission form and we will contact you about how to submit your video. Please include an artists statement about the work.

ALL submissions: Please include a short bio (two sentences) with your name (as you want it to appear in print), email, phone, and mailing address.

Issue Topic: Acceptance (coming out, etc)

DEADLINE for submissions to be considered for the inaugural issue will be May 16, 2011.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: click here

For submissions: http://shuomii.com/submissions-page

Website: http://shuomii.com/

Call for Workshop Proposals: 2011 Asian Pacific Islander American Spoken Word and Poetry Summit

From Asia Writes:

Deadline: 1 June 2011

The 2011 APIA Summit seeks workshop proposals to reflect our theme, “Moving It Forward, Bringing It Back.” We wish to honor the Summit’s legacy of art inseparably combined with community building and activism. We are asking that workshop presenters identify the creative and/or community issue aspects of their workshops as a central part of workshop proposals. Workshops with a specific activist issue or theme must include a writing exercise or other creative component.

We welcome proposals from presenters who identify as Asian/Asian American/Pacific Islander and plan on attending the Summit. We strongly encourage artists, organizers, and activists from underrepresented communities and underrepresented regions to submit proposals.

*Please note that as a grassroots effort, the Summit cannot fund travel or provide honorariums. Registration fees for all workshop presenters, however, will be waived.

Interested presenters should download the presenter application form and attach bio and description as .doc/.docx or .pdf attachments. Please send proposals to: apiasummit2011workshops@gmail.com. Deadline is June 1; we will notify presenters by July 1.

If you have an idea for a workshop and would like to discuss it with Summit organizers, or if you have any questions, please contact us at apiasummit2011workshops@gmail.com.

Contact Information:

For inquiries: apiasummit2011workshops@gmail.com

For submissions: apiasummit2011workshops@gmail.com

Website: http://apiasummit.com/

05/02/2011: Signature Editions Presents Charlene Diehl, Genni Gunn, Linda Leith and Patria Rivera

Signature Editions Presents

Charlene Diehl, Genni Gunn, Linda Leith and Patria Rivera

    

A night of readers from across the country!

Winnipeg author Charlene Diehl reads from her beautiful memoir Out of Grief, Singing, Vancouver author Genni Gunn reads from her Italian family literary mystery, Solitaria, Montréal author Linda Leith reads from her Anglo-Montréal literary exposé Writing in the Time of Nationalism, and Toronto author Patria Rivera launches her newest collection of poetry, Be.

Hosted by Cathy Petch 

Monday, May 2, 2011 - 7:00PM

The Ossington

61 Ossington Avenue

Toronto

Free Admission

Books will be available for purchase.

05/02/2011: Filipino American Writers and their New Novels: Jessica Hagedorn and R. Zamora Linmark (UCLA)

http://www.csw.ucla.edu/events/filipino-american-writers-and-their-new-novels-1

These two writers will present excerpts from their new works. They are two of the most read writers in the field of feminism, sexuality, Asian American, Filipino, postcolonial literature. Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters is one of the most written novels in feminist, postcolonial, women of colorrary criticism (see Lisa Lowe, Rachel Lee, others). This literary event is unique in that two leading queer, feminist, postcolonial writers have agreed to share the stage in presenting their new novels. It will draw audiences from various departments: Asian American Studies, Women's Studies, Comparative Literature, Theater, English, Queer/Sexuality Studies, and creative writing.  lite

DATE: Monday, May 2

TIME: TBD

PLACE: Royce 314 or Young Research Library

ORGANIZED BY: Asian American Studies Department

CONTACT: Lucy Burns, lmburns@ucla.edu

COSPONSORS: Department of Asian American Studies, Mellon Foundation's Transnational Studies, Center for the Study of Women

Jessica Hagedorn is the author of Dream Jungle, The Gangster Of Love, and Dogeaters, which was nominated for a National Book Award. She is also the author of Danger And Beauty, a collection of poetry and prose, and the editor of Charlie Chan Is Dead: An Anthology of Contemporary Asian American Fiction and Charlie Chan Is Dead 2: At Home In The World. Her new novel, Toxicology, is forthcoming from Viking Penguin. It is set post-9/11, exploring relationships that have exploded in this post-9/11 era. Characters include queer women. 

R. Zamora Linmark is the author of a novel, Rolling the R's (1995), which he later adapted it for the stage. He has also produced two collections of poetry: Prime Time Apparitions (2005) and The Evolution of a Sigh (2008).Linmark's much awaited second novel follows the life of a queer Filipino who grew up in Hawai'i, who finds himself visiting the Philippines as an adult for the first time since his family immigrated.

Review: TYPE O NEGATIVE by Joël Barraquiel Tan

From Rattle:

The overall impression one is left with after reading Joël Tan’s Type O Negative is that of something beautiful being dashed to bits, broken into a dozen lyrical pieces. An elephant named Karama, the poet’s parents, the poet himself, the people of Manila, and dying friends are all eviscerated in terrifying detail into vivid, exotic images.

As a young child, the poet enjoyed elephant sheets and begged for elephant toys. But against this backdrop of childhood innocence, he has already heard rumors of human parts mixed in the animal feed at the Manila Zoo. In “manila zoo / gajendralila,” an elephant at the zoo, Karama, charges into the elephant pit’s rock wall while the young poet watches:

The 3rd blow  cracks the hoary stone
surface   the 4th  snaps her right tusk
zoogoers             motionless         stunned
the frightened cries of children

The elephant is broken, bloodied, tusk shattered, and this image introduces blood and violence early on in the collection as well as in Tan’s life.

Read more.

Shadow Shop: Local Art for Mass Distribution!

From Stephanie Syjuco:

Open to the public November 20, 2010 to May 1, 2011, at SFMOMA

A temporary and alternative store/distribution point embedded within the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s fifth floor galleries, Shadowshop will stock hundreds of artists’ multiples, small works, tchotchkes, catalogs, books, zines, media works, and other distributive creative output.

While operating as an actual mom-and-pop style store, Shadowshop is also a platform for exploring the ways in which artists are navigating the production, consumption, and dissemination of their work. Four themes (1. artwork-as-commodity, 2. cultural souvenirs, 3. bootlegs and counterfeits, and 4. alternative distribution systems) will contextualize selected projects that are both complicit with and also critical of capitalist circulation. Special projects will be commissioned by Packard Jennings, Juan Luna-Avin, and Imin Yeh.

For almost six months (November 20, 2010—May 1, 2011) Shadowshop will feature only local Bay Area works, give museum visitors access to a wide variety of affordable wares, and provide a snapshot of a vibrant and energetic art scene.

Support your local artists! 100% of pre-tax sales from Shadowshop go directly to the artists.

National Geographic Multimedia Grant for Minority-Culture Storytellers

From Asia Writes:

Deadlines: 15 June 2011, 15 September 2011, 15 December 2011

National Geographic's All Roads Film Project

A MULTIMEDIA FESTIVAL AND GRANTS PROGRAM CREATED TO PROVIDE A PLATFORM FOR INDIGENOUS AND UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITY-CULTURE STORYTELLERS.

All Roads Seed Grants

The Seed Grant Program funds film projects from indigenous and underrepresented minority-culture filmmakers year-round and from all reaches of the globe. The program awards up to 16 film projects annually with grants ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Submission deadlines are quarterly on the 15th of each March, June, September and December. All applications must be received in the National Geographic All Roads office no later than midnight Eastern Standard Time on each of the quarterly due dates. If the due date falls on a Saturday or Sunday Eastern Standard Time, then applications are to be received in the National Geographic All Roads office no later than the Friday before the 15th of that particular quarterly due date.

SEED GRANT APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

1. All submissions must be written in English.

2. Submit a one-paragraph synopsis, a treatment, and describe how the Seed Grant will result in a tangible completed work (e.g.: fully produced documentary or film, short promo for the project; a treatment; etc).

3. Submit a proposed All Roads Seed Grant budget in U.S. dollars itemizing the amount requested ($1,000 - $10,000). Also provide the full production budget on a separate sheet.

4. Submit a narrative paragraph on why you have chosen a specific cultural identifier, for example, Native American tribal affiliation, Tibetan refugee, Masai, and what that identifier means to you. If you do not come from a minority culture or indigenous community, please submit documentation that you have been designated to speak for such a culture or community.

5. Submit a short bio and a resume including any institutional affiliation, current position and educational degrees.

6. A complete Application Form, including the Festival Rights Form (see below), is required for consideration.

7. Submit a production timeline or schedule indicating deadlines that move the production to completion.

8. Grant applicants must provide documentation that they are actively soliciting all necessary rights, licenses, clearances and releases necessary for exhibition of their finished works at the All Roads Film Festival screenings, promotional opportunities and events.

9. Applications will only be reviewed once all required materials have been submitted.

10. When the project is completed, awardee will provide a copy of the project to All Roads Film Festivals in the project’s final cut.

04/28 - 05/07/2011: Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

The 27th Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival will be presented April 28 – May 7, 2011 at the Directors Guild of America; Laemmle’s Sunset 5 Theatre; CGV Cinemas; and additional venues throughout Los Angeles. A key highlight of the month-long Asian Pacific Heritage Month activities, the Film Festival is produced by Visual Communications, the nation’s premier Asian Pacific American media arts center.

Since 1983, the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival has presented over 3000 films and videos by Asian international and Asian American artists, and additionally features seminars and panels, in-person guest appearances, and filmmaker awards. The Film Festival continues to be the largest festival of its kind in Southern California and is the premier showcase for the best and brightest of Asian American and Asian international cinema.

More information here.

04/26/2011: Diversity in Filipino/Asian American Communities: Exploring Racial, Geographic and Generational Differences in Literature (USF)

Diversity in Filipino/Asian American Communities: Exploring Racial, Geographic and Generational Differences in Literature

5:30-7 p.m. Maier Hall, Fromm Hall. Panelists Peter Jamero (Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Filipino American and Vanishing Filipino Americans: The Bridge Generation), Pati Poblete (The Oracles), and Janet Stickmon (Crushing Soft Rubies) will discuss their work and their insights related to the exploration of racial, geographic and generational diversity in Filipino/Asian American communities. A Q&A session with the panelists and the audience will follow. This event is co-sponsored by USF Asian American Studies program, Literacy Initiative International Foundation (LIIF), Ethnic Studies, Asian Pacific American Student Coalition, and Yuchengco Philippine Studies program. For more information, please call (415) 422-2418 or email asian.american.studies@usfca.edu. More information may also be found online at: Visit Our Site. This event is free and open to the public.

04/22/2011: Universal Filipino at La Peña (Berkeley)

http://universalfilipino.wordpress.com/2011/01/12/universal-filipino-tour-2011/
http://www.lapena.org/event/1734

04/27/2011: Silver Lake Jubilee Presents: “Girls, Girls, Girls!”

From Rachelle Cruz:

Emerging Voices alumnae Natashia Deon, Marytza Rubio, Mehnaz Turner, and Rachelle Cruz will read at this Silver Lake Jubilee promo show. PEN Center USA will curate the reading stages for the evening.

$5 Admission 
Wednesday, April 27 @ 8 PM
Pehrspace
325 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, 90026

The Silver Lake Jubilee is a two-day music and art celebration featuring more than 20 local music acts, multi-discipline artists, crafters, and comedy acts, with literary performances curated by PEN Center USA.

Call for Submissions: Fuck Yeah Lady Writers

Fuck Yeah Lady Writers is currently accepting submissions. FYLW is a blog created with the intent to engender greater interest in lady writers as well as to inform people about the surprising level and number of discrepancies presently existing in the treatment of lady writers as opposed to gentlemen writers. For more information, please read our About page.

We still want your cigarettes and your morals, your petty kindnesses, the long of your short and everything in between. Insolong as it pertains to female writers in a positive/inspiring/supportive manner, we want it. We don’t care if you’re male so long as whatever you’re submitting is relevant to the mission of the blog and, so you know, we define “ladies” as anyone who identifies as being female.

Submission Guidelines:

* Quotations, art, video, audio, excerpts, interviews and biographical information from/about female writers are all accepted.
* Inappropriate, duplicate or unrelated material will be removed.
* We here at FYLW also love male writers, but please don’t send us stuff by/about them unless they are talking about a lady writer. We are defining ladies as anyone who identifies as female.
* If you would like to be credited for your submission via a link to your own blog, please include the URL in the body of the submission.

Contact Information:

For submissions: click here.

Website: http://fuckyeahladywriters.tumblr.com/

04/30 - 05/01/2011: Piketlayn Cantata: A Worker’s Song Cycle

From Kularts:

In an original song cycle written by acclaimed Filipina poet and playwright Joi Barrios, we follow the tumultuous journey of Juan, an overseas caregiver, and his wife, Biyang, a factory worker in South Cotobato City. Worlds apart, both find themselves struggling for worker’s rights in the face of insurmountable odds. While some victories are secured, in the end we are reminded that the struggle continues for workers around the globe.

Narrated by three Jesters, this “serious” story is injected with humor and playfulness. Using jokes, poetry, television news reports, and letter excerpts, this original song cycle interrogates history, the concept of the "well-made text,” and what is considered to be "radical."

In the current volatile battle for union rights, this performance is a must-see!