On Saturday, November 7, Congressman Mong Palatino will speak about:
- the role of Filipino youth in the Philippine struggle for liberation and democracy – from the Katipunan to the present.
- the Filipino youth and student movement today.
- what it means for Filipino to have a representative in Congress. 

*CLICK HERE FOR A MAP*

*Click here for Facebook event*

Be prepared to participate in a discussion of what our role as Filipino youth in Canada is.  Socials to follow after the forum.

* * *
KAMALAYAN is a series of events for Filipino youth, running from Fall 2009-Spring 2010, focusing on Philippine history, politics and issues in the Filipino Canadian communiy. Kamalayan is a Tagalog word meaning “consciousness”.

Kamalayan Organizing Committee:
Migrante Ontario – Youth <http://migranteontarioyouth.wordpress.com>
Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture <http://kapisanan.wordpress.com>
Filipino Students’ Association of Toronto <http://fsat.sa.utoronto.ca/>
Filipino Canadian Association of Ryerson <http://stw.ryerson.ca/~fcar/index.htm>

Raymond “Mong” Palatino, 29 years old, represents the Kabataan (Youth) Party in the 14th Congress of the Philippines. He was chair of the University Student Council of the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2000 and president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP), the largest alliance of tertiary student councils nationwide from 2001 to 2003.   http://mongpalatino.com/

Jodee hands over the cheque to Wes Normington of Global Medic

DONATIONS BREAK DOWN as of October 21, 2009

Donations
Cash Donations $990.52
Cheque Donations $670
Bar Totals from Fundraising Event (PSL, Oct 3, 2009) $162.08
PayPal Donations $785
_____________________
TOTAL Donations Income $4441.39

Expenses Paid Out of Donations
Shipping of 21 Boxes thru FOREX $630.00
Boxes Purchase $105.00
Packing Tape $40.62
Uhaul Truck Rental for Box Transport to FOREX $109.60
Gas $17.00
PayPal Fees $26.67
Box Taxes charged by Philippine Government $420.00
____________________
TOTAL Expenses 1348.89

30% of the gross total donations were used for overhead expenses.

NET Total $3,093.00 (rounded up from $3,092.50) received by Global Medic October 22, 2009

“Global Medic sincerely thanks Kapisanan Centre for their collected donations, this will allow us to provide clean drinking water to the people of the Philippines,” says Wes Normington of GlobalMedic Manager, Emergency Programs.

GlobalMedic has set up a large scale water purification plant in the Municipality of Cainta in Rizal Province and are working alongside a Regoron Emergency Response Team providing clean drinking water to 14 evacuation centres. GlobalMedic has the capacity to provide 77,000 people with clean drinking water everyday and has shipped 1.4 million water purification tablets, 92,500 sachets of PUR water purifier, and 55,400 sachets of oral rehydration salts to the region. The team is expanding its efforts by installing portable water purification units in shelters that are isolated.

21 Boxes are currently in transit. They were shipped October 8, 2009. We will keep you posted the status of the boxes on the blog, so keep checking back!

Toronto Sun coverage of KAPISANAN Typhoon relief efforts

Just over a month has passed since KAPISANAN first started our relief efforts for victims of typhoon Ondoy aka Ketsana. We closed off our initial fundraising with the successful Charity is Our Second Language, formerly know as, Poetry Is Our Second Language on October 3^rd, shipping 21 Balikbayan boxes to the Philippines and raising $3,093 for Global Medic’s ground efforts to bring clean drinking water to the affected areas.

boxes getting packed in KAPISANAN's gallery

traditional Filipino parols

KAPISANAN continues to receive inquiries about what to do next, so here it is, Round 2. Home for Christmas is KAPISANAN’s second round of fundraising, supporting the rebuilding of homes, lives and families in the motherland.

Starting November 1, 2009, KAPISANAN will be accepting monetary donations via PayPal or through mailed-in cheques and in-person donations at 167 Augusta Ave. until December 25, 2009.

All proceeds benefit the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre, whose efforts on the ground help displaced children and their families who were all affected by Ketsana and Parma.

In true KAPISANAN style, we will be having an all day Parol Making Workshop at KAPISANAN, Saturday, December 19^th. For just $10, you’ll get materials for a parol, a lesson on how to make it, and the warm fuzzy feeling you get after you’ve done something good.

The festivities will continue into the night, with a live auction for specially made parols. Local Filipino-Canadian artists will be donating their talent and the winning bidders get to take home original works of parol art.

All proceeds from the auction and the workshop will benefit the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre (CRC), to help the children and their families be Home for Christmas.

Tax receipts will be issued for monetary donations of $50 or more, through the kindness of our community partner, Schools without Borders. Cheques must be made out to Schools Without Borders (or direct to SWB’s PayPal account – info@swb.ca), with a memo “Home for Christmas-KAPISANAN”.

Cash or cheque donations under $50 may be made out to Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture (or direct to KAPISANAN’s PayPal account-info@kapisanancentre.com).

There’s work to be done and we at KAPISANAN, know that you, our community, will be with us in this.

We’re back for Round 2 and we’re going for the knock out!

For all inquiries, email giveback@kapisanancentre.com or call 416.979.0600.

by Flerida Peña (Clutch Participant)

Hello all.  As you can probably already tell from the byline my name is Flerida Peña and I am in the second iteration of Clutch. As Leah Gold (our encaustic painting teacher) puts it, we “get together to explore [our] identities as young Filipina women living in Toronto in various arty ways”.

For the past little while we’ve been focusing on film and video. We wrote, shot, and edited a short film that was screened for a jury this past Saturday, October 17, 2009.

The following is lifted from our blog (http://clutchwomen.blogspot.com).
_____________________________________

I cringed y’all. I cringed harder than an audience member at a Sarah Silverman show. I saw the small camera movements that I thought I had cut out, I heard the choppy background audio that I did not notice during editing, I couldn’t figure out why the opening bothered me a heck of a lot, basically a lot of things happened.

Let’s start at the beginning:

10 am
Flerida is at home. She is attempting to export the film into a Quicktime movie that doesn’t stretch the aspect ratio 100x and therefore make the whole thing look terrible.

10:30 am
“Holy mother, I’m supposed to meet the Clutch Peeps at 12 before the critique!”
Please note, it takes about an hour and a half for Flerida to get to the Kapisanan. She starts another Quicktime export and takes a shower hoping it’s done by the time she’s out.

10:50 am
Shower over.

11:00 am
Quicktime export over. It looks better, yay! But there must be an even better version. She decides to just leave and figure out the exporting business at the K.

12:30 pm
Another export attempt. It is however thwarted by the lack of memory in her computer. Deletion occurs.

1:30 pm
Ahhh deletion still occurring! Must make do with the proper-aspect-ratio version that looks the best. Kevin Centeno sets up the computer-television connection because he’s awesome like that.

1:35 pm
Watching the film and CRINGING CRINGING CRINGING. Like that picture up there.

1:50 pm
Critique begins. Romeo Candido (Senior Producer at Much More Music), Vincent Galvez (Freelance Filmographer), and Michelle Turingan (Freelance Filmographer) sit on one side of the boardroom table and us Clutch Ladies on the other. Many good points and suggestions that we shall indeed follow up on. The main one being that we’re doing the voiceover again. Also it will be much slower.

I admit, I was worried about the short film dragging on and that people would be bored while watching, but what they said makes a lot of sense. Since we have a voiceover, we have to allow the words to sink in for the audience and so we can’t make it so fast. Otherwise all these words that are integral to the story will get lost in the visuals and then it won’t make any sense!

2:15 pm
Deletion finally finishes. Sigh.

2:30 pm
End of critique.
And that’s what happened on Saturday with regards to our short film.
_____________________________________

I’d also like to mention that I am so happy and grateful that I am a part of this program. I mentioned this in our blog but I’ll say it here as well. I came to Canada with my family in 1993 and since then I have let my Filipina identity fade away. So far away that I cannot speak a word of tagalog. Well okay maybe the swear words and slang, but that’s it!

Anyway, I hope everyone visits our blog (http://clutchwomen.blogspot.com)! We’d love to have you.

By Paul Maurillo

I am 18 years old and I am currently working at Kapisanan as a Co-op student from Neil McNeil Catholic Secondary School.

Yesterday I went to the “Spectres of In/Visibility: Filipino/a Lives in Canada” at the U of T. It was a big day for the Filipino/a academics in Canada, because it was the first Filipino academic symposium at the university. I arrived later in the day during the lunch break and waited for the next group of speeches to begin. Much like any other large gathering of people I felt out of place, like I was not supposed to be there. Maybe it’s because I’m just anti-social..but I digress.

The speeches after lunch were very monotone and unappealing to me considering I’m not an academic. I thought that they were very informative, but the language was a bit too much for me.The speeches seemed to never end and my eyes barely stayed open, but thanks to my “pinching of the wrist” I managed to stay awake.

What woke me up was the Tita VS Tita, or the “fighting Titas”, Round 1. They were arguing over whether the LCP ( Live-in Caregiver Program ) should be scrapped or not. It was like Pacquiao VS Hatton except Hatton didnt get massacred. The two Titas both made very good points back and forth, but before the final bell rang one of the spectators put an end to the match. The fight had gone on for too long and got a bit personal. It was Filipino drama at its best.

The last speakers before dinner were more interesting to me because they were youth perspectives and took on different angles at speaking. One That stood out to me was Conely de Leon’s “Mas Maputi Ako Sa ‘yo (I’m lighter than you)”. She opened up her presentation with a spokenword/painting performance, which was captivating (though I had paid more attention to the painting). Her speech after the performance also got me thinking. She talked about how Filipinos/as from Mississauga were “soft” and ones from Scarborough or Scompton/Scarlem were “hard”, which I thought was true (being from Scarborough myself).

She also talked about Filipinos/as lightening their skin thinking “white is right”, and the troubles of young Filipinos/as feeling bad for being darker. I thought her speech really spoke to me because it got me thinking about how the darkeness of skin does not determine your intelligence or your opportunities to learn.

The conference had started out a little unappealing to me but towards the end I got more into it. I learned a lot about the troubles that Filipinos/as face when going to other countries and the identity crisis that many filipinos/as have. I don’t regret going at all and I left having a better understanding of the troubles we face as a people.

by Paul Maurillo

Do you like scary movies? How 'bout scary Lolas?

Join us for a screening (or should I say, SCREAMing?) of ANG PAMANA: The Inheritance. Director Romeo Candido will be there!

Swing by Kapisanan Saturday, November 7, 2009. Show starts at 8pm & tickets are only $10. See our facebook event for more details. (click!)

by Paul Maurillo

Celebrating the diversity of Ryerson’s campus, our friends at FCAR (Filipino-Canadian Association of Ryerson) are having their 6th Annual Multi-Cultural show this Friday, October 23!

Marc Alonzo performs during FCAR's Multi-Cultural Night 2008

This year, the students of FCAR have been tuning up their vocal chords & busting out dance moves for their musical number. The show starts at 7pm & admission is free with one canned good (or a donation of only $2).

Check their Facebook event for more details. (click!)

They hid their love for eleven years, and kept correspondence during Rizal’s many trips.

Her mother eventually caught on and, disapproving, hid Rizal’s letters from her. Believing that he no longer loved her she was eventually convinced (in Ocampo’s opinion “forced”) to marry Henry Kipping, one of the engineers of the Manila-Dagupan Railway (Ferrocarril de Manila).

On her wedding day to Kipping Leonor did something so sad and beautiful I’m surprised there isn’t more art inspired by it….

Critical Filipino History
EVERY Thursday, 7pm
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135970494881&index=1

Promo Vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPHNyRps07U

[above video created by Ji-an Manalo, with images of the American occupation and modern day photos by alex felipe]

Not quite a History class & not quite an Art class – but the BEST of both worlds. It’s Critical Filipino History taught through Arts-based methods.

with Guro Alex Felipe: http://alexfelipe.com/

This is not your boring old history class where you memorize dates & names. It’s not a whitewashed version where Europeans came and brought ‘civilization’ to the ’savages’. It’s not about how the Americans saved us from the Spanish and the Japanese. It is NOT a version of history to be embarrassed of. It’s our actual history that we can be PROUD of.

This fresh set of weekly workshops will be interactive, using Art as a medium for instruction (this doesn’t mean you have to be an ‘artist’ to participate, however!). Each class will be a little different so be prepared to learn history through visual art, theatre, dance & songs!

*Pay What You Can*

Email jodee@kapisanancentre.com for more info!

BOXES ARE OVERFLOWING WITH TORONTO LOVE!!!

We are no longer taking food and clothing donations as we have more than enough to fill the boxes. If you would like to donate money we are still taking that through PayPal monetary donations through PayPal !

**(OCT 7 – DONORS PAGE UPDATED!)

Kapisanan REALLY NEEDS HELP on Wednesday Oct 7 and Thursday Oct 8 with the packing of boxes, as well as HELP from anyone with a VAN or a TRUCK that is willing to help bring stuff to Forex in Scarbz. Maraming Salamat Po!

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What started with an idea to try and fill up 20 balikbayan boxes for Typhoon victims in the Philippines with donations and supplies has resulted in the need for more boxes to house the overwhelming response from Torontonians.

Packed house during Nuit Blanche as Toronto supports Typhoon Ketsana Relief while taking in art. (photo credit: Tala Berkes)

This past weekend, the Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture staged a Poetry Night Fundraiser to benefit some of the hundreds of thousands displaced by last week’s typhoons in the Philippines (watch VIDEO here). The Youth-Arts centre, located in Kensington Market was overwhelmed at not only by the lineup at the door (the venue was packed at capacity), but by the outpouring of generosity from those who attended.

As the poetry flowed from the stage late into the night, so did the donations (both monetary and material) keep coming in. Said one young attendee, “It’s Nuit Blanche after all. I mean, if the people who were caught in the Typhoon can stay on their roofs all night, the least we can do is stay up late for a good cause to try and help.”

With the initial shipment of boxes scheduled to go out tomorrow, Program Coordinator and Relief Drive head Jodee Aguillon appealed for some last minute help via Kapisanan’s Twitter: “What you up to, Toronto?” he wrote. “We could use a hand packing balikbayan boxes tonight”. According to Kapisanan’s Facebook Page, donations are STILL coming in.

At the time of this press release, Jodee and the crew at Kapisanan are planning a “packing party” that will most likely last late into the night — bodies tired and in need of rest, but hearts undoubtedly full.

Kapisanan is ready to send 20 balikbayan boxes to the Philippines tomorrow and needs help packing -- TONIGHT! (photo credit: Tala Berkes)

Kapisanan continues to accept donations as well as monetary donations through PayPal, which will go towards supporting GlobalMedic in their relief mission. Clothing, food, medical supplies, toiletries as well as books, supplies and toys for children will go to the Children’s Rehabilitation Centre.

For more information, please email info@kapisanancentre.com or call Kapisanan at (416) 979-0600

For photography please contact alex.felipe@gmail.com or go to Alex Felipe’s flickr page.

A few photos from Kapisanan’s Poetry is Our Second Language/Typhoon Relief Fundraiser: