L to R: the Imelda, the EQ, the carlos bulosan, the guison matrix

Eric Q, Jodee Aguillon, Kristina Guison, and April Aliermo are just some of the artists whose parols will be up for auctioning at the Kapisanan Krismas event this Saturday, December 19th. Pictured here are only SOME of the parols up for auction!

From the Left, the artists are: April Aliermo (the Imelda), Eric Quebral (the EQ), Eric Tigley (the Carlos Bulosan), Kristina Guison (the Guison Matrix)

More images coming as the parols arrive at the K!

Here are the details for the auction.

1. Auctioning will begin on December 17, Thursday , up until Saturday (19th).

2. Bids for each parol starts at $30.

3. You may start bidding online, by emailing giveback@kapisanancentre.com with your name, the name of the artist whose parol you want to bid on, and your phone number.

4. On Saturday, bidding sheets for each artist will be available at the centre.

5. Bidding will end at 7:00pm. For those who will start bidding online, please try to be at the event so as to secure your bids!

6. Winners will be announced at 7:30pm. Online bidders who win the parol will be contacted via the number they leave on their online bid.

Remember, all proceeds from the auction go to the Children’s Rehabilitation Center as a part of Home for Christmas the second round of fundraising that will help the families back home get back on their feet after the devastation caused by typhoons Ketsana and Parma. Monetary donations (via PayPal or mailed-in cheques) are also still being accepted up until December 25.

This Christmas, you can do so much both for yourself and others! Not only do you learn how to make a parol, you can also bid on a parol that gets you a piece of art while helping everyone back home.

Remember when we gave $3000+ of YOUR cash donations to Global Medic? Well this is what they have been doing with your generosity: Giving clean water to the typhoon victims in and around Metro Manila. Thanks TORONTO! And thanks Global Medic!

Conrats to Melissa Clemente for the dropping of her Spring 2010 collection EPOCH. Inspired. Gorgeous. And Santa Guerrilla was lookin’ hot that night too, featuring Robin Lacambra on lead vocals for the first time. Killing that kulingtang. Bet you never thought Filipino everything could be so hot?!

The boxes of donations sent through FOREX have finally arrived in Manila. Pictured above on the left is Mr. Mangosing who has very seriously : P received 21 boxes in San Juan that the good people of Toronto have kindly donated through our Typhoon Ondoy donations drive in October. On the left we got Toronto balikbayan, Manny Veneracion, who picked up boxes specifically packed for the Children’s Rehabilitation Center from Mr. Mangosing’s house and has brought it to Project 4, Quezon City.

The boxes are going to get unpacked by volunteers and sorted into bags for individual families in time for Christmas! Thank you to FOREX!

Many thanks to Mr. Mangosing & Mr. Manny Veneracion!

and THANK YOU TORONTO!

P.S. Keep checking back for updates on the distribution of donations on the ground.

P.S.S. If you still got it in you to give (of course you do!), we are still taking cash donations via cheque and paypal, 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.

The K Gallery - circa 2005

KAPISANAN Artist Call Out

This call out is for individual artists or collectives to submit NEW work to be part of the LAUNCH of KAPISANAN’s brand new website (bookmark www.kapisanancentre.com!!) and the RE-LAUNCH of our store-front gallery slated for Saturday April 3, 2009.

We are open to all mediums including but not limited to paintings, photography, sculpture, mixed media, print work, film/video, performance (theatre, poetry, music), interactive multi-media, animation.

Proposal Submission Deadline: Friday January 8, 2010
Selected Artists will by notified no later than January 15, 2010

Proposals must include work that will be part of the KAPISANAN store-front gallery in Kensington Market AND/OR part of KAPISNANAN’s website virtual gallery.

Theme: Pasalubong, Pabaon and Padala: The Story of the Filipino Diaspora
Pasalubong (or welcoming gift) Things you bring for loved ones so that they may welcome you back.
Pabaon Things you pack for people to take with them.
Padala Things you send “home” or to people who are far away.
We are a culture of “packers” — balikbayan boxes, baggage (colonial baggage, religious baggage, immigrant baggage), packed lunches, or packed up left-over party food – To share, to send, to bring with us.

Once approved, on-line work must be ready to upload by March 10, 2010. Work to be exhibited in store-front gallery must be dropped off and ready to install by March 26, 2010.

Please Send Us:
Name & contact information (phone number & e-mail)
Prosposal (email info@kapisanancentre.com for a copy of the template)
3 images of previous work with description: medium (can be any including video, etc), size, brief artist statement for each piece.

Incomplete submissions will NOT be considered.

E-mail submission to:
caroline@kapisanancentre.com

KAPISANAN is the curator of the exhibit and will select work that best delivers on the theme of the project. KAPISANAN reserves the right to refuse any artwork which does not represent or participate in the culture of KAPISANAN and any artwork that may be deemed offensive or inappropriate.

Fees:
Selected Artists will be paid an exhibition fee. Fees will be determined by how many Artists are selected.

KAPISANAN Commission:
If the Artist permits sale of the art work, any sale will be handled by KAPISANAN and a 30% commission will be retained by KAPISANAN on all sales during the exhibition period.

Show dates:
April 3, 2010 – onward for a minimum 3-month installation or longer, TBD.

Location:
www.kapisanancentre.com & 167 Augusta Ave. Toronto, ON M5T2L4

Hours: Wed-Fri 1-8pm, Sat 1-6pm

by Paul Maurillo

Our library will hopefully be complete and ready to go by the new year. If you want to learn Tagalog, How to cook fine Filipino cuisine, or read some poetry then we’ve got you covered! Many thanks to Christine Balmes for making it happen & all the amazing volunteers for keeping the ball rolling.

coming soon...

We’ll keep you posted for when the books are ready for you to borrow! In the meantime… BOOKMARK this site.

Daryle Anne & Vince were hustling away building new toys for our video projects today. We decided to play around & here’s what we came up with. If you haven’t already done so… add kapisanancentre.com to your bookmarks, yo. You won’t want to blink. RELAUNCHING SPRING OF 2010!

By Desiree Gamotin

With a whole day off this past Friday, I set aside time to finally finish my encaustic collage, which I began about three weeks ago with Leah Gold (see Oct. 11 post on http://clutchwomen.blogspot.com). I’ve been struggling with it—aesthetically, I wasn’t too happy with how it turned out the first time. I couldn’t even decide if it was too flashy (was there too much gold leaf on one side? too much glitter?), too tacky (did the three-dimensional mini shells and pearls resemble my third grade macaroni project?), too harsh (I think I went overboard with the dark blue wax I layered on the corners), or too empty (the sketch I drew on the bottom left corner reveals too much white space). Quite frankly, I felt like this was something you would hang up above my bathroom toilet.

So I decided to melt off the entire left side, start off fresh, maybe make something brilliant out of it. I tried putting in a photo I took in the Philippines to replace the sketch. That didn’t work. Melt. I tried engraving new words on the wax. Didn’t look so good. Melt. I tried mixing colours, writing poetry onto tracing paper, drawing up new images to go with my lonely compass-unicorn. Even worse than before. Melt. Melt. Melt. What ended up happening was I melted off the entire collage until all that was left was a beaten-looking board and a red-waxed corner with the words “Feed your” on the right corner. I was frustrated. I had to redo a completely different collage on a smaller board and I left the place disappointed, especially considering the therapeutic high I felt the last time I worked on the first collage.

I felt like one of those obnoxious diva artists, who need their water at a certain temperature before they could perform. I was fussy. Everything from the music to the studio space to my mindset at the time was just not right. Why was I acting this way? Was I simply masking my insecurities about being creatively uninclined through petty excuses? Why was I so hard on myself about something entirely new to me? Was I experiencing “artists’ block”?

It got me thinking about what actually makes an artist an artist. I remember I was telling a friend’s girlfriend about the CLUTCH program, our upcoming exhibit and the many projects we’re working on. She asked me, “Are you an artist?” “Oh, no no,” I stuttered. I think I even chuckled a little. But what is the criteria that allows one to use the title “artist”? Is it their portfolio of work? The popularity of their exhibits? Their reputation in the artistic community? Is it self-described, or do others have to officially christen you with the title? I write and I draw and I paint and I do photography and I make music. But nay, I am no artist! And it irks me when pretentious, self-righteous hipsters call themselves artists simply so they could justify wearing their acid-wash skinny jeans. Okay, that may be a little harsh. But I think the reason why I hold the title in such high regard is that I know some of the most creative, talented and innovative people, who I consider artists—many of them being at the Kapisanan Centre. And I wouldn’t consider myself even close to being in that same category.

But I guess that’s what this program’s for—for really instilling the confidence to call ourselves artists and not being afraid to dabble with multi-disciplinary forms. CLUTCH challenges all of us in the program to think out of the box and explore our creativity and listen and learn from other artists and their work. Being surrounded by these mentors, people who live for art and don’t care about the title, are the true artists. I’m hoping in the next few months, I am able to feed off of their energy and really be much more patient with myself and each project thrown at us. And to stop being such a freaking diva.

“Mom? Does Burlesk Queen have the same super powers as Darna?” – me at 8 years old.

My parents used to own a convenience store. Convenience meaning: bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby cologne, banana ketchup, eggs marked TREAT, door-to-door balikbayan box services & yes, Filipino movie rentals on VHS… & betamax.

Back in grade school, I’d spend my entire summer holidays sneaking peeks at our BOMBA movie collection… while learning how to work a cash register, of course. It was then that I discovered my love for, ahem… Philippine Cinema.

I know there’s much more to Philippine Cinema than just BOMBA, but I also wonder what would Philippine Cinema be without it? With that said, I’m certainly looking forward to tomorrows Critical History Workshop! Len Cervantes will be escorting us into the world of Philippine POP CULTURE through the eyes of Filipino Cinema. You don’t want to miss this fun ride down nostalgia lane!

Here’s a listing of the clips Len will be highlighting tomorrow night along with our very special GUESTS: Aga Muhlach, Sharon Cuneta, Nora Aunor, Tirso Cruz, William Martinez, John Lloyd Cruz, Assunta De Rossi, Eddie Garcia, Joey De Leon, Albert Martinez, Alma Moreno, Sandy Andolong, VST & Company, Manuel Conde, Tita Duran, Vilma Santos, Philip Salvador, Hilda Koronel, Rio Locsin, Rene Requiestas, the Bagets, the Jologs, Fernando Poe Jr,, Joseph Estrada and… John Wayne.

BAGETS (1984) BACK TO BATAAN (1945) SA ISANG SULYAP MO, TITA (1953) SATUR (1951) DARNA (2009) JOLOGS (2002) DARNA AND THE PLANET WOMEN (1973) ZAMBOANGA (1936) GUY AND PIP (1971) GERON BUSABOS: ANG BATANG QUIAPO (1964) BURLESK QUEEN (1977) BOMBA STAR (1980)

TEMPTATION ISLAND (1980) SHAME (1983) TUBOG SA GINTO (1971) KARNAL (1983) VIRGIN FOREST (1985) SCORPIO NIGHTS 2 (1999) HIMALA (1982) SWING IT BABY (1978) BUKAS LULUHOD ANG MGA TALA (1984) ALYAS BATMAN EN ROBIN (1983) MANILA BY NIGHT (1983) BATCH 81 (1982) CRYING LADIES (2003) DUBAI (2005)

NAKS!

We’ll watch a scene from ‘Batang Quiapo’ – and see why it’s not hard to believe that Erap got enough votes to be President. Was the Bomba film the precursor to a sexual revolution or the other way around – did it cause one? Let’s talk about why there’s always a bakla in every movie – and why it’s cool to be gay in the Philippines.

We’ll discuss these topics & much more TOMORROW Thursday Nov 19 @ 7pm. PWYC. 167 Augusta. (See event for more details. Every Thursday!)

See you there!

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/