Arts

“Underneath the layers of self-hatred that Filipinos as a people have accrued thanks to century upon century of colonization, we have agency - fierce agency - and much wisdom and beauty to offer. The world - and that includes Filipinos themselves - need to really SEE the many different shades of the Filipino face.” – C.E. Gatchalian

Canadian Filipino Karla Comanda is the winner of this year’s Jim Wong-Chu Emerging Writer Award in poetry. The announcement was made during the LiterASIAN Literary Festival held in Vancouver last September.

In 1989, to commemorate the visit of then Philippine President Corazon Aquino, the Vancouver, Filipino community gifted the late president with a life-size oil portrait done by Canadian Filipino artist Edgardo S. Lantin.

“When I first moved to Vancouver, it cost a dime to take a bus, Pierre Elliot Trudeau was Prime Minister and the only Filipinos working in the McDonalds I used to go to was the janitor.

Community Art Space. Three innocuous words that when put together acquire several meanings to artists everywhere – a school of art, a gallery, a creative sanctum. This is what Art Centrum is all about.

Social integration is the central theme at this year’s Generation One Art Exhibit by first-generation Asian Canadian artists marking the 21st explorAsian festival, an annual event celebrating national Asian Heritage Month in May.

Grace Chan has over 25 years of experience as a voice teacher and coach. She started singing in the pop genre and Broadway musicals before emerging as an opera and theater singer. She has performed on opera stages around the world.

For the last 40 years or so, the best selling Filipino cookbooks in the Philippines were written in Canada by a Filipino immigrant who did not know how to cook when she first arrived in Toronto.

A diverse group of talented musicians will band together at a fundraising concert on March 4, in support of Richmond Cares, Richmond Gives (RCRG), a local charity that serves as a hub for volunteering and giving.

[Note from The Editorial Board: Joseph Planta is the founding editor of TheCommentary.ca, a website that features audio interviews and commentaries. Since 2004, the Vancouver-born, -raised and -based conversationalist has interviewed hundreds of distinguished individuals in the arts, journalism, and politics. Planta spoke to Manila-born and -raised author Miguel Syjuco, whose debut novel Ilustrado was a New York Times Notable Book of 2010. The work also earned Syjuco the 2008 Man Asia Literary Prize, and a Palanca Award for novel in English. With Planta’s permission, the CanadianFilipino.Net is running the interview.]