Arts

“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.]

The balagtasan is a traditional Filipino art form where two protagonists debate the merits of a theme – one supporting it and the other arguing against it. The first balagtasan recorded in Philippine history was held in 1924 to commemorate the birth of national poet Francisco Balthazar Balagtas, hence the name balagtasan. Balagtas is the author of the epic Filipino poem “Florante at Laura.”

Serious, educated, and literate members of the British Columbia Filipino community welcomed the arrival of a Filipino Canadian newspaper online, produced, and written by professional journalists and educators.

Note from The Editorial Board: Joseph Planta is the founding editor of TheCommentary.ca, a website that features audio interviews and commentaries.