New Filipino American books dive into race, class, sexuality, gender

By WALTER ANG
May 27, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

NEW YORK — Nonfiction works by Filipino American writers Mia Mercado, Matt Ortile and Meredith Talusan are ushering in the summer reading season.


Filipino American authors (from left)
Meredith Talusan, Matt Oritle, and Mia Mercado

Mercado and Ortile have crafted essay collections while Talusan has written a memoir.

Talusan and Ortile are both immigrants now based in New York while Mercado was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is currently based in Kansas.


Nonfiction titles written by Filipino Americans
scheduled for summer release this year:
Weird But Normal;
The Groom Will Keep His Name; and
Fairest: A Memoir.

Mia Mercado

Mia Mercado's satirical essays tackle topics such as body hair removal cream, birth control, racial identity, workplace dynamics, gender roles, and beauty standards. All of which she considers weird, but also pretty normal.

Through the awkward, uncomfortable, surprisingly ordinary parts of life, she explores the contradictions of being a millennial woman-which usually means being kind of a weirdo-illuminating why it's strange to feel fine and fine to feel strange.

Mia Mercado's writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Time, The New Yorker, Bustle, Gizmodo, The Hairpin, and McSweeney's, among others. Mercado, whose father is Filipino and mother is white, took up creative writing at University of Wisconsin.


Matt Ortile

When Matt Ortile moved from Manila to Las Vegas, he was harassed for his brown skin, accent and effeminate mannerisms. The first myth he told himself was that he could belong in America by marrying a white man and shedding his Filipino identity.

His essays examine the other tales he spun about what it means to be an American Boy and recounts the relationships and whateverships that confront his ideas regarding sex and power.

Matt Ortile's writing has appeared in BuzzFeed (where he was founding editor of Buzzfeed Philippines), Into, Self, and Out, among others. He is managing editor of Catapult.


Meredith Talusan

In Meredith Talusan's memoir, a Filipino boy with albinism whose childhood was replete with special preference and public curiosity grows up to be perceived as white after accepting an academic scholarship to Harvard.

Talusan then confronted the complex spheres of race, class, sexuality, and her place within the gay community. She questioned the boundaries of gender and transitioned to become a woman, despite the risk of losing a man she deeply loved.

Meredith Talusan's writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Wired, Self, and Conde Nast Traveler, among others. She was founding executive editor of web magazine them.us (Conde Nast's LGBTQ+ digital outlet), where she is currently contributing editor.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/55302/new-fil-am-books-dive-into-race-class-sexuality

Multilingual Filipino American children's book wins top awards

By WALTER ANG
May 21, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

DAVIS, California — Children's book Jack & Agyu, published by Filipino American company Sawaga River Press, has won the 2020 Gold Benjamin Franklin Award in the Children's Picture Book (4-7 years) Category.

Justine Villanueva (right), Sawaga River Press Publisher,
and David Zielonka, Publishing Professionals Network President. 

The book's author and publisher Justine Villanueva said in her acceptance speech, "Thank you for bearing witness to our story and for committing to inclusion, equity and decolonization in children's books . thank you very much, maraming salamat po, daghang salamat, salamat tungkay."

The award is given out by the Independent Book Publishers Association. This year's awards are for books copyrighted in 2019. The winners were announced online on YouTube.

Appreciation
       
In a post on her Facebook account, Villanueva wrote, "I'm totally giddy and in tears! ... Granted, we don't need awards to validate the work that we do, but it's still freaking awesome to win. We even got a gold sticker and trophy and all!

Villanueva has written two children's books: Jack & Agyu and
Mama, Mama, Know What I Like? (Mama, Mama, Balo Ka Unsa Akong Ganahan?). 

"We acknowledge the ancestral Wintun land (aka Davis, California) where our book was created and the land of Bukidnon which inspired our work. We honor all our ancestors and elders for lighting our path. We thank our Kapwa, our relations-human and non-human-for joining us in this publishing journey.

"So, so, so much love and gratitude to our talented illustrator Lynnor Bontigao; graphic designer Stefanie Liang Chung; our collaborators Bukidnon State University, Bukidnon Studies Center, Center for Babaylan Studies, University of California (UC)-Davis Bulosan Center for Filipino Studies, and Bangka Journey Project; our 200-plus crowdfunders; our families; and everyone in the community who supported us in various ways."

Inspired

Earlier in the year, the book also won the Children's Book Category at the Publishing Professionals Network's 48th Annual Book Show.

In the book, imaginative and adventurous Jack does not see any characters like himself in the books he loves to read in the library. With help from his family and his faithful beagle, he connects with Filipino folk hero Agyu while encountering wondrous creatures such as sirena (mermaid), syokoy (mermen) and diwata (fairies).

With illustrations by Lynnor Bontigao, the book is written in English with translations in Binukid (a Bukidnon indigenous language), Bisaya-Cebuano and Filipino. It also features baybayin script, a Tagalog-based ancient script.

"Through our book, we offer kids of color a way to belong, build their identity, and expand their aspirations by reconnecting with their ancestral stories and their indigenous roots," Villanueva said in a statement.

Literacy

Sawaga River Press is the publishing arm of Libro Para Sa Tanan, a nonprofit that promotes literacy through book donations to school libraries in Malaybalay City in Bukidnon province in the Philippines-where Villanueva is originally from before she moved to the US in her teens. She founded the nonprofit in the late 2000s and founded the press in 2014.

The press has published Mama, Mama, Know What I Like? (Mama, Mama, Balo Ka Unsa Akong Ganahan?), an illustrated peek into the life of five year old Fil-Am child Charlie, who goes on a picnic with his Mama and younger sibling, Jack. The book is written in English, Bisaya and Filipino.

Award-winning 'Romance of Magno Rubio' to stream for free

By WALTER ANG
May 20, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

NEW YORK — When Magno Rubio sees Clarabelle's ad in the back pages of a lonely-hearts magazine, the illiterate Filipino American farmworker thinks he's finally found the love of his life-a white woman from Arkansas.

Touring cast in 2003 during rehearsals.
From left (back) Arthur Acuña, Ramon de Ocampo, Antonio del Rosario;
(front) Ron Domingo and Jojo Gonzalez. 

Will his fellow crop harvesters in California's Central Valley in the 1930s, -all of whom have immigrated from the Philippines-help him out with his pen-pal courtship?

Audiences will find out when Ma-Yi Theater streams the play "The Romance of Magno" for free on its website from May 25 to June 4.

Obie Award

Ma-Yi premiered the production in 2002. It received Special Citations from the Obie Awards for Lonnie Carter (playwright), Loy Arcenas (director), and the original cast, which consisted of Arthur Acuña, Ramon de Ocampo, Ron Domingo, Jojo Gonzalez, Orlando Pabotoy and Ralph Peña.

The recording that will be streamed is of a touring production that visited the Philippines in 2003 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). The touring cast included Arthur Acuña, Ramon de Ocampo, Ron Domingo, Jojo Gonzalez and Antonio del Rosario.

Carlos Bulosan

Written by Lonnie Carter, the play is based on a short story with the same title by Carlos Bulosan, author of semi-autobiographical novel America is in the Heart. Additional Filipino text is by Ralph Peña, who is currently the artistic director and a cofounder of Ma-Yi.

Direction, set and costume design was by Loy Arcenas. Music was composed by Fabian Obispo and choreography by Kristin Jackson.

By Peña's last inventory, in addition to running in various cities across the US, the play has run in Canada, Romania and Singapore. Recent stagings include Seattle for the Carlos Bulosan Centenary (2014) and at the University of Washington (2015).

Community

Business suspensions due to the Covid-19 pandemic forced Ma-Yi's first production this season to close in March, leaving a week and a half of remaining shows canceled.

"The Romance of Magno Rubio" is based
on a short story by Carlos Bulosan.

The group was originally founded as a Filipino American theater company before it refocused its efforts to Asian American works.

It has already canceled its second planned production of the season-which was already rehearsing-as well. "We simply could not put our artists, crew and audiences at risk. I'm happy we were able to pay all artists and craftspeople their full contracts," says Peña.

Nevertheless, it strove to think of ways to continue to connect with audiences. "We knew very quickly that there was no way to bring people back into the theater. Our first move was to take stock of what we can offer our community to keep them engaged, and to remind them that the arts are a vital part of our wellbeing."

Magic

One of the considerations is relationships and protected agreements with different unions in the theater industry. Since this recording is of a production that was done outside of the US, it is "outside of Equity's jurisdiction; it's the first archived play we can offer," Peña says, referring to Actors' Equity Association, the union for actors and stage managers.

"It was filmed before HD and 4K formats were available and done without microphones at the CCP's Huseng Batute Theater. It's nowhere near the high definition formats of our more recent plays, but Francisco Aliwalas's handheld camera work captures the play beautifully, and it really shows of the talents of the actors, and Loy Arcenas' meticulous work as director and designer."

"We're doing it for free to make it accessible to as many people as possible. It has travelled the world and crisscrossed the United States, but there are still many Filipino communities who have not experienced the magic of this play."

"The Romance of Magno Rubio" stream is at Ma-yitheatre.org from May 25 to June 4.

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Filipino Americans involved in 2020 Outer Critics Circle award-winning shows

By WALTER ANG
May 15, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

NEW YORK — Filipino American set designer Clint Ramos has won this year's Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Scenic Design for his work on the play "Grand Horizons." 

Conrad Ricamora (center, standing) in the musical "Soft Power."
Photo by Joan Marcus

Outer Critics Circle (OCC) is an organization of writers covering the New York theater industry for out-of-town news and media outlets.

Last year, Ramos won the Obie Award for Set Design for his work on The Public Theater's production of "Wild Goose Dreams."

He is also an accomplished costume designer. Ramos won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Play for his work on Danai Gurira's "Eclipsed." He won an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Costume Design in 2013.

Written by Bess Wohl and staged by Second Stage Theater, "Grand Horizons" also won Outstanding New Broadway Play.

Industry

In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the awards dispensed with selecting only one winner from each category this year and celebrated up to five honorees in each of its 26 categories. It also made a donation toward the emergency relief efforts of The Actors' Fund.

Clint Ramos.
Photo by Marc Franklin

OCC president David Gordon said, "The Outer Critics Circle has thought long and hard about a way to honor the nearly 200 productions that opened [2019 to 2020], while also respecting those shows that were canceled, postponed, or forced to close shortly after opening.

"This format allows us to celebrate the truncated theater season, and our 70th anniversary, by creating a sense of communal joy at a time when we all need it most."

The Broadway League, a trade organization representing producers and theater owners, has announced that Broadway's 41 theaters would remain closed at least through Labor Day (Sept. 7).

Involved

Other Filipino American theater makers were involved in productions that won in different categories.

Ramos' set design for "Grand Horizons." 

One of the two winners of Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical is David Henry Hwang and Jeanine Tesori's "Soft Power," staged at The Public Theater.

Filipino Americans in the cast included Billy Bustamante, Jon Hoche, Jaygee Macapugay, Geena Quintos, Conrad Ricamora and Trevor Salter.

The winner of Outstanding Revival of a Musical is Transport Group's "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," the cast of which included Karl Josef Co and Paolo Montalban.

The recipient of Outstanding New Off-Broadway Play is "Cambodian Rock Band," which is written by Lauren Yee, a member of Ma-Yi Writers Lab, the playwrights group of Ma-Yi Theater Company.

The cast included Fil-Am actor Moses Villarama.

The Writers Lab currently has Fil-Am playwright A. Rey Pamatmat as one of the co-directors while Ma-Yi Theater Company is headed by Fil-Am artistic director Ralph Peña.

Filipino American YA author Cynthia Salaysay's healing heart

By WALTER ANG
May 13, 2020 | PositivelyFilipino.com

When Filipino American Cynthia Salaysay found out her book has been picked up by Candlewick Press for publishing, she ran around a hotel room, "making little shrieks of delight," she says. "And then I went for dinner with friends. Nothing too fancy." A simple celebration for a work that took eight years to complete, as she reveals. 



In Salaysay's debut Young Adult (YA) novel Private Lessons, 17- year-old Filipino American Claire Alalay turns to the piano to cope with her father's death and to escape her mother's conservative ways. She soon struggles with losing herself as she yearns to gain her white piano teacher's approval and affection.

Channeling

A native of Oceanside, California, Salaysay was also coping with events in her own life when she turned to writing to find herself.

"I had recently come out of a toxic relationship, one that had left me heartbroken, and that led me to move, change jobs, and find new friends," she says.

"Building up a new community, a new life, and the sense of independence that this developed in me, all of this went into the book."

However, she didn't start out confident in her abilities to accomplish a full novel.

Building The Skills

"I took classes and slowly built up my skills as a writer, chapter by chapter, rewriting much of the book three times over," she says.

To fine-tune the believability of her protagonist, Salasay turned to research. "I am not a very competent piano player, so I spent a lot of time reading about the lives of pianists and composers, watching master classes on YouTube, and visiting piano forums online to ensure I had an accurate rendering of what Claire could play at her level, and what the technical and emotional challenges she would encounter in these pieces."

And then there was wrestling with how "to figure out how best to tell some of the darkest parts of the story."

"I spent a great deal of time avoiding the nature of the relationship between Claire and her piano teacher, but as I grew to understand and accept the hazards of power in my own past relationships, I was able to bring those aspects into the story."

Honesty, Healing

"I wrote many explorations of the healing heart . those went into the book as well," she says. "Claire's healing from the abuse of her teacher, Paul, is very much an internal process, one that requires self-honesty, courage, and strength, but it can't be done without support - the love and care of her friends and family.



"Her challenges come up every day. Every day she plays the piano, she faces herself and has an opportunity to look at her problems with compassion."

Fostering compassion and a yearning for connection are partly what inspired Salaysay to write her book. "Around the time that I started writing Private Lessons, I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I cried so hard over it, and I knew that I wanted to write a book that could connect to people like that," she says.

Also, her own fondness for the Young Adult genre. She recalls loving Jesse Maguire's Nowhere High series when she was in high school. "I recognized in her characters a sense of loneliness and isolation that I also felt when I was growing up."

Voices

Salaysay says that she has always thought about wanting to "write a novel, in particular, a coming-of-age novel" because "I love the wistfulness, the wonder and the openness of young adults as they discover the wider world."

"It is so important to see yourself reflected in the outside world in an uplifting way." she says. It helped that, as an adult, she has had access to publications by Filipino Americans.

"I've read Gina Apostol, Elaine Castillo, Jason Bayani, Randy Ribay and Barbara Jane Reyes. All of them have spoken very directly to me. I love Filipino voices! They all have nourished me and helped support my own identity as a Filipino American."

However, when she was growing up, the books she read as a child did not feature any Filipino American characters, much less protagonists. "I did not have such an example growing up, and I wish I did.

"I truly hope that this book will make Filipino American teens feel seen and supported!"

Curses, devils, dark pasts haunt Filipino American's play

By WALTER ANG
May 12, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

LOS ANGELES — A young woman needs to save her ailing Romanian father, find her Filipino mother, and lift an ancestral curse. Along the way, she passes by cousins, shape-shifting creatures, devils and dark histories.

Filipino Romanian American playwright
Amanda Andrei 

This venture is depicted in Filipino American Amanda Andrei's play "Lena Passes By," which will have staged readings in Los Angeles and Denver, Colorado.

This May, it will be presented in a concert reading as part of University of Southern California's New Works Festival helmed by Fil-Am director Giovanni Ortega. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the festival's performances will be streamed live online.

The university is where Andrei is currently completing her MFA in Dramatic Writing.

In August, an excerpt of the play is intended to be performed during "Finding Home," an evening of staged readings featuring six plays by Romanian American playwrights.

It will be presented by Bucharest Inside the Beltway, an arts and culture collective in Denver, Colorado.

Playwriting

Andrei, whose mother is Filipino and father is Romanian, was born in Washington, DC and has been involved in theater since high school. "I loved it for its sense of community and wonder," she says.

She started delving into playwriting in college when she took a playwriting class and wrote "Every Night I Die"—a supernatural tragic love story set in rural Philippines in the 1930s.

"My professor was incredibly encouraging of this story. I still have the hard copy draft where he wrote, `The world needs your voice!'"

After graduation, a friend produced it for the DC Capital Fringe Festival. "We worked with an all Asian American cast, majority Fil-Am. Afterward, the actors asked me to keep writing so they could continue to act in and tell Filipino stories.

"Their encouragement and enthusiasm spurred me to continue writing and developing my craft."

Development

Andrei says she is excited to work with fellow Fil-Ams once more on a play "covering a little-known part of Filipino history and diaspora: Filipinos in Eastern Europe, especially during the Cold War."

She began writing "Lena Passes By" in 2018. "I spent my winter break reading through my mom's letters to her dad about life in Romania."

She had then been doing research and taking classes, which included an intensive Romanian language course and a survey of Romanian literature, as well as working with various traditional healers to learn about different rituals and spiritual practices.

"In many ways, I feel like this play has written me—it's guided me into deeper knowledge and compassionate understanding for my parents, grandparents and ancestors.

"Story is medicine. Process is medicine. I am still in continuous conversation and ritual with this play, and I am thankful for that journey."

Numinous

Andrei's other plays include "Black Sky," "Crocodile (The Last Escape)," and "Every Night I Die"—some of which have supernatural or folkloric elements such as ghosts, magicians, time travel and the like.

"I love the world of speculative fiction and I especially love folklore. I'm sure this is because I grew up with so many of my mom's stories about her childhood in the Philippines.

"And our family has always cultivated a deep faith in God, which has given me respect and appreciation for how other people experience the spiritual and the supernatural.

"I've also always been drawn to mythology, fairy tales and the stories people whisper to each other, because they have a certain numinous quality that makes them so simple yet complex—they speak truth to the subconscious, to the world of dreams, to our spirits.

"And what better place to convey these numinous qualities than live theater, where we are gathered as a group to witness something that is powerful because it vanishes so quickly?"

"Lena Passes By" concert reading on May 22, part of New Works Festival at University of Southern California. Visit Dramaticarts.usc.edu. Excerpted staged reading on Aug. 18, part of "Finding Home" in Denver, Colorado.

Filipino Americans release children's and YA books this May

By WALTER ANG 
May 6, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

SAN FRANCISCO — Filipino American authors Erin Entrada Kelly, Mae Respicio and Cynthia Salaysay are releasing their respective Middle Grade (MG) and Young Adult (YA) books this May.

Filipino American authors (from left)
Erin Entrada Kelly, Mae Respicio and Cynthia Salaysay. 

All three books feature Filipino American characters.

Students and parents who are interested in finding more books that are written by Filipino Americans or have characters who are Filipino American can ask for help from librarians at their school or local public libraries.


Children's and Young Adult (YA) books written
by Fil-Ams that will be released this May. 


Erin Entrada Kelly
MG (8-12 years old)
Illustrated by the author

In 1986, as the country waits for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, three siblings struggle with their own personal anxieties. Bird dreams of being NASA's first female shuttle commander but feels like she's disappearing. Her twin Fitch has an explosive temper that he doesn't understand. Their sibling Cash is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. When the fated launch day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways.

Erin Entrada Kelly received the Newbery Medal for her book Hello, Universe. Her other books include Blackbird Fly, The Land of Forgotten Girls, You Go First, and Lalani of the Distant Sea. She grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and now lives in Delaware.


Mae Respicio
MG (8-12 years old)

Kaia's family lives in California, where the fun of moviemaking is all around them. She loves playing with makeup and creating special effects. This summer, she and her friends join a short movie contest. They make a movie inspired by her beloved great-grandfather's Filipino folktales. When he decides to return to his homeland in the Philippines, Kaia will do anything to convince him not to go.

Mae Respicio received the Asian/Pacific American Library Association Honor Award for her debut novel The House That Lou Built. Mae lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her spouse and two children.


Cynthia Salaysay
YA (12-18 years old)

After 17-old Claire Alalay's father's death, she plays his old piano to escape the sadness and her traditional Filipino mother. After she becomes the pupil of prominent piano teacher Paul Avon, she soon loses herself. No matter how hard she works or how well she plays, it seems impossible to gain his approval, let alone his affection.

Cynthia Salaysay holds a bachelor's degree in English from University of California, Berkeley. She lives in the Bay Area and has written food and culture articles for the San Francisco Examiner, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the East Bay Express, and Civil Eats. This is her first novel.

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