Join the SOMA community, 2010 Census partners and Ramar Foods International to welcome the Acting Lt. Governor Mona Pasquil and the California State Census Director Ditas Katague on March 5 from 5:30-8pm at the Bessie Carmichael Elementary School/Filipino Education Center at 375 7th Street in San Francisco. Free Admission, Entertainment, Door Prizes. RSVP: samanhan2010census@gmail.com (from Tessie Zaragoza, Facebook)

MARCH 19-21, 2010 – FREMONT, CA: WEKAF (World Eskrima Kali Arnis Federation) USA’s National Qualifying Tournament

WEKAF is the largest organization representing the Filipino martial arts in the world and has 35-40 member countries. WEKAF USA is a charter of the world organization with the mission of unifying, promoting, and fostering growth of the Filipino martial arts. Every two years, we have five regional qualifying tournaments across the USA and a National tournament where the competitors will qualify for the USA team traveling to Mexico this year in July for the World Championships. On March 19-21, 2010 the National Qualifying Tournament will take place at the Fremont Marriott, Fremont, California. Once very four years, the World tournament takes place in Cebu City, Cebu, the birthplace of the WEKAF world organization.

Submitted by: Connie Fidel, WEKAF USA national tournament co-director

MARCH 15-26, 2O1O – NEW YORK: “Woman”, a joint art exhibition at the Philippine Center Gallery. Organized by the Society of Philippine American Artists (SPAA) & American Society of Contemporary Artists (ASCA).

The exhibit, in celebration of Women’s History Month, demonstrates SPAA’s transition to partnership with a reputable art group like ASCA, founded in 1917 and has made its presence known since then. SPAA, through the years of its growth and development, continues its advocacy for Filipino artists in North America and its thrust in developing artistic excellence among its members.

SPAA’s Participating Artists are: Katrina Bello, Francis Allan Bordeos, Cheryle Cranbourne, Mars Custodio. Angelito David, Tessie Dichupa, Oscar R Dizon, Manuel Gamboa, Imelda Cajipe Endaya, Carlos Esguerra, Christine Jeanjaquet, Lenore RS Lim, Lewanda, Athena Santos Magcase-Lopez, Cynthia Marfori, Emi M Mercado, Emilia Monroy, Chato Morando, Rene Ner, Julian Oteyza, Patricia Anaia Price, and Godfrey C Pinder.

ASCA’s Participating Artists are: Anita Adelman, Joseph Amabile, Nikolai Buglaj, Harriet FeBland, Sachie Hayashi, Rose Sigal Ibsen, Jessica Iwamoto, Sueyoshi Iwamoto, Estelle Levy, Leanne Martinson, Harriet Regina Marion, Basha Maryanska, Marie Mutz, Lisa Robbins, Alan Roland, Hank Rondina, Bonnie Rothchild, Joanne Beaule Ruggles, Barbara Browner Schiller, Isabel Shaw, Allan Simpson, Lubomir Tomaszewski, Lea Weinberg, Raymond Weinstein, Doris Wyman, Leslie Shaw Zadoian,

The exhibit is co-curated by Imelda Cajipe Endaya, mixed media painter, printmaker and curator and Angelito L David, watercolorist, art conservator and restorer.

The Philippine Center is located at 556 Fifth Avenue (bet. 45th & 46th), New York City.

Submitted by: Athena Santos Magcase-Lopez, Visual Artist.

MARCH 22, 2O1O DEADLINE – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

San Francisco Foundation Multicultural Fellowship Program

Applications Invited for San Francisco Foundation Multicultural Fellowship Program

Designed to increase diversity in the philanthropic and nonprofit sectors, the San Francisco Foundation’s Multicultural Fellowship Program provides young professionals of color with challenging work experiences and leadership opportunities in the areas of grant making and community building. The foundation is now accepting applications for the 2010-12 fellows in Arts and Culture, Education, and Environment Program areas.

The fellowship includes an intensive curriculum, individual coaching, mentorship, access to local service sector leaders, and opportunities to build a professional network. Former fellows now serve as executive directors and development directors in nonprofit organizations, as program officers in foundations, as government officials, and as professionals and academics who serve or work with nonprofits.

Applicants should have leadership qualities; demonstrated interest in fundraising, donor development, and nonprofit, or public service; volunteer and/or work experience in one of the specific program areas; and a minimum of five years of related work experience.

Fellows will each receive $46,000 to $50,000 annually.

Visit the SFF Web site for complete program guidelines:
http://www.sff.org/
http://www.sff.org/programs/multicultural-fellowship-program

Children’s Orchestra 16th Annual Discovery Concert, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center
7:30pm – 9:30pm

Featuring the Young Symphonic Ensemble of the Children’s Orchestra Society, Michael Dadap, Music Director & Conductor, Aya Terki, Cello, 2010 Discovery Winner, and guest artist Eugenia Zukerman, flute. Program includes Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, Sinulog Overture by Music Director Michael Dadap (with special participation from the PMCIE, a group of preschool children playing percussion instruments), first movement of the Lalo’s Cello Concerto, and the Ibert’s Flute Concerto.

Tickets: $25, $50, $75. Can you believe that the box seats and balcony seats are already sold out?! Call 516.869.9696 to order yours today! [From Yeou-Cheng Ma, on Facebook]

Pin@y Educational Partnerships at San Francisco State University, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, the Filipino American National Historic Society (FANHS) and the San Francisco Consortium are authoring a book by Arcadia Publishing titled Filipinos in San Francisco. This pictoral book highlights the contributions of Filipinos to the growth and development of San Francisco. This book will present the FIlipino community’s vibrant culture, active participation iin civic life, and the struggle to survive.

We need your photos! Please submit photographs of your family at work or play. Photos you have of family, individuals, community events, landscapes, and anything having to do with Filipinos in San Francisco.
Your contributions to this project will ensure the place of Filipinos in U.S. History.
Come to our submission day with your photographs and add to the richness and diversity of our community.

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS

1. Original photograph from your photo collection
2. Photographs need captions (names of people
pictured, location, date)
3. Photographs need to be in usable condition (no distracting
marks, deterioration, or sustainable fading)
4. Attend one of the submission days, OR scan your photos
according to our specifications, w/ detailed captions, and burn them to CD and mail them to Dawn Mabalon.

SCANNING SPECS
resolution:
300 dpi (prefer 600 dpi)
cropping:
crop all unecessary borders
output or print size:
8 inches wide
color:
grayscale (8-bit)
file format:
TIFF

IMPORTANT DETAILS:

• Photo collection day is Feb. 21, 2010, 11am-3pm at the Filipino Community Center (FCC),
4681 Mission St., SF, CA 94112 • Please bring scanned photos burned to CD
(preferable) or albums to scan
• If you cannot attend the photo collection day, please mail your photos (postmark deadline Feb. 26, 2010) to: PROFESSOR DAWN MABALON SFSU History Dept., SFSU, 1600 Holloway Ave, SF, CA 94132
For more info: filipinosinsanfrancisco@gmail.com

FEBRUARY 27, 2010 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADE CELEBRATION, I-HOTEL MANILATOWN CENTER
868 Kearny Street @ Jackson
San Francisco, CA 94108
5:00pm-8:00pm

CHINESE NEW YEAR PARADE PARTY

ALL OUTSIDE GUESTS NEED TO RSVP BY CALLING 415-777-1130. SPACE IS LIMITED.

Come celebrate the year of the Tiger with Manilatown Heritage Foundation and the International Hotel
Enjoy a view of the parade from the third floor window
Music, karaoke, raffles, arts, and crafts, mahjong, and picture taking
$2 FOOD FOR RESERVED GUEST

All International Hotel tenants please notify Tenant Services Coordinator Jennifer Chan if you’re coming and are inviting friends and family. [From Facebook]

FEBRUARY 28, 2010 – SAN FRANCISCO, CA

Event: CELEBRATE PEOPLE POWER DAY!
“Let’s celebrate the anniversary of the EDSA event that inspired the world!”
What: Rally
Start Time: Sunday, February 28 at 2:00pm
End Time: Sunday, February 28 at 5:00pm
Where: UNION SQUARE in SAN FRANCISCO

Organized by West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center
together with other community-based organizations such as NaFFAA Region 8

Olympic Short track skater bronze medalist JR Celski wears a Philippine Flag shirt in this 24 Hour Fitness commercial. Here is the the Youtube video.

Filipinas Magazine also found another Youtube video, an interview with JR Celski.

San Francisco Bay Area, CA, January 29, 2010 – Theresa Calpotura has released her debut CD project, Kanta Filipina (VGO Recordings VG1018). The 12 original, arranged and transcribed works for solo guitar, all created for her by Filipino American composer Bayani Mendoza de Leon, are the culmination of three years of intense research and collaboration.

Kanta Filipina blends a variety of styles from the Philippines, reflecting a musical microcosm in its driving indigenous tribal rhythms, traditional folk dances, chants, lullabies and love songs. Maglalatik (The song of the Coconut Meat Gatherers) from the north shows a kinship to Taiwanese music, and kundiman Paalam Sa Pagkadalaga (Fairwell to Maidenhood) expresses a lyrical Spanish aesthetic. The original works Talagad and Batikusan use southern funeral chant and tribal harvest ritual music respectively. Parang Kahapon Lamang (It Seems Only Yesterday) is an original composition that uses indigenous lullaby forms, and Mutya ng Pasig (Maiden of Pasig River) is a love song turned art song, at the heart of which lies an ancient pre-hispanic form called the kumintang. All of the works convey a uniquely Filipino spirit that Ms. Calpotura hopes to continue to look for and express in her music.

Ms. Calpotura has performed in numerous venues throughout the US and the Philippines. She has won a number of awards from associations such as the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts and the American String Teachers Association, and received scholarships from the Oberlin Conservatory and the Yale School of Music. Ms. Calpotura studied with the renown guitar pedagogue Scott Cmiel of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory where she studied with versatile guitarist/composer Stephen Aron. She then continued at the Yale School of Music with creative guitarist/composer Benjamin Verdery. Ms. Calpotura has given masterclasses in the US and in the Philippines and is currently on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division. In addition to her solo work, Ms. Calpotura founded the groundbreaking cello-guitar duo Ethos with cellist Susan Millar. She has studied the lute with Christopher Morrongiello of the Venere Lute Quartet, jazz guitar with Tony Romano, and has participated in several masterclasses with guitarists such as John Williams, Sharon Isbin, Antigoni Goni, David Tanenbaum, Mark Teicholz, David Leisner, Scott Tennant, Nicholas Goluses, Julian Gray, Ronald Pearl, Lily Afshar, Stanley Yates, John Holmquist and Benjamin Verdery.

Bayani Mendoza de Leon is one of the most versatile Filipino-American artists. He is a composer, musician, writer, folklorist, ethnomusicologist, cultural scholar and leader. As composer, he has written works that reflect his Philippine-Asian heritage. He was recipient of the 2008 PAMANA presidential award for outstanding Filipinos overseas from the Philippine Government and the 2008 Most Outstanding Filipino-American Achiever in America award from the Filipino Heritage Foundation, Inc. He was the first Filipino-American composer to write a full-scale symphonic poem, Batong-Buhay (Livingstone), for rondalla, a native Philippine string ensemble, woodwinds and string orchestra. He won an international prize in 1976 for his work, Bahay-Bata (Mother’s Womb), that combined Philippine indigenous instruments with the Western harp and clarinet. Bayani is also one of the foremost master teachers of the rondalla, a native Philippine string ensemble that is dying away in towns and cities of the Philippines. He developed and directed the Samahan Dance Company and PASACAT Performing Arts Rondallas in San Diego, California, the Paaralang Pilipino Foundation and U.P. Alumni and Friends Rondallas in New Jersey, and the Foundation for Filipino Artists Rondalla in New York. Several of his rondalla arrangements, numbering around 500 and ranging from Philippine folk and composed music to Broadway and standard classics, have already been recorded on CDs.

To hear samples of, or purchase Kanta Filipina, please visit: http://www.calpoturaguitar.com.

MANILA, Philippines, February 14, 2010 — Filipino boxer Nonito Donaire stopped Mexican Manuel Vargas in round 3 of the “Latin Fury13/Pinoy Power 3” at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas Saturday (Sunday in Manila). Continue reading at Inquirer.net.

Filipinas Magazine found a Youtube video of Nonito when he was interviewed after the fight.

Filipinas Magazine found a Youtube video of Corky’s work. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s Corky Trinidad was honored at the 2009 Hawaii SPJ awards with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award, and remembered with this slideshow of classic cartoons.

LAUGHTER TO LEGACY, CARTOONIST “CORKY” FUND
ESTABLISHED AT U.H.

HONOLULU – Local cartoonist “Corky” was fondly remembered during a recent gift signing ceremony that marked the establishment of the Corky Trinidad Endowment Fund in the Center for Philippine Studies. This Fund was established as a collaborative effort by the Friends of Corky, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Society of Professional Journalists of Honolulu, Pamana Dancers, and the Filipino Community Center, which together raised $42,916. The group plans to keep fundraising to build this endowment further. Tax-deductible donations with the notation “For Corky Trinidad Fund” can be sent to the U.H. Foundation, Bachman Hall, Honolulu, HI 96822.

The purpose of this Fund is to provide assistance to students, scholars and researchers at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa in the fields of journalism, mass communications, fine arts, performing arts, ethnic minorities, international studies, media studies and human rights who have an academic focus or interest in Philippine studies, society and culture.

“The endowment marks another accomplishment for Corky’s legacy, but this is one that will help students’ pursuits in journalism or other interests,” said Corky’s son, Lorenzo Trinidad. “It’s good to know that Corky will still be around in this way, still helping out the next generation.”

Francisco “Corky” Flores Trinidad Jr., was born May 26, 1939 in Manila, Philippines. He was the first Asian editorial cartoonist to be syndicated in the United States, appearing in publications as diverse as the New York Times and International Herald Tribune in Paris to the Punch of London and Philippines Daily Herald.

In 1969 he joined the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. For nearly four decades, he penned daily and often twice-daily cartoon panels, and in addition, syndicated the comic strips “Zeus!” and “Aloha Eden”. He also taught cartooning at the University of Hawai‘i, and always welcomed young cartoonists into his office. During his career he won many awards, and in 2005 he was inducted into the Society of Professional Journalists’ Hawai‘i Journalism Hall of Fame.

“It is my hope that through this scholarship more Filipino students will study and gain empowerment to become full active citizens of Hawai‘i.” Edward J Shultz, Interim Dean of the School of Pacific and Asian Studies where the Center for Philippine Studies is located. Further inquiries can be directed to the Center at Moore Hall 416, UH Manoa, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, email cps@hawaii.edu or tel (808) 956-6086.

The University of Hawai‘i Foundation, a nonprofit organization, raises private funds to support the University of Hawai‘i System. Our mission is to unite our donors’ passions with the University of Hawai‘i’s aspirations to benefit the people of Hawai‘i and beyond. We do this by raising private philanthropic support, managing private investments and nurturing donor and alumni relationships. www.uhf.hawaii.edu.

The University of Hawai`i at Mānoa serves approximately 20,000 students pursuing more than 225 different degrees. Coming from every Hawaiian island, every state in the nation, and more than 100 countries, UH Mānoa students matriculate in an enriching environment for the global exchange of ideas. For more information, visit http://manoa.hawaii.edu.

Thank you to Lyndy Aquino for sending this press release to Filipinas Magazine. Lyndy, who recently retired from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, said that they had raised $43,000 for the Corky Fund.

Ashley Argota, a 16-year old Filipina American, can currently be seen entertaining audiences and fans on the hit Nickelodeon show, “True Jackson VP” (Saturdays at 8pm ET/PT). On the show, Ashley plays “Lulu,” the fun-loving, silly and sassy best friend and fashion assistant to True (Keke Palmer). Since its premiere, the show has been steadily climbing the rating charts and is one of the channel’s highest-rated sitcoms. Ashley’s comedy talents have been compared to that of the great Lucille Ball! “True Jackson VP” is currently shooting its second season and new episodes run continuously through 2010. In addition to her acting, Ashley is also a talented and fantastic singer. Her debut CD, Ashley, on New Revolution Records is currently available on iTunes and her song CD Baby, has received rave reviews. [Erin Bundra]

Filipinas Magazine went online to check out what Ashley Argota has been up to. Here’s one of the interviews we found on YouTube.com.

Welcome to the Community Beat at Filipinas Magazine!

This continuing work of love derives its content from all the Filipino communities worldwide that correspond with our Filipinas Magazine editors and staff. These contributors believe that Filipinas Magazine highlights our community’s achievements and accolades, critical issues, inevitable hardships and challenges, and more joyous moments of celebration.

Since 1996, I have made it my personal mission to introduce Filipino networks to each other online, starting with friends, then with friends of friends, and finally — listservs. I also started a personal blog in 2004. Before long, I had an “email broadcasting” or “town crier” reputation. I’ve seen the emergence of more volunteer community publicists in the past few years (and I coined this term, “community publicist” in 2005 to a perplexed California Senator Leland Yee during a “Filipina First and Foremost” radio talk show). While celebrity publicists focus on — yes — celebrities, Filipino community publicists focus on — yes — the Filipino community as THE celebrity. Hear this call! We need more community publicists. Volunteer and start writing or broadcasting about your local community’s heroes and achievements, problems, and opportunities for social change. Send your news to Filipinas Magazine, too.

My journey inside Filipinas Magazine has truly been one that demands making detours whenever necessary. Thus, I’ve been wearing many costumes since 2005, such as: business developer, community advocate, analyst, strategy consultant, “phone directory,” marketing copywriter, researcher, idea-generator, and today, I’m a Community Beat writer and collator of information inside the Filipinas Magazine Community Blog. Aha, this means that anyone of us here at Filipinas Magazine can contribute to this blog. I just get to start oiling the blog’s hinges and wheels.

How did I get this wonderful position? Point to the editorial staff, of course. My publisher will probably have ideas of his own BUT in this wonderful wild, Wild West of the internet, the Filipinas Magazine Community Blog will dare to continue reaching out to Filipinos and friends in cyber-space.

Yes, we’ve built the community blog. We’ve opened the doors. We won’t promise that you’ll always get your 15 minutes of fame in “People to Watch.” Let’s tread effortlessly as we grow as a community within Filipinas Magazine.

I let it be. And so it is.