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Ruby Ibarra wins immigrant award for ‘creative promise in music’
Ruby Ibarra is one of three recipients of 2023 Vilcek Foundation Prize for Creative Promise in Music. She receives the Vilcek Prize for her hip-hop and spoken word performances that center her experience as a Filipina American woman, and for her powerful lyrics that address colonialism, immigration, colorism, and misogyny. Born in Tacloban City in […]
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Cheyenne Concepcion’s St. Malo sculpture comes to Queens
Cheyenne Concepcion, a multi-disciplinary artist and designer, has created a sculpture called “Disappearing St. Malo,” referencing the first Filipino settlement in the United States. The bahay kubo-style art piece is currently on exhibit at the Socrates Sculpture Park in Long Island City in Queens. The settlement, founded in 1783, is located in the bayous of […]
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Classical pianist Victor Asuncion to aspiring artists: ‘Never stop learning’
By Maricar CP Hampton Three years ago, prolific classical pianist Victor Asuncion met a young violinist by the name of Adrian Nicolas Ong in New York City. He learned that Ong was already a “young artist to watch” back in the Philippines and that he was gathering praise wherever he performed. The FilAm Music Foundation […]
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Mayor Eric Adams makes historic attendance at TOFA
By Rasmin Diaz & Cristina DC Pastor There was unmistakable excitement as the honorees shuffled in, the piano played, and the mayor strode to his seat. It’s a historic first for any sitting New York City mayor to attend a Filipino event. On September 16, The Town Hall was luminous with New York City dignitaries […]
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Albany teen Sophia Kapunan wins Jose Rizal digital art contest
By Cristina DC Pastor A freshman from Albany won Sentro Rizal New York’s Digital Art Contest, a competition organized by the Philippine Consulate, with the theme “Reimagining Rizal, the National Hero, through the eyes of today’s FilAm Youth.” Sophia Gabrielle Kapunan, 13, drew an image of the National Hero using her iPad. The image of […]
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Political satire on dictatorship to be staged during Ice Factory Festival Aug 10-13
The Atlantic Pacific Theatre is staging Luis Francia’s play “The Strange Case of Citizen de la Cruz” from August 10-13, as part of the Ice Factory Festival sponsored by New Ohio Theatre. Claro de los Reyes and Robert Thaxton-Stevenson are directing. Set in an unspecified time in the Philippines, this political satire explores the phenomena of […]
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Artist Ruben Baradi: Putting God’s creation on canvas
Mixed media artist Ruben Baradi has been creating phenomenal art pieces for almost five decades. Growing up in San Fernando, La Union in the northern part of the Philippines, he would wake up in the morning to soak in the beautiful landscapes of the Philippines, its variety of mountains, forests, and fields. He thought to […]
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Stella Abrera named acting artistic director of American Ballet Theatre’s JKO School
Stella Abrera, former Principal Dancer with American Ballet Theatre, has been named Acting Artistic Director of the ABT Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School. The appointment, effective August 22, was announced by Kevin McKenzie, Artistic Director of American Ballet Theatre. Abrera has served as Artistic Director of Kaatsbaan Cultural Park in Tivoli, New York since June 2020, […]
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On Global Filipinos: Tenor Martin Bakari: Opera’s Fil-African American voice
By Loida Nicolas Lewis What a surprise to discover Martin Bakari, a Filipino-African American operatic tenor whose mother was born in Naga City, Camarines Sur and whose father is from Zanzibar, Tanzania. Bakari recently performed as the tenor soloist at Carnegie Hall in the well-attended “Carmina Burana” concert of the Cecilia Chorus of New York. “Praised by […]