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Lying, passing, hiding: An undocumented immigrant’s life
By Cristina DC Pastor Pulitzer Award-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas remembers writing his first book –“not a memoir” – as he was kicked out of his ‘Frazier-style’ loft in downtown L.A. shortly after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. The building manager warned him that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) might show up in […]
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Nicole Ponseca publishes a cookbook, her ‘manifesto of identity’
By Cristina DC Pastor “I Am a Filipino” is best remembered as Carlos P. Romulo’s patriotic anthem. Where I went to school back in the day, we were required to memorize it and declaim it in front of the class, complete with knowing when to pause and when to enunciate the dramatic phrases. More than […]
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Consulate’s night of poetry honors Jose Garcia Villa
“First, a poem must be magical, Then musical as a seagull. It must be a brightness moving And hold secret a bird’s flowering It must be slender as a bell, And it must hold fire as well.” — First, A Poem Must Be Magical And so it was that Consul General Claro Cristobal recited one […]
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Filipino Ka Ba?
“The entire course, and meaning, of my life changed with three words,” says Christopher Holl, author of ‘The Kano, The Teacher & The Lola: A Filipino-American Fable.’ “Filipino ka ba. Three words that completely changed the trajectory of my life were Tagalog.” Recently published, American-born and bred Holl describes the book as a celebration of […]
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A cookbook launches in D.C., a food app in California
Filipino Americans across the country have food in their hearts and on their minds: What we eat, how to cook them, and which restaurants to find the best Filipino dishes. In Washington D.C., a new book on Philippine cuisine, “The New Filipino Kitchen: Stories and Recipes from around the Globe,” made its debut on September […]
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Canadian colors, Japanese poetic form in ‘Tanka’
By Neil Leadbeater At first glance, there is an air of mystery about this tall chapbook of 20 pages, saddle-stitched and printed in an edition of 75 numbered copies. On the front cover, instead of a title, there is just the word TANKA. The name of the author is not announced. The cover is blank […]
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Amy Goodman’s book on where ‘journalists go where the silence is’
By Julia Lagoc The most insightful, provocative Opinion columns I’ve come across are now anthologized in Amy Goodman’s “Breaking the Sound Barrier.” Enthralling viewpoints from Democracy Now! — a TV, radio, Internet news program — are bound into this book. The revered host of Democracy Now! explains what the title means to her as a […]
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Dawn Bohulano Mabalon remembered as a progressive and inspiring mentor, a loyal friend
By Cristina DC Pastor To her best friend, Dawn Bohulano Mabalon was the always-knowledgeable older sister, the progressive mentor, and the giggly girlfriend who enjoyed her visits to NYC. Christine Capacillo’s memories of the historian, author, activist, and professor revolved around these expressive images of Dawn. According to reports, Dawn’s “sudden death” on August 10 […]
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The poetry form ‘Hay(na)ku’ on its 15th birthday
By Eileen R. Tabios In 2018, the “hay(na)ku”, a tercet-based poetic form, will celebrate its 15th year anniversary. While I created the form, it received its name from Vince Gotera who had co-founded (with Nick Carbo) the Flips Listserve where I introduced the form (the Listserve was for those interested in Filipino literature). The hay(na)ku’s […]