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Two Fil-Am Writers, One Voice,
Serramonte Library, Daly City, California.
July 16, 2011
"Kwentuhan Tayo!" A Day of Reading for Children,
Serramonte Library, Daly City, California.
April 30, 2011
Diversity Forum at University
of San Francisco Features
Three Filipino American Authors,
USF Fromm Institute, San Francisco, California
April 26, 2011
Hercules Library to Host
Two Filipino American
Women Authors,
Hercules Library, Hercules, California.
April 9, 2011
Conversations with Filipino Authors: Benito Vergara Jr., Serramonte Library, Daly City, California.
April 9, 2011
IN THE NEWS
Reading by 2 Filipina authors, Philippine News, April 10, 2011.
Barbara Jane Reyes and Janet Mendoza Stickmon on Living and Growing Up in America.
A Pinoy literary fiesta in San Francisco, Inquirer.net, February 22, 2011.
Benjamin Pimentel on San Francisco being the heart of the Filipino literary world.
Marites Vitug, Philippine News.
Gemma Nemenzo profiles Marites Vitug.
NVM Gonzalez Writing Workshop: Power to combat invisibility,
Philippine News, July 15, 2011.
Johaina Crisostomo on Sonoma State University writing workshop.
A Fil-Am book fair in San Francisco,
The Philippine Star, July 25, 2011.
Butch Dalisay on the sizeable contingent for FilBookFest.
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SAVE THE DATE:
OCTOBER 1 and 2
FOR THE FILAM INTERNATIONAL
BOOK FESTIVAL
A Festival Like No Other
The center of gravity of Filipino culture will temporarily shift to the San Francisco Bay Area as the Filipino American International Book Festival (FilBookFest) ushers in the Filipino American History Month for 2011.
To be held on Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2 from 10 am to 4 pm, FilBookFest will take place in three venues in the Civic Center area of San Francisco: Fulton Street where the booksellers,’ vendors’ and food booths, as well as an outdoor stage will be located; the San Francisco Public Library where lectures, readings and panel discussions will be held; and the Asian Art Museum, which will host the culinary lectures, food tasting, and a conversation with National Artist BenCab.
For the Filipino American community, this festival is historic and groundbreaking. It will be the first-ever book festival in the U.S. to focus on the literature, music, art and performances by and of Filipinos and Filipino Americans.
But it is not only for Filipinos
Thousands of people – Filipinos and non-Filipinos, young and old – are expected to attend the book festival. Everyone is invited to take part in this FREE public event – as authors, booksellers, exhibitors/vendors, volunteers, sponsors/donors and performers, or just to enjoy Philippine culture and food at its best.
FilBookFest has something for everyone. For the multi-cultural and multi-generational crowd, the attractions are many:
- BROWSE and buy books of a wide variety of genres, many of them never before available in the U.S. There will be books for adults and children, artists and artisans, gays and straights, for those who seek inspiration and those who provide it, and many more. There will be new books to be launched at the event. Videos will also be available.
- ENJOY fun and informative demonstrations and panel discussions on such topics as how to get published, how to market your book, writing memoirs and novels, translating ethnic literature and more!
- ATTEND lectures on Philippine art, literature, history and politics.
- MEET the largest gathering of authors of Filipino heritage (outside the Philippines), including National Artists BenCab, Rio Alma and F. Sionil Jose, and well-known authors Ambeth Ocampo, Jose Dalisay, Pete Lacaba, Marites Vitug, Cecilia Brainard, among almost a hundred others.
- WITNESS a balagtasan (traditional debate in poetry) by acclaimed balagtasan performers.
- VISIT the extensive children’s floor that will feature readings of children’s books by well-known personalities, videos of Batibot (a popular children’s TV program), talks for parents and teachers on various aspects of Filipino culture, and educational arts and crafts for children.
- BE INSPIRED by poetry readings, Spoken Word and theatrical renditions of popular novels.
- ENJOY music, comedy and performances by theater groups.
- PARTAKE of culinary lectures and a lot of food for free tasting and for sale.
FilBookFest is brought to you by the Literacy Initiatives International Foundation (LIIF), a California nonprofit; the San Francisco Public Library, the Philippine Consulate, the Asian Art Museum and the Philippine Department of Tourism, in cooperation with TFC/ABS-CBN Foundation International. Among its sponsors are the Asia Foundation, the University of San Francisco’s Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program, Inquirer.net and Philippine News.
The organizers call on those who want to actively participate in this unique and groundbreaking festival of Philippine culture and arts. If you want to be an exhibitor, there are still a limited number of booths available. If you want to be a donor to ensure the success of the festival, please go to our website at www.filbookfest.org to make a tax-deductible donation.
An Early Bird discount for those who want a booth are available until August 31.
There are many volunteer opportunities too.
To get a booth or become a volunteer, please visit www.FilBookFest.org or filbookfest@yahoo.com.
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FIRST FILIPINO AMERICAN BOOK FESTIVAL
IN
SAN FRANCISCO LAUNCHED
PRESS RELEASE
Philippine Consulate General
447 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94108
415-433-6666 ext. 313 (public information section)
philippinessanfrancisco.org
February 10, 2011
| Guests at the well attended launching event of the FilBookFest held at the Social Hall of the Philippine Center Building in downtown San Francisco which included authors, librarians, vendors, corporate leaders community leaders and book lovers. |
“The best weapon against our invisibility is our literature.”
– Oscar Penaranda, author-educator-historian and FilBookFest Steering Committee member
Before a sizeable crowd of authors, librarians, vendors, corporate representatives, book lovers and community leaders, the Filipino American international Book Festival (FilBookFest) was officially launched at the Philippine Consulate General Social Hall recently.
FilBookFest, the first of its scope in the U.S. that focuses on Filipino diaspora culture and literature, will take place on October 1 and 2, 2011 at the San Francisco Main Library. The event will usher in the celebration of Filipino American History Month in San Francisco this year.
 At the launch reception, Consul General Marciano Paynor Jr. (left) hailed FilBookFest as an idea that is long overdue. “With the richness of [Philippine] culture and the talents of our writers and our artists, we should have started having book festivals a long time ago,” he stressed.
Luis Herrera (right below), chief librarian of the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) system, echoed Consul General Paynor’s sentiments and announced the Library’s full and enthusiastic support for the project. He told the audience of about 100 guests that when Consul General Paynor, along with Consul Reginald Bernabe of the Philippine Consulate, Gemma Nemenzo of the Literary Initiatives International Foundation (LIIF) and Mitchell Yangson, Librarian of SFPL’s Filipino American Center, presented the FilBookFest idea to him a few months back, “it [the Library’s support] was a no-brainer.”
The lead organizer of FilBookFest is LIIF, a San Francisco Bay Area-based nonprofit that promotes cultural literacy among Filipino Americans and other ethnic communities. The Philippine Consulate General of SF and SFPL are co-organizers, with Asia Foundation (Philippines) on board as a major sponsor. The two-day outdoor and indoor event will gather authors, videographers and artists of Filipino heritage from all over the world. Philippine and U.S. publishers will be selling books representing a wide variety of genres, for children and adults. FilBookFest will also feature visual arts, videos and performance, as well as Filipino food. Lectures and panel discussions on Philippine history and culture, and on writing, publishing and marketing of books and other creative arts will take place.
The festival will have a Children’s Area inside SFPL that will feature storytelling sessions and readings of Filipino children’s books and young adult literature. The sessions will be supplemented by arts and crafts lessons for children, and a discussion on writing books for children to be led by experts in the field. All sessions will be free and open to the public.  The Health and Wellness area will feature traditional healers, herbalists and wholistic health authors. There will be lectures on various health issues as well as spiritual and self-help advice. The sessions are likewise free and open to the public. Filipino culinary arts and regional cooking will be a big part of FilBookFest, with Filipino cookbook authors from the Philippines, Australia and other states of the U.S. doing culinary demos and discussing the unique aspects of Filipino food. To meet its long-term goal of putting Filipino-authored books in most public and academic libraries in California, the home state of more than half of the five-million-strong Filipino American community in the U.S., LIIF is focusing its outreach efforts on librarians, academics (particularly Ethnic Studies professors), and book distributors . U.S. publishers and literary agents are likewise encouraged to attend to expand their pool of authors. The organizers envision FilBookFest to be the largest gathering of authors of Filipino heritage outside the Philippines.
At the Consulate reception, some members of the FilBookFest Steering Committee, namely Oscar Peñaranda, Maya Escudero, Penelope Flores, Ferlie Andong, Maia Almendral, Edwin Lozada, Lolly Pineda and Letty Quizon took turns briefing the audience on various planned aspects of the festival. Al Perez, the Festival Director who is also doing the graphics, unveiled the FilBookFest poster and showed the diagram of the festival setting. The organizers are seeking to close off Fulton St. between SFPL and the Asian Art Museum for the two-day event.
Special guests during the reception were Virginia Shih of the UC Berkeley Library, Valerie Sommer and Cheryl Grantano Rich of the South San Francisco Library, Carol Simmons an d Kristi Bell of the Daly City Library, and Helen Marti-Bautista, former member of the San Francisco Library Commission.
In her closing remarks, FilBookFest coordinator Gemma Nemenzo echoed author-historian-educator Oscar Peñaranda who had earlier said that “The best weapon against [our community’s] invisibility is our literature.” In enjoining everyone to do their part in making FilBookFest a success, Gemma Nemenzo said, “This festival is about sharing our narratives to the broader community of book lovers out there, and from this sharing, our collective voices can be heard far and wide in this tapestry of cultures that we call America.”
For more information on how to be part of FilBookFest as an author, exhibitor, sponsor, donor or volunteer, please email the Steering Committee at filbookfest@yahoo.com.
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