Pluma Writers’ Collective – A collective of Filipinx-Canadian writers whose work spans genres and generations.

Pluma is a collective of Filipinx-Canadian writers whose work spans genres and generations.

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⛈️Benevolent Assimilation- it's such a twisted

⛈️Benevolent Assimilation- it's such a twisted concept. Look up some interesting quotes from Senator Beverage and President McKinley.
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It's really a jumble of ideas. There was no real sketch or plan, I just creatively threw up on a canvas with brushes and markers. The itch took a while to develop though. It began when I was confronted by a slew of information while working at the @kapisanan centre. I worked there with some inspiring people like Alex, Myk, and Caroline, and together we tried to develop an arts based history class. The exposure to a number of great resources was eye opening, especially, The Forbidden Book. The page that I added to this post struck me like a lightning bolt. As immersed as I was in our culture... And as the picture shows, I participated in Sinulog dances as a kid, banging my sword while two stepping around an idol... I will always have this part of me that was intentionally washed out. And who did the most scrubbing? Well I guess we all have our opinions, either or what are we going to do about it now? I can't speak for you, but I have alot more pages to add to my activity book.

🌴So in 2018, I put out a Philippine Islands Act

🌴So in 2018, I put out a Philippine Islands Activity Book.🌴
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Now I want to make it clear, I am far from an expert and do not propose to carry myself as one. What I am is someone who grew up with an idea of my culture but not really knowing it.
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Sure, I knew that LapuLapu was a hero and that Marcos was a villain, but I also knew that I would NEVER have the same connection to my heritage the way my parents did. And at the end of the day, should I even care? Recognizing the disconnect I decided to search for myself and was inspired by the artist depicted in this painting. As a visual artist I like to express myself in multiple ways so after almost a decade of not painting, I created the art piece you see here. I was so inspired by #apowhangod that I wanted to include this amazing artist in the book. If you swipe all the way to the right, you'll even see the page.
The thing is.. I didn't include it. Why not? It's hard to explain.
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The tribes in the Philippine islands are unique and integral to our history. In fact I think their recognition is one of the most important points in knowing our history. In including this page, I didn't think I was doing the Kalinga people justice. Maybe one day. In the end, I know there is so much more that I have to learn. - @erctigz

🤗This pleasant chum is @erctigz & judging by th

#Repost @ysl.writes • • • • • • Toront

#Repost @ysl.writes
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Toronto, Ontario

Haaaave you met Shirley?
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I met Shirley in 2018 when she invited me through @erctigz to read at an event where she was showcasing her poetry at U of T. BoW wasn’t even a real book then, just a bunch of 1s and 0s on my computer, grammar all jacked up, emailed to my tablet for reading. I wasn’t the only one she asked to read, it felt like there were at least 8-10 of us before she got up and blessed the crowd. Guys, I owe Shirley. Through her example of opening up her space by inviting other authors in to share their work, I learned the value of others and community. We are stronger together, we cover more terrain as a team.
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I also owe Shirley for mentioning @ArkipelagoBooks before I ventured to California to meet the love of my life for the first time IRL. Because of her suggestion while walking through the cold February streets of Toronto with @jennilee_a and Cheeseburger, I reached out to Golda and Lily at Arkipelago. I am so thankful for these amazing women. It’s because of Shirley that I’ve made such great friends out in San Francisco. It’s also because of Shirley that I feel my community extends to the Bay Area now. And finally, I owe Shirley because she’s asked me to participate, yet again, in something phenomenal.
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On August 20th at 8pm I’ll be hosting a viewing party/interview/Q&A for her short film Novena over Zoom. I’m so very excited for this! Shirley’s work is beautiful, haunting, and her reading voice mellifluous. Trust me. I’m particularly fond of Mercy, the collection that Novena belongs to, as I was there for launch night. I feel like a proud Tito who was in attendance for the binyagan. I can’t wait to talk about that night.
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Novena, the short film, was created with funding from the Canadian Council for the Arts and the event itself is funded by the League of Canadian Poets. Kat Estacio will be in attendance to talk about the score she arranged for the short and Shirley will be reading poems from Mercy that I’m hand-picking! The last portion of the event we’ll be opening up to floor to questions! Best part? The event is free!
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More details to come!
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www.yveslamson.com

A couple of non-fiction books written by Filipinx

A couple of non-fiction books written by Filipinx authors that are on my to-read list:
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1. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino
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I've been fascinated by Jia Tolentino ever since I first saw her work on Jezebel. She was born in Toronto to Filipino immigrant parents and grew up in Texas surrounded by white people. Throw in the fact that she's about my age and has my dream job (one of many) as a writer for The New Yorker, and I feel myself relating hard. I've been wanting to read Trick Mirror, a book of her essays, since it came out last year.
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2. Invisible People: Stories of Lives at the Margins by Alex Tizon
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You may remember Alex Tizon as the author of My Family's Slave, an article that was published by The Atlantic in 2017. At almost 10,000 words, the article went viral online, which is NOT a thing that ever happens to 10,000-word articles, a testament to how powerfully written it was. I remember at the time having to explain to non-Filipinos what a katulong was in the Philippines (and getting a lot of negative reactions in return). Unfortunately, Alex Tizon passed away just before the article was published. But I recently learned that this collection of his work was posthumously published last year.
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If you have any other recommendations for Filipinx/diaspora authors, please share!
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- @altheazm

If you haven't read up about Filipina journalist @

If you haven't read up about Filipina journalist @maria_ressa yet, now's a good time. Last month, she was found guilty of "cyber libel" by a Philippine court because of a story published by her news site @rappler, and could face six months in prison.
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Many are calling the charges against her and her Rappler colleague Rey Santos Jr an attack on press freedom. Rappler is one of the few sites in the country that openly criticizes the Duterte administration. They've also been a leader in fighting the rampant spread of fake news on sites like Facebook (which is the parent company of the app you're using to read this, by the way).
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It's a reminder of how important press freedom is not just in the Philippines, but around the world.
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There's a new documentary coming out about Ressa next month called A Thousand Cuts (@_athousandcuts) that I'm excited to check out.
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In the meantime, I also recommend the @natgeo documentary The Nightcrawlers, which looks at the Philippine War on Drugs from the perspective of the photojournalists reporting on it.
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For something a little closer to home, there's the @Netflix documentary called Nobody Speak, which looks at threats to the free press on this side of the globe, through the Hulk vs. Gawker trial and, of course, Trump.
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Stay informed, stay safe!
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- @altheazm

It's me again, @altheazm, your host for #plumafrid

It's me again, @altheazm, your host for #plumafridays.
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This week, let me introduce you to one of the Philippines' finest writers and statesmen: Salvador Ponce Lopez, also known as SP Lopez.
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Born in 1911 in Ilocos Norte, he was a Filipino journalist, diplomat and educator. In his award-winning book of essays, Literature and Society, he argued that art should have substance, and not just be art for art's sake. He advocated for “proletarian literature.”
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He served as president of the University of the Philippines during the Marcos regime, at a time when the student body was radically politicized. Although at first he tried to give Marcos a chance, Esquire Philippines wrote that "[b]y 1974, SP could no longer 'pretend to be unbiased' because 'liberalism itself is a bias.'"
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Before I learned about his lifetime of accomplishments, to me, he was just Uncle SP.
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He was my mother's father's brother. My mom followed him into the foreign service, working with him at the United Nations, and he was a part of my family's life since before I was born. (In fact, my parents were students at the University of the Philippines when he was president.)
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But my earliest memories of him are from when I was 7 years old, when my mom, my brother and I would visit him at his home in Quezon City. I showed him my short stories, and he praised and encouraged my writing. It's possible he was just being a nice lolo, but his validation fills me with pride even today.
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Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of information about him on the internet — he died in 1993 — but he is a man worth knowing about...and if you didn't know, now you know.
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(Thanks to my mom, @agneslopezmanasan, for sending me these photos from her collection.)

Hello friends! It’s @altheazm here, taking over

Hello friends! It’s @altheazm here, taking over #PlumaFridays for the month of July. With 2020 shaping up to be, well, somewhat of a garbage fire, I wanted to take some time to focus on a kind of storytelling that I think matters now more than ever: news and journalism.
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But first, a little bit about myself.
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I’ve been writing my whole life. But it wasn’t until I went off to university that I started to realize the true power of words.
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I did my undergrad in the era of George W. Bush and the War on Terror. Even though I was watching it all unfold from Canada, I learned that through the media, words could be used to manipulate — but that they could also be used to reveal truths and hold the powerful to account. Either way, these stories had real consequences for real people.
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I ended up going to journalism school, and long story short, I’ve been a member of the “mainstream media” for a decade now.
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I’m not as idealistic about journalism as I once was. There are problems with bias and representation in Canadian media. (As a FilCan kid who grew up in the suburbs of east Toronto — s/o Scarborough! — I never felt truly represented in the newsroom or in our coverage. It’s part of why I started freelancing on the side for the Philippine Reporter.)
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You can see some of those issues inside Canada’s media institutions now finally coming to light, thanks in large part to the anti-Black racism movement.
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But despite these problems (and many others), I still believe that journalism is important, and it needs to be defended — from disinformation campaigns, from claims of “fake news,” and from political leaders who attack the news media.
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So here I am. And I hope to spend the next few Pluma Fridays talking about it.
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Until then, stay safe, stay informed, and please…wear a mask.
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📸1+2: @juliennebay

It’s Canada Day and this is a day fraught with m

It’s Canada Day and this is a day fraught with many contradictions and complexities in my head and my heart. ⠀
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Hi friends! @justineabigail here and this will be my last post as part of my takeover for a little while. But before I go, I wanted to share some thoughts on Canada Day and what it means to be an immigrant settler. ⠀
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So what does this phrase “immigrant settler” even mean? It means to be someone who comes from another country to settle in what we now know as “Canada”. It means to be someone who has benefitted and continues to benefit from a system and government that first stole this land from Indigenous nations then stole and enslaved human beings from Africa to build this place I now call "home". It means to have a role and responsibility in dismantling these systems of oppression.⠀
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Beyond being an immigrant settler, I am also middle-class Filipina-Canadian whose parents entered this country through the Skilled Worker program with familial support already in place here for years — and who therefore had numerous advantages ahead of so many newcomers in this country (an apartment, a steady household income, a solid support system — just to name a few.)⠀
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I have always thought deeply about how this country has been good to me and my family, but has not been so good to so many others in my own community, and to all other marginalized communities, but the current state of the world has been that all the more apparent.⠀
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As immigrants, we often content ourselves by saying, “well, life is better in Canada than it is in the Philippines (or wherever you might be “from”). Look at how much better our lives are.”⠀
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But better does not mean good enough. Better does not even mean better for all, only better for some.⠀
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And so we must press on. We must continue to interrogate the systems around us, interrogate ourselves and our very own beliefs. We must think critically. And we must speak out and stand in solidarity with other marginalized communities, not just our own even if it is uncomfortable and inconvenient. ESPECIALLY when it is uncomfortable and inconvenient. ⠀
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Salamat sa pakikinig mga kapwatid. Until next time! ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

WHAT IS HERITAGE WITHOUT HOMELAND? @justineabigail

WHAT IS HERITAGE WITHOUT HOMELAND? @justineabigail here again. 🙋🏻‍♀️ As we close out Filipino Heritage Month, I think about how we in the diaspora often express pride around our heritage without knowing much about what’s going on in our very own homeland.⠀
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Just two weeks before pandemic lockdown, I returned home to Canada after a trip to the Philippines. Since then, I have watched from afar as my ancestral land descends even further under President Duterte. Since I left, the government has enforced curfews and checkpoints, inching towards martial law under the guise of protecting its citizens from COVID-19. The gov has shut down the largest media outlet that has actively spoken out against the current administration. And now, an “anti-terror” bill is on the table. ⠀⠀
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This “anti-terror bill” defines terrorism broadly to give law enforcement sweeping discretion over the arrest and detention of anyone they suspect of being a “terrorist”. What counts as “terrorist” acts? Joining a protest, gathering to organize around a political party, donating to non-state-recognized orgs, posting online content against the government. ⠀⠀
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It is very clearly designed to squash dissent against President Duterte and is an overreach of power.⠀⠀
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In case any of you have forgotten or were unaware – according to @humanrightswatch, there have been nearly 30,000 extrajudicial killings in the Philippines since Duterte’s “war on drugs” began in 2016. That’s 30,000 Filipinos killed without any kind of trial or due process. It is state-sanctioned murder. ⠀⠀
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Right now, the anti-terror bill is at Malacañang Palace awaiting the signature of Duterte. Without action from him, it will lapse into law on July 9.⠀
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As Filipinx in the diaspora who have been afforded privileges through distance by migration and duality in our identities, how do we show up and express solidarity for our kababayan right now? How do we use our hyphenated identities to act as a bridge in this time of crisis? ⠀
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I don’t have the answers but I urge you all to connect with the struggle at home. Follow @hacktibista_ @getsmobaph @nolisoli.ph @artnotterrorism @ofthepeopleph to learn more and stay updated.

LET’S WRITE TOGETHER! @justineabigail here again

LET’S WRITE TOGETHER! @justineabigail here again and I’m here to invite you to join me in cultivating your writing and storytelling practice! Join me on July 23 at 8-10 p.m. ET for Filipinx Feels: A Virtual Writing Workshop. Register at link in bio!⠀
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We’ll explore how we can honour our Filipino heritage while also living in between cultures, peoples, and places as part of a diaspora. What does it mean to be a hyphenated Canadian/American? To embody that hyphen in our own being? To act as a bridge between homeland and adopted country, between past and present, between our ancestors and descendants?⠀
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For the last year, I’ve been hosting writing workshops with @livinghyphen where we explore these questions of home, identity, and belonging as a community made up of various diasporas around the world, but as a tribute to Filipino Heritage Month, I wanted to do something specific to honour my own roots.⠀
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This writing workshop is designed for Filipinx in the diaspora of all writing levels, but especially those who are amateur or emerging. You should also be ready to share your work aloud as we aim to create this space of intimacy and connection! Through writing prompts and sharing circles, there will be plenty of space to create sparks for your creativity and a spotlight for your voice! You ready? ⠀
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TARA NA, ORAS NA MAG SULAT AT MAG KWENTUHAN! 📝⠀
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**Only 8 spots are available to keep our experience intimate and full of connection. Select spots have been reserved for subsidized pricing for those in financial need.**

How can we best honour our community during Filipi

How can we best honour our community during Filipino Heritage Month while also fighting in solidarity for the liberation of Black communities? We can do so by taking a good long hard look at ourselves and our very own community and confronting our own anti-Blackness. We can do so by engaging our pamilya at mga kaibigan in this really critical conversation about racial justice right now.⠀
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@justineabigail here, your @plumawrites host for the month urging you to start the revolution at home. Let’s initiate these really critical conversations with those who we are closest to, those with whom it is often the most difficult to have these conversations with — our Nanays and Tatays, Titas and Titos, Lolos and Lolas.⠀
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As a people colonized first by the Spaniards for 333 years and then the Americans for 48 years, we suffer from a long and hard case of the colonial mentality — that is, the thinking (often without even realizing it) that our colonizers, a.k.a white people, are superior to us and that we should aspire to their whiteness. Hence, our people’s rejection of anything close to being Black (think of the rampant use of whitening creams, the discouraging of playing under the sun, just to name the most obvious).⠀
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It is going to take a long time for us to unlearn these behaviours and this line of thinking but we need to start doing the work now. We need to break free from this line of thinking that oppresses not just Black people, but each and every single one of us. ⠀
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Don’t know where to start? I gotchu. Click the link in bio for a list of resources I’ve put together to help you through this cyclical and life-long journey of learning and unlearning - and how to involve your loved ones in that journey! ⠀
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*Please note that these resources are media that I have personally consumed and have learned from. This is by no means comprehensive, but rather is meant to be a living resource, an ongoing work-in-progress — just like I am, just like we all are.⠀
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ISANG BAGSAK. ✊🏼✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

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