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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plumawrites

For today’s #pluma Christmas recommendations, he

For today’s #pluma Christmas recommendations, here's a comic book to shake things up written by our pink-haired author Rachel Evangeline Chiong (@rachelsauruscrankthatfocus ) and illustrated by Sven (@svencomicsart ).

”Many creation stories begin when light brings life to a sea of darkness. But what if it happened the other way around?"

‘Dark Magic’ (2019) adapts the poem of the same name, and is available as a 29-page comic both digitally and in print, measuring at 5″ square. Swipe for some of the gorgeous illustrations, why would I put it into words when you can witness it for yourself?

Order from our good friends at @thebeguiling or nab a copy on Sven's website. (✿◠‿◠)

pic cr: @stef_mlad

#plumawrites #filipinocanadian #filcan #thebeguiling #shopindie

For today’s #Pluma Christmas recommendations, he

For today’s #Pluma Christmas recommendations, here’s a new anthology with work by our very own Jennilee Austria! (@jennilee_a)

Published by Guernica Editions, Changing the Face of Canadian Literature: A Diverse Canadian Anthology also features contributions from diverse writers including Doretta Lau, Ayelet Tsabari, Jael Richardson, Kaie Kellough, Doyali Islam and more.

And edited by Bermuda-born, Toronto-based spoken word artist, former slam poet, musician, and author Dane Swan, this anthology showcases a special collection of writers he identified as community leaders:

"When I first started putting this anthology together, one of the things that I wanted to do was make sure that the first group of people that I reached out to were actually involved in their communities. I didn't want to get a random person because they came from a certain background. I wanted people who were heavily involved.”

Shout-out to #FilipinoTalks!

If you’re looking for stories and poems about race, ethnicity, and identity by diverse Canadian writers and community leaders, check this out at @guernicaeditions and at your favourite Canadian bookstores!

#PlumaWrites #FilipinoCanadian #FilCan #WeNeedDiverseBooks #FilipinoAuthors #PlumaCollective

✨ CULTIVATING CARE IN THE FILIPINO DIASPORA ✨⠀
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So excited to share this very special writing workshop from Pluma member and @livinghyphen founder @justineabigail in partnership with the North York Community House @nychonline specifically for Filipino caregivers, nurses, personal support workers, and essential workers - link in bio! ⠀
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Cultivating Care is a writing and storytelling workshop series that explores what it means to live in between cultures, peoples, and places as part of a diaspora and what it means to give and receive care from afar during a global pandemic.⠀
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All attendees will be provided with an honorarium for their participation. ⠀
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No writing experience necessary. Attendees should be ready to share their written work out loud. Register in my link in bio!⠀
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Registration is now full for the December 10 session but PLEASE SIGN UP FOR THE WAITLIST because if there is enough interest, @nychonline + @livinghyphen will work to bring another session. ⠀
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Pwede rin mag sulat at mag salita sa Tagalog kung mas comportable para sa iyo. Marunong mag Inglis at mag Tagalog yung tagapagturo. The workshop facilitator is fluent in both English and Tagalog. (That’s @justineabigail!)

Hey everyone! It’s your Pluma sista @memoirsofaj

Hey everyone! It’s your Pluma sista @memoirsofajaisa here & I’m excited to finally take over the plumawrites account for today.

It’s taken a while for me to share on here because I’ve been busy learning how to be a mother to my 8 month old named Jasper. Before he was born I actually considered my first baby to be my first published book, holding off any family planning until my manuscript was submitted to my editor.

That’s my book under the xmas tree & yes I already have wrapped gifts underneath it. In fact, all my xmas shopping is done! Because what else is one to do while her baby is asleep on her but shop online? 😂

Now I’ll assume that some of you still have a few folks on your gift list, right? If so, then if anyone on that list is interested in the journey of healing and the practices of mindfulness, self-compassion, energy medicine &/or shamanism, then consider sharing my book with them!

“Purpose In Paralysis: From Chronic Pain to Universal Gain” is available on Amazon but if you’d like me to sign it & write a personalized message then send me a DM @memoirsofajaisa.

If not my book, then do consider any of the other amazing books by our Pluma Writes authors. Because wouldn’t it be great to get more pin@y authors under everyone’s xmas trees this year?🎄

Super proud of our very own Shirley Camia! For Win

Super proud of our very own Shirley Camia! For Winnipeg Words, @winnipegartscouncil is featuring her poetry at Harvey Smith Library, just a few blocks from where she grew up.

This poem is from her latest collection, Mercy, available from @turnstone_press. Link in bio!

⛈️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.)

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