Filipino Youth showcase powerful performances at fundraiser for upcoming UGAT Conference

Kabataang Montreal
Philippine Women's Centre of Quebec
SIKLAB-Quebec
Press Release

Filipino Youth showcase powerful performances at fundraiser for upcoming UGAT Conference

May 12, 2009

Montreal, QC, Canada - Saturday, May 9th, 2009 marked the Kapit Bisig Center’s UGAT: The Fundraiser, a night of spoken word and acoustic performances by prominent members of the Montreal community which took place at MUCS, a co-op space in the NDG/CDN area. The objective of the fundraiser was to raise awareness of the upcoming conference, UGAT: Sharing our Pinoyville Stories, Understanding our Roots. The event was well received, with over 70 audience members being treated to a bevy of performances by Filipino artists such as Julie Nieto, Neil Castro, Josie Caro and Jillian Sudayan of the Sinag Bayan Cultural Collective, former Philippine Idol winner Cherylyn Toca, and local Filipino artist Yuri Billiones.

“It was a great show”, says Jillian Sudayan, a performer in Saturday’s event, “I felt a strong connection with my songs, and most importantly, with the crowd. I could see that these issues are relevant to the community, and to express them through art was inspiring.”

The night also featured spoken word performances by hip hop artist Angelica Le Minh, Zibz of the Kalumunity Vibe Collective, comedian George Hamilton Braithwaite, and musicians Raa and long time supporter and musician, Jesse Guttman. All these contributions were in solidarity with the efforts of the Kapit Bisig Center.

Audience members reflected on the themes of the event, which touched on the predominant issues facing the Filipino community in Montreal. Issues such as family separation, discrimination and racism were at the heart of many performances. “I’m glad I came to this event. There was a good diversity of performances that kept me entertained and inspired”, said Aaron Santos, a Filipino youth and member of Kabatanng Montreal. “The songs and poems were particularly powerful – to hear the issues facing the Filipino community in this way has encouraged me to learn more. I’m definitely going to the conference.”

Organizers were also pleased with the turnout, with 70 members of the Filipino community and supporters filling the MUCS venue. “This event was a testament not just to the talent of our Filipino youth, but to their strength in the belief that we can make a difference in this society”, says Josie Caro of PWC-Quebec “I'm looking forward to bringing more of that energy to the conference at the end of May when we will be tackling our community issues through discussion groups and workshops to really bring out the voices of all of our youth”. While the regional conference will predominately be attended by Montreal youth, participants from other parts of Canada and the United States are expected to attend.

One of the main issues that the conference would like to address is the growing marginalization of Filipino youth in Canada -- a social issue rooted in Canada’s Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). Since its inception in 1992, the LCP has brought close to 100,000 Filipino women to Canada to care for children, older adults and people with disabilities. In this context, LCP workers encounter poor working conditions and improper compensation -- which often places workers vulnerable to psychological, physical and financial abuse. Long-term implications of the program can be found in the negative impact toward families-- where LCP workers are reunited with children after an average of five years of separation. Changing family dynamics and integration into a new society are among the challenges that face Filipino Youth.

UGAT: Sharing our Pinoyville Stories, Understanding our Roots is a conference meant to gather Filipino youth to share their stories of migration, develop their understanding of the situation of the Filipino community in Montreal, and engage in policy initiatives to empower Filipino youth. Participants will be encouraged to bring their ideas to the workshops and panel discussions as a means of contributing to the development of the Filipino community in Montreal. The conference will take place May 22-24, at the Amphitheatre of the Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry (ICFP) at 4333 Cote-Ste-Catherine.

-30-

For more information on the conference or to volunteer, email kabataangmontreal@gmail.com or call:

Josie Caro at 514-962-9615
Julie Nieto at 514-659-5857
Neil Castro at 514-690-6345

Please join us for...

UGAT: The Fundraiser
a night of spoken word, music and song

The UGAT Conference* is coming up! Preparations are gathering speed and we are very, very excited to see you all between May 22&24 in Cote-des-Neiges.

Ahead of the conference, Kabataang Montreal has cooked up a an evening of spoken word, music and song. In true KM form, expect some soul, harmony and a whole lot of strong talents! All proceeds from the event will go to financing conference costs. Come for beats, rhymes, thoughts, beer, food... and to support!

UGAT: The Fundraiser
Saturday, May 9th @ 8pm
MUCS, 2000 Northcliffe # 218 - NDG
Vendome Metro

Door is 5-10$ sliding scale


* The conference “UGAT: Sharing our Pinoyville Stories, Understanding our Roots” will gather Filipino Youth of Montreal to share their stories and understand one another in their context of migration and settlement in Canada. From the understanding of our roots of migration and the history of the Philippines, conference participants will then explore and discuss the settlement and integration of Filipinos in Canada, and specifically in Montreal. Panel and workshop topics will include racism, identity, gender, language and education. Another goal of the conference is to train youth to engage in discussion on policies affecting the Filipino community in Montreal. For more information or to register, email kabataangmontreal@gmail.com.

"Kuttin it Collectively"

Bitch Magazine, in the Love It / Shove It section of its spring 2009 issue, featured an interview with DJ Kuttin Kandi. I swear, I live off finds like these.

DJ Kuttin Kandi is a battler. A fiercely skilled turntablist, she's one of the first women to bust through the testosterone-laced barriers blocking DJ booths across the land. She's been cutting and spinning since the 1990's, along the way winning a number of prestigious competitions and leaving less skilled DJs - both males and females - in her wake. [...] She's a fighter for social justice as well: on top of her renowned hip hop and spoken word artistry, Kandi is a longtime community and youth organiser. Born as Candice Custodio and raised in NYC, she recently relocated to San Diego. These days much of her activism is carried out on the University of California - San Diego campus, where she works with students at the Women's Centre and helps direct and produce the play Export Quality: Monologues Based on True Stories of Mail Order Brides from the Philippines

You've mentioned not really coming into your Filipina identity until your early 20s.

Hip hop is what started me on my path to political awareness, and connected me with some great social change organisers. But yeah, I was born and raised in NYC, and because of my parents' assimilation to this country, I hadn't heard anything about U.S. Filipina culture, issues of colonization, or the trafficking of women in the Philippines until 2000, when the Gabriela Network [ a Philippine-U.S. women's solidarity organisation] asked me to DJ at their Los Angeles conference. I said, "Sure, but what's Gabriela Network?"

I live, live, live for finds like these. Outreaching in cegeps and high schools recently, I've been doing some weird positive-profiling and getting some well interesting responses from youth - some of whom are maybe reading this, I hope! From looks of dismay (Yeah, you called it I'm Pinoy - ugh) to shy glances (Yes, is that ok?) the common links between many people I approach seems the exact same as what would link me to all of you: I'm sick of being asked! lol

But beside that, I've been getting what I would serve everyone else who was bold enough to ask: "Yes, I'm Filipino but I'm not that involved. So don't ask anything, I've got no more info." "I don't know what Pinoy means." "I'm also other things." "Don't ask me about anything typically Filipino, I'm sick of explaining Pansit." You're Pinoy too... are you asking me to give you money / go to church more?

Nah, none of the above. What took me a while to figure out and what I'm inviting you to do when I'm handing a flyer is really, really simple: to make the link between everything you are and the community you were born out of. It took me a really really long time to realize that what I had, even though it had nothing to do with sashes, crosses and tinikling sticks, could be of some use to the Montreal Pinoy community.

The fact that we're having a hellah good time doing it all helps a little, too. It's taken a few decades, but I've finally become able to look back at the face posing the question "Are you Filipina" with a bit of victorious defiance and give them my own answer to whatever follow up question they may bring my way, and wear my Pinoyness with pride.

On the theme of beat and hip hop, we're having a fundraiser!

It's going to be a spoken word / performance night showcasing some of CDN / NDG's talents. Come for beats, thought, eats, and beer - and come support a good cause as all the proceeds will be going to conference costs.

Place: MUCS (Montreal Urban Community Sustainment)
2000 Northcliffe #218, Metro Vendome
May 9th, @ 8pm
door is 5-10$ sliding scale

Meet the Organizers: Rob and Steph

Movie Screening: 'When Strangers Reunite"

The Filipino Solidarity Collective, a QPIRG McGill working group, along with the Philippine Women Centre of Quebec and Kabataang Montreal, will be showing "When Strangers Reunite", a video documentary by Florchita Bautista and Marie Boti, highlighting the challenges of family separation and reunification brought on by Canadian immigration policies. A discussion, including some people who appeared in the film, will follow the film showing.

April 7, 2009
McGill University
Leacock 232
6:15 p.m.

Meet the Organizers: Josie

What the school system won't make you read

I'll be honest, I didn't mind high school. Mostly because 'minding it' was NOT an option, and I was sure my parents had some radar that would turn on alarms and red strobe lights in the house if I so much as thought of skipping. Minding high school was just not an option. So I just sucked it up and dealt with it. Mostly poorly.

There were parts I liked - mainly lunch time, Spanish and English. I went to a French high school so any language was pretty much a bird class.

I HATED French. The teacher was a staunch separatist who thought it was appropriate to ask us for our personal info - like address and email and phone number. I am still not too sure what he was going to use them for. Plus he had this really breathy way of speaking and utb-of-Crisco oily hair. AND he made us read books in the most illogical way. The test involved giving the definition and context of page upon page of vocabulary word, so we were basically reading the dictionary and memorising page numbers more than getting to enjoy and understand the novel itself.

It actually made me hella nervous to pick up a book for a few years after that.

So when a kasama asked me "what books I had read" while we were preparing materials for the International Women's Day march this past March 8, I just turned mute. High school and the academic snobbery of McGill just turned books into a stigma. As though I would be a lesser person for not having read this guy or the other.

I haven't read most socialist and communist lit. Nor have I read most political, sociological or economic treatise* out there. Which doesn't mean I like reading - I just don't like reading about people who've discovered this week's truth of the month.

Anyways.

To this kasama's question I gave the following answer -

I've read Jessica Hagedorn. And Screaming Monkeys. And Babaylan and Returning A Borrowed Tongue. I've looked really hard for alternative readings and analyses of Filipino history. I picked up Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, but after starting it over three times I've all but given up reading it. Next up on my reading list is Pinay Power: Peminist Critical Theory and Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults.

Taking his advice, I finally started reading America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan. I picked it up on a pretty epic trip, and am still not too sure why it took me so long to crack its spine.

From pretty much the third page, I had to take pauses and breathe in a little deeper. The themes he brings up in such a human and sensitive way - family unity and separation, poverty, peasant's land rights, class and social dynamics in the Philippines and in America, migration, "difference" and racism are still so relevant today although written in 1943.

In the space my brain's at right now, having just returned from working with peasants who were struggling to eat and keep their land, and preparing for the Ugat conference, this book couldn't have come at a better time to bring it all together. And remind me of things I had forgotten or had chosen not to know about my family's life, like where my family is really (REALLY) from and why my dad really (REALLY) came here.

I would quote some passages but I think you'd be better off reading it on your own. Some parts affected me really deeply that may not really strike a chord with you - it's just a matter of what hits home to each of us, depending where we've been and where we're at. Regardless, be it now or later, please please please get your hand on this novel. I swear, pick it up and first thing you know, three hours will have gone by and you'll have barely noticed. Hit me up if you want to share a copy - I have a sneaky feeling MTL public librearies may not carry a copy.


* 1: a systematic exposition or argument in writing including a methodical discussion of the facts and principles involved and conclusions reached 2obsolete : account,tale - HONESTLY, just the definition makes me cringe.