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Glimpse into the writing process. Live coming to you in the flesh SF Bay Area in April 2022! #TheRealSappho #theater #revising #writing #poetry #playwriting @cuttingball https://www.instagram.com/p/CZfgv4OPIDrXrWLH4YVtY_NuSF3PorrlNSrvCY0/?utm_medium=tumblr

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New! Still shots from the video which just premiered YouTube, a poet’s cut of “Change is Us”—a poem-video (with Andrea Spearman & beautiful video work by Joan Osato). This was a commission to write in response to Octavia Butler‘s earthseed verses from Parable of the Sower presented originally for the Living Word Festival. It was meaningful and fulfilling for me, and feels timely as we begin 2022, still facing the pandemic, storms, fires, the need to make things better for this & next generation. Dedicated to my son, who has special appearances in the latter part. 🙏🏽💛🙏🏽Video link https://youtu.be/RsL0Yn84UpE Pls check it out and let me know your thoughts! Feel free to spread far and wide. (at Oakland, California) 
https://www.instagram.com/p/CY0Bl0Kp1mhi_2rzR5NEfjWgddgxlJr3pPEda00/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Filipino American History Month Notes Day 30: Shoutout & repost of "What happens when a group of young Pinoy and Pinay writers, artists, and students — Flips — take the means of production into their own hands."

of a forward to the reprint/re-issue of Liwanag, the 1975 Filipino American arts anthology, by Barbara Jane Reyes, https://barbarajanereyes.com/what-happens-when-a-group-of-young-pinoy-and-pinay-writers-artists-and-students-flips-take-the-means-of-production-into-their-own-hands/ Barbara Jane Reyes is a bastion of Pilipinx literature, and has been one of the most diligent writers who keeps producing (so admirable and inspiring!) while both looking to both the past and future by helping illuminate the voices of fellow Pinay writers (like myself) and teaching students to appreciate our literatures and voices. So a big shoutout to you Barbara, and while I'm at it, Pinay writers out there who are publishing lots or unpublished (yet), performing, creating, keep making, keep making y/our stories known! #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth

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Filipino American History Month note Day 27 (looking to the homeland):

This is what happens on Day of the Dead 💀 / Araw Ng Mga Patay / Undas among residents of Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines: Panag-Apoy (literally, to "produce fire") festival. Not only are there fiestas, families sitting at the gravestones as in other regions with candles, but fires are lit up to honor the dead. (from ivanlakwatsero.com) #dayofdead

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Filipino American History Month Day 25: Today is Larry Itliong Day! “Learn more about labor and civil rights leader, Manong Larry, whose resilience and radicalization (along with Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez) played a pivotal role in the movement that left a long-lasting legacy for farm workers across the country.” https://youtu.be/D6EyQn9neag

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10 Amazing Facts You Probably Didn't Know About Jose Rizal

Pop quiz: What were his favorite fruits?

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FilAmHistoryMonth Notes Day 21: on Ifugao post-burial rites

referencing Belief 3400. Rites and Ceremonies Days After Burial Among the Ifugao

I.

According to the Ifugao,

the day after the burial rites,

the men catch fish in the river for a feast in the house

of the one who has died.

The third day is a transfer to another house.

There they make an offering to the anito of the dead

for prosperous life in the land of the ancestors;

the ancestors have the duty

to look over the well-being of those left behind.

Each of the remaining days

are rest days,

feast days,

and again, more catching of fish in the river.

Women get shells to cook mollusks

and all feast on fish and mollusks.

On the eight day there is a butchering

and a giving away of pigs.

On the ninth day, all rest again.

On the tenth, again

The men go to the rivers to catch fish.

From Demetrio, Encyclopedia of Philippine Beliefs and Customs

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FilAmHistoryMonth Notes Day 19: When the gen-X poet-profe finds herself without a working computer on the 19th day of Filipino American History Month

try plugging in the laptop device

the device does not turn on, only

gives off the discharged/must charge light

so you get on the other device (this phone)

as you realize you didn’t bring your paper notebook

and realize you have no preferable means to record today’s post (because who wants to type with her thumbs)

and that paper really is better for saving things and require no cords, plugs or working electricity

anyway isn’t my book and poems lately about precolonial times

and imagining a long time ago in my islands?

can’t even pull up the Spanish friars’ accounts

describing our primitive and exotic people

my uncharged computer blinks at me

that same symbol, oddly mirroring

exactly what this 21st century life has me feeling

[aimeesuzara]

FilAmHistoryMonth notes Day 18: This is American History

As I have for several years since its publication, I'm sharing this article from 2015, "This is American History" --which recounts my personal story in education (when I saw how easily our histories can be erased and a sense of belonging minimized), as well as later revelations around the colonial/imperial presence of the US in the Philippines and the important contributions and influences of Filipinos in the United States that were never shown to me in textbooks. These turning points in our youth can often catapult us into taking active, critical approaches to learning our histories, decolonizing ourselves and becoming advocates for expanding visibility education and in literature -- in my case, becoming a writer and an educator.

I'm honored to see the article shared in a couple of school district handbooks for Filipino American History Month. Share widely, if you'd like, and also, let's do all our part to learn about Filipino American History -- it IS American History.

"It is our job as writers, artists and educators to help young people see themselves reflected in centralized parts of the curriculum and literature, not just in the footnotes. And it is the job of everyone else to carry the load, shifting and expanding the conversation.

I write for that student who felt bewildered about her place in the world and asked a question, but was shut down and silenced.

I write and I speak to tell her: Keep asking, and don’t let anyone shut you down. Your stories are essential. Your story is Filipino History, and it is American History. Keep speaking, and they will listen."

http://www.positivelyfilipino.com/magazine/this-is-american-history?fbclid=IwAR0ylE4n9MXDqdjQUr4xM-945w_ldV3yIVloXmpTT7mRlU8ZBp017PqtS0Q

This is American History — Positively Filipino | Online Magazine for Filipinos in the Diaspora

Why is Filipino American history not considered a part of American history, a poet asks.

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FilAmHistoryMonth Notes Day 15: What it means to be civilized

(notes towards a poem)

To be civilized

must be, apparently

to go out to already-inhabited islands

to cast your own map-lines upon theirs

to put names on top of much-more-fitting and

much-more-interesting names

(but the new names remind you of yourself);

(because apparently you need to put your names

on everyone else to feel good about yourself)

to project upon those inhabitants

a sense of beauty and power that reflects yourself,

but negates them;

Apparently, to be civilized

is to wash, to erase who and what was already there

and fill them with reminders of yourself

and then, only then, to call them

civilized.

(Source: "The Forbidden Book" by Jorge Emmanuel and Abraham Ignacio)

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Filipino American History Month shoutout & invitation: to children's book authors who write for Filipino American children. Who do you know doing this work? Let's celebrate, for the work they are doing to bring up our next generations with understanding/pride and knowledge from our ancestors! Here are 3 shout outs: 1) Fellow Suzara and cousin Jennifer Suzara-Cheng, who sent us copies of some of the bilingual children's books she authored -- this one is about tidepools and sea animals. She has written a number of them to be found on Amazon. There are varied levels to read/learn at. "Maddie and her brothers Zach and Josh love going to the beach with their mom and dad. In this story, they discover fun and interesting facts about tidepools and the creatures that live in them." 2) The first bilingual Tagalog-English book we got from my sister Aileen was this by Gayle Romasanta, Beautiful Eyes. What this instilled in my son since he was just a baby was the sense of pride and beauty in his body and basic vocabulary about the parts of the body. 3) I've shouted out Bayani Art before, but here is another -- their coloring books and children's books about Lapu Lapu and Gabriela Silang (authored by Robin Alquilizan and Tata Ponsi Alfonso) offer heroes that look like us, who fought colonial powers. Plus there are values instilled about how to be a tribal leader, or a warrior fighting on behalf of our people. We need these narratives! These are just a few examples we've been inspired by; keep 'em coming! #FilipinoAmericanHistoryMonth

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FilAmHistoryMonth Notes Day 14: "to adjust to the cold, we get eczema" (paraphrasing a fellow Pinoy regarding us island people adjusting to cloudy S.F.)

(a rough start of a poem)

In passing at the university where I work,

a fellow Pinoy is holding a burrito

presumably to eat in the office (because these days,

we eat alone outside, or in lonely offices, or

appropriately spaced by 6 feet), and I comment,

noticing he is not wearing a jacket

and it's something in the 60s, and I'm layered

in boots, wishing I had more scarves around me:

"Aren't you cold?" I ask, shocked.

"You get used to it."

I say, "we really adjusted to a different climate!"

and he says, "well, but as a tradeoff, we got eczema."

I laugh, partly because I have eczema too, a scaly ailment

that is so itchy, I've literally wanted to be out of my skin.

I start riffing on how our people (because of course,

when you see another one of YOUR people, in the midst

of many people in San Francisco, you MUST reflect

on all our people on the Islands and elsewhere)

somehow adjusted from wearing tsinellas and tank tops

to bundling up in sleeping-bag-thick parkas

like it was no big thing, but really, they're thinking

"malamig na! sobrang lamig!"

I think the symbolic image of a Daly City Filipino

is an elder in a puff-jacket, hood, and a little plastic bag

twined around the fingers (that delicate grasp

so well-mastered in the Philippines). I laugh,

because we all know our blood runs warm

and we'd rather be shuffling around slowly

on unpaved roads, the palm and banana leaves swaying,

a big plate of fried rice and bangus, a cracked-open

coconut with both the juice and the meat ready to eat,

and a mango criss-cross cut to plunge your teeth into.

Here we are in San Francisco, the clouds grey

and cumulus, puffing round the white sun like our jackets.

Making a home in a place so far from home

is a skill, no, is a superpower

we have mastered over generations.

ART: Dante Hipolito

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FilAmHistoryMonth Notes Day 12: those who said writing is only about discipline…

…didn’t have a 2.5 yr old yanking on their pant leg

Saying “siéntate conmigo mami” while asking

To watch The Nightmare Before Christmas the 10th time

And you give in; partly because tonight you are too exhausted

To offer another activity involving more of you

And then you are cooking dinner and it is 830pm which should be bedtime

After you drove in traffic after teaching and grading all day

As you do each day along with various other jobs

And once again did not get to eat with presence / watch a grown up show / lay down / write / read, all which you crave since all year

And writing is what you want to do more than all and it may occur only after he is asleep

And the dishes are undone and you ply yourself up from falling asleep putting him down

And this is a Filipino American history month post because

Writing is how we record our untold histories in the present

Writing is so important that I am reawakening to do it despite everything in me wanting to rest

The only thing more important is my child sleeping beside me and it is for him

That I motivate myself to write something, anything

Writing saves our lives but writing costs something too

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A new writing workshop to share with our communities! A pilot class I brought to Hugo House prioritizes writers identifying as Asian American, both in terms of enrollment & content—please share widely! #asianamericanwriters #filipinoamericanhistorymonth #poetry #creativewriting https://www.instagram.com/p/CU8h59ylSsQ/?utm_medium=tumblr

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FilAmHistoryMonth Notes Day 10: a brief post

Today was 3 generations of Pilipinos

Walking by the Northern CA coast

Now our longest home

Since migration

My son now routinely calling for Lolo y Lola

Blending three languages fluidly

This morning: “más gatas!”

What would it have been like

To grow up with each object

Named three ways?

More music for the ear

More ancestors echoing in our chests

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FilAmHistoryMonth Notes Day 9: Gabriela Silang: After an image by Rachelle Duazo

You wield a bolo

actively, as though frozen

into a painting mid-action.

It’s too-often emphasized

that you were the wife of

Diego whose position you took

after he died;

but let’s recognize your own

laurels: you were the first

filipina to be recognized to fight

against colonial forces;

you would not give up your ground;

clinging to what was ours,

even to your death:

after witnessing your men die;

you were publicly hung.

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FilAmHistoryMonth Day 8: To the image of a Babaylan (excerpt)

The picture of power:

a brown-skinned, filipina woman

stands with arms outstretched, eyes closed:

incanting, clearly in communion

with a higher power; around her,

are brown-skinned men who are warriors

one sitting with his weapon at rest

women and men

younger and older

one kneeling to honor her, another

nearly-lifeless and dying, her apparent patient.

She is a healer, but it is clear

that her source of medicine is not only earthly

but celestial. There is no sign of

the Catholicism that would

at some point be pushed upon them

but it is clearly a holy scene...

If this were the symbol of womanhood

that I was exposed to as a child,

instead of my days and dreams dominated

by images of white, blond-haired princesses

who could not control their own fate,

relied on a man’s kiss, to be discovered,

or awakened, in order to achieve her dreams;

or Mother Mary, pure and docile

a vessel and recipient of God

or the saint I was named after

illiterate, whose claim to fame was her vision

of Mary

Where could I be now?

detail of Mural “History of Philippine Medicine” by Carlos “Botong” Francisco.