maganda magazine

On October 25th, 2007, Maganda Magazine hosted an art gallery and artists’ dialogue in 100 Wheeler Hall. The event featured a discussion with acclaimed social documentary photographer, Rick Rocamora–who has photographed Filipino World War II Veterans, Muslims in America, and imprisoned children in the Philippines. Oakland painter Mari Rose Taruc was also present to discuss her work and the nature of art. Both effectively work for social justice in different mediums, and the stories they shared were intriguing and inspirational.

Maganda would like to thank everyone who contributed their work to the beautiful event; it was a genuinely exciting opportunity for any artist and social justice advocate. Creative Director Christine P. talks about her experience:

Art can bring people together (if only for three hours), and it can connect them for even longer. I was inspired and touched by what I saw last night, by the art itself and by the community effort to bring art and artists together.

Rick Rocamora’s work was especially moving (I seriously almost cried) because it really hit home for me– his photographs made me think of my dad, my grandpa, my relatives still living in the Philippines, the kids who I just wanted to hold in my arms, and all the people that I want to help, but just don’t know how to help. He made my heart ache. And that’s a good thing, because I needed to be reminded of all those things I felt.

-cp

What’s good world!?

So here’s the deal, I got a heads up on a lecture coming to the San Francisco Art Institute, part of the Aperture West Collaborative Lecture Series. South African photographer, Pieter Hugo, will be heading this lecture, sharing his photography of his country and its subcultures as featured on the cover of Aperture Magazine.

So here’s the skinny…

PIETER HUGO

Aperture West Collaborative Lecture Series

South African acclaimed artist Pieter Hugo will discuss his work on his country’s society including judges, entertainers, workers and albinos. His striking portraits question the art of portraiture today. He will share the underlying meaning of his thought-provoking and controversial images of South Africa and its subcultures.

Pieter Hugo has recently gained international recognition. He has been named the Standard Bank Young Artist for 2007 and he won the first prize in the portraits section of the 2006 World Press Photo competition. Featured in the Spring 2007 issue of Aperture magazine and in Colors, this young photographer has established himself as one of the best portraitists at work today.

WHEN AND WHERE :

Friday, November 2
7:30 p.m.

PhotoAlliance

San Francisco Art Institute Lecture Hall

800 Chestnut Street

San Francisco, California

(415) 781-8111
www.photoalliance.org

Fee: 10$; free to students and Aperture subscribers
Media contact: Yseult Chehata, Aperture Foundation 212-946-7108; ychehata@aperture.org

Personally, I’m trying to go to the lecture. I think it would be cool to check out, not only as a photographer, but as someone who just appriciates art. If you are trying to come with, shoot me an email at justgonzaga@gmail.com

Taking pictures with his new 40D,
Justin

Bay Area Bites, KQED public radio’s food blog, highlight’s the traditional Pilipino breakfast this weekend. Finally! Our traditional pan de sal, longanisa, tocino, ensaimada, mangoes, sticky rice, dried fish, salty egg, corned beef, and fried garlic-rice gets the attention it deserves from a more mainstream part of the culinary community!

If you like food (and you’d be soul-less if you didn’t), and if you especially like Pilipino breakfast foods, or if you simply want to learn more about it, Bay Area Bites blogger Thy Tran’s post includes a sweet reflection on a few of the delicacies of the Pilipino breakfast. She calls Pilipino’s “hearty eaters,” and also calls the range of Pinoy breakfast “impressive.” She CLEARLY knows what’s up.

She also includes a short list of some Bay Area restaurants that serve Pinoy breakfast, and a link to another blog that has a scrumptious roundup of various real-life Pinoy breakfasts complete with pretty pictures! With that said, don’t visit these blogs if you’re hungry! And if you do, you can’t say I didn’t warn you! Happy Eating!

<3 Post and photos by Krizia S.

• ABC sued for $500 Million by the Northern California chapter of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations.
  
• Swarzenegger Vetoes the DREAM Act. This occurred following recent support by the Associated Students of the University of California, Berkeley (ASUC), and the University of California Student Association (UCSA). The bill would allow all students, regardless of legal status, to apply for financial aid scholarships.
• Nurses locked out after Sutter Health Strike.

Last Wednesday was the Maganda decal’s first hands-on arts workshop of the semester, where everyone had a chance to claim their name whilst trying not to fill their lungs with too many paint fumes. For those of you who don’t know what a decal is–it’s “Democratic Education At Cal”–a class taught by students. (More specifically: Tricia, Christine, Elaine, Cristal, Paul, and Keith.) The panels will hopefully be displayed at Maganda’s next gallery event, which will also be featuring an Artists’ Dialogue with acclaimed photographer Rick Rocamora. More details on the event here.

Special thanks to guest speaker and tagger extraordinaire, Aaron Nebres, for his tips on bombing buses, and the wooden panels that were all over Lower Sproul Plaza last Wednesday.

Tonight’s class will take place from 6-8pm in 40 Wheeler and will cover the Art of Photography (special guest- our very own Justin Gonzaga!)…see you there.

more pictures from the event here.

Running through December 23, 2007

“One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now brings together seventeen artists from across the country who challenge and extend the category of Asian American art… The exhibition includes artists with roots in China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Iran, Singapore, and the Philippines; with such geographic and cultural diversity, there can be no such thing as a collective definition of the constituency called Asian American. One Way or Another offers individual expressions that resonate with an internalized sense of Asian American identity to reflect, whether overtly or obliquely, upon the complex, ever-expanding, dynamic Asian diaspora.”

Visit the Berkeley Art Museum (BAM) website for more information.

Berkeley Art Museum is located at 2626 Bancroft Way (between College Ave and Telegraph Ave). And remember, if you’re a UC Berkeley student, you get FREE admission. So go check out some art on your lunch break!

For the first time, The Ifugao Music & Dance Ensemble of Banaue is here in the Bay Area direct from the Philippines to share their traditional culture and art. Unlike the more theatrical performances of most Philippine dance troupes, the Ifugao Music & Dance Ensemble can be considered a more “authentic” one, as members of the actual tribe sanction it. A friend of mine who recently saw this group perform described it as dancing “the way they might dance in an actual ritual, and act out various events in the tribal setting.”

In a society where native traditions are often romanticized and laced with theatrics, this may be a wonderfully rare and genuine experience to behold.

The ensemble will be performing this Thursday, October 11, 2007 at 7:30PM at Sacramento State University for FREE.

If this is too far for you to travel, they will be performing at the City College of San Francisco, on Thursday, October 25, 2007, at 12:30PM.

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I have been to countless teach-ins, attended numerous lectures and day-long conferences, been enrolled in how many Ethnic Studies classes that all emphasize how important it is for underrepresented and marginalized groups to participate in the electoral process, to politicize themselves if they wish to see change. And though I knew how important this was, I never fully understood and felt its importance until this past Thursday morning at 3:30am, after an extremely long Associated Students of the University of California- Berkeley (ASUC-Berkeley) Senate meeting. At this meeting, after a number of motions, recesses, and debates made by the frustrated and exhausted senators of ASUC, it was decided that the student organization’s, Chicanos/Latinos in Health Education (CHE), funding for their 15th Annual Dia De Los Muertos Conference (which would expose underrepresented communities, mainly Chicanos/Latinos, to opportunities in health education) would be cut from $1500 to $1050, with the possibility of it being cut even further at Monday night’s Financial Committee of ASUC meeting.

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An AP article which ran in Friday’s SF Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News included a transcript of the offensive joke:

“In the season premiere that aired Sunday on ABC, Teri Hatcher’s character, Susan, goes in for a medical checkup and is shocked when the doctor suggests she may be going through menopause.”Listen, Susan, I know for a lot of women the word ‘menopause’” has negative connotations. You hear ‘aging,’ ‘brittle bones,’ ‘loss of sexual desire,’” the gynecologist tells her.

“OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas? Just to make sure they aren’t, like, from some med school in the Philippines?” Susan fires back.

ABC’s agreement to edit out the controversial scene has done little to stifle the uproar on both sides of the Pacific. As of this morning, over 98,000 signatures have been attached to an online petition demanding an apology from the network, not to mention calls to ban the show in the Philippines and to boycott ABC and Disney, the network’s parent company.

But let’s try to rise above the din here and use this incident as a point of entry into a larger discussion. The INQUIRER.net has used this opportunity to discuss the serious underrepresentation of Filipinos on television by posing the question, “Why are there no Filipino characters in hospital drama TV shows?” An interesting question indeed.

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We recently received an e-mail petition about a curious tension that has arisen between Pilipinos and the television network, ABC.

To: ABC

To the producers of “Desperate Housewives” and ABC:

We are writing to express concern and hurt about a racially-discriminatory comment made in an episode of Desperate Housewives on 9/30/07. In a scene in which Susan was told by her gynecologist that she might be hitting menopause, she replied, ‘Can I just check those diplomas because I just want to make sure that they are not from some med school in the Philippines.’

It’s hard to know exactly how “hateful” the uttered statement was without any televisual context. Looking at the language used in the petition letter–among them, “oppression” and “disrespectful,”–it seems like Teri Hatcher’s tone might have been a bit too vile.

In text, the remark does not seem racially discriminatory, but rather, economically discriminatory. It is saying, “Poor countries like the Philippines can’t have good medical schools,” much more than it is saying, “Filipinos aren’t good at medicine.”

Still, not very flattering. However, it is laughable that the writers would choose the Philippines as the third world country to convey the humor of that remark, since countless health care technicians in this country–especially nurses–are from the Philippines. But then again, Filipino nurses have had some bad press in the past, including a scandal about nursing students cheating on the license exams.

What do you think: are we being too sensitive? Should Filipinos boycott ABC?

If you would like to read the rest of the letter and sign the petition, go here.

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