Multigeneration Fil-Am Cipher at D-Cypher!

Witness this multigenerational cipher of Fil Am dancers from the D-Cypher event at the Liwanag Cultural Center! 

Description:

Big shout out to JDB Creativity for the dance footage. Please check out http://www.jdbcreativity.com/ for more info.

D-Cypher was a discussion with some of the most influential Filipino Street dancers from the San Francisco Bay Area. The organizers bridged their personal histories, discussed how the scene was back in the day, and learned about Filipino contributions to street dance, Hip Hop, and Filipino/Fil-Am Kulture. Learn and hear stories about the local dance scene!

Panelists:

- Don Boogaloo
- OG Smurf (Master City Breakers)
- Finesse (Master City Breakers)
- J Krush (Star City Crew)
- Andre (Star City Crew)
- Gizmo (Renegade Rockers, Knuckle Neck Tribe)
- Chaz (GroovMekanex, Zulu Nation, Natural Elements Crew(DC))
- G Boogz (Knuckle Neck Tribe)
- wish1 (Jughead Tribe, Jedi Clan, Mindtricks, Groovaloos, Jabbawockeez, Sub Ren, w1shone.com)
- Sha Boogie (Renegades, Mind Over Matter, MPM, Tribe)
- Dennis (GroovMekanex, MuthaFunkers)
- Delrokz (Break for Tots, Zulu Nation)
Moderated by Alan Mar David
Edited by Will Kong
Sponsored by Liwanag Kultural Center, Kalayaan School for Equity, North County Peninsula Partnerships, and Rock the School Bells

Empire of Funk: Filipino American in the Cipher of Hip Hop is taking submissions for publication on our website! Deadline for submissions is on Monday, November 28th.  This is an exciting project me and DJ Kuttin Kandi have been formulating for some time now.  Big ups to all our contributors (who include DJ Icy Ice, DJ Niel Armstrong, Kimmy Maniquis of Kaba Modern, DJ Nasty Nes, literary award winner Patrick Rosal, and many, many others!) and supporters for being with us the whole way. Can't wait to see everyone's submissions! Here we go!

Description of Empire of Funk:
Empire of Funk: Filipino Americans in the Cipher of Hip Hop is a project that seeks to highlight the history and talent of Filipino Americans in hip hop. Long overdue, this endeavor attempts to demonstrate the intimate and meaningful link between the Filipino American experience and hip hop. Sometimes seen as a culture separate from the Filipino American experience, Empire of Funk provides a forum to foreground the exact opposite: hip hop culture has been integral to the Filipino American community, functioning as a legitimate part of the Filipino American experience well before hip hop gained mainstream popularity.

Furthermore, we believe that rather than spreading negative "pathology," hip hop provides a cultural medium for spreading knowledge and exploring cultural consciousness.

Empire of Funk serves as an artistic and literary canvas, gathering the talent of multiple generations of artists, writers, performers, photographers, scholars, educators, and activists.

We want your talent! We will be reviewing visual art, photography, fiction, and poetry submissions to be published on our website.

The theme for submitting original work is: Knowledge of self. Priority will be given to work that relates to Filipino American experiences in hip hop.

Submission procedure:

1. Email a jpg (less than 5MB) sample of your piece or a word document of your writing to EmpireofFunk [at] gmail.com.
2.Type Art Submission and your name in the Subject of line of your email.
3. Include your name, email, location, and website (if available) in the body of your email.
4. Submit your work by Monday, November 28th.

Although we are eager to review all submissions, we cannot guarantee acceptance of your work on our website or in future publications. Please note that artists whose work we accept and publish will retain ownership of their material.

In addition, we are looking for eager and talented minds to join us in the planning and growth of Empire of Funk, including web designers, print designers, and publication liaisons. Please contact us if you are interested.

Entry into "Official" Filipino American History?

It has always been history in the making.  On Thursday, October 13th--in observance of Filipino American History Month--the event Built from Skratch: Rediscovering the Pin@ay DJ Scene(s) in Daly City will be held at the Liwanag Kultural Center in Daly City (San Francisco area).  Once written (or even dismissed) as "contemporary" or "modern" Filipino American culture (and therefore supposedly less important than "real" history) Filipino American popular music culture (i.e. hip hop forms) is more and more being archived along with "official" Filipino American history.

At the same time that Filipino American hip hop performances are legitimized and historicized under the auspices of researchers (check out OW's article "Unlimited Creations" in the Atlantic), educators, and community institutions, a younger generation of Filipino American who seem to feel distant from the Filipino American hip hop experience of the 1980s and 1990s (up to the 2000s for the very young) are now afforded the opportunity to learn more about the cultural contributions of their kuyas, ates, titos, titas, and parents.   

Then, on Monday, October 17th, Liwanag is also hosting an event on Filipino American dancers called D-Cypher: Dialogue with Bay Area Filipino Street Dancers.

I'm hoping that these "cyphers" of knowledge will be constructive for "old school" practitioners and younger people alike so that the culture can continue building and expanding boundaries.  In addition, I hope that these sessions will avoid bashing the existing state of hip hop that young people may identify with while glorifying the "golden age" of so-and-so decade.  Whatever the case, this is a wonderful and promising start to future dialogues, hopefully in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond!

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"The Learning" and the teaching: Episodes of education

Class is in session at UC Berkeley

Filipino students become indoctrinated

Yesterday was a day packed with education.

I had the privilege and honor to appear via video chat for Professor Griff Rollefson's music class "Planet Rap: Global Hip Hop and Postcolonial Perspectives" at the University of California, Berkeley.  The students were assigned my article "Hip hop over homework: Filipino Americans 'failing'?" and my documentary Lyrical Empire: Hip Hop in Metro Manila.   

In a bizarre performance of pedagogy through technology (I'm picturing my 20 ft. talking head lighting up an auditorium), I had the opportunity to answer student questions about the article and the film. The questions were a great exercise in thinking through the value of studying the topic of Filipino Americans and hip hop culture, and the urgency (if any) with which to approach political projects involving hip hop. Some of the questions were quite provocative, including the following:

-"What is the usefulness of postcolonial studies when studying hip hop?" In other words, why should we study hip hop using the same lens that we use to view the contexts of formerly colonized nations?

-"How can one make sense of hip hop if it is both an expression of radical politics globally, but it is also an object of global commodity capitalism?"

-"Are there possibilities of Asian American and African American collaborations with which hip hop plays a role?"

-"Do you see Filipino Americans seeking 'stability' as the goal of 'success'? And why should Filipino Americans gain consciousness about the Philippines?"

Thanks for the opportunity to "appear" for yall's class. Hopefully I gave sufficient responses to some tough questions. I hope to do something like this again in the future.

Angel, a Filipina teacher recruited by Baltimore's school district, performs Pandango sa Ilaw with her students.

Later on that evening, I was able to catch the PBS premiere of Ramona Diaz's documentary The Learning, which documents one year in the lives of four Filipina contracted teachers recruited by the Baltimore school district.

So while I am teaching U.S. college students to critically study the historical formation of the Philippines and criticizing the Asian Journal article's definition of "success" (see my article "Hip hop over homework"), Filipina teachers make a geographical trek to the U.S. in order to teach fundamentals of survival and life skills. They are facilitators of "success", and I pray students and school districts value their contributions.

Dorothea teaches a science lab to her high schoolers.

At a time when many school districts around the nation are in crisis because of a dearth of math, science, and special education teachers, Filipina sojourners have taken up the calling to fill the gaps. Leaving their family and students behind in order to enter a version of America they do not know from TV or books, these women enter the battlefield of education in black and brown communities across the U.S.

The Learning gives an intimate portrait of the bravery, sacrifice, and love of these four teachers, who represent a small slice of the thousands of Filipino/a teachers imported to provide low-cost labor in neglected school districts. The documentary points out that the "tides have turned" on U.S. colonial programs in the Philippines--which inaugurated U.S.-style instruction to Filipino students beginning in the early 1900s--with Filipino teachers fluent in American English coming to the U.S. to teach American students.  In Baltimore alone, 10% of teachers (or 600 total) are recruited from the Philippines.

One Filipina student in the UC Berkeley music class asked me what I thought about Filipino Americans becoming conscious of the Philippines.  I think The Learning is a testament to the importance of critically analyzing the historical condition in the Philippines, where the "tides have turned" in a way, where First World nations are seeking Filipino/a workers--who are fluent in English and other valued skill sets--to compensate for First World labor voids. As Filipino Americans, having a critical look at the Philippines means understanding that "we are here" because "they were there."  

As Filipino Americans, the battlefield is not only in geographic districts where many of us attend crumbling schools.  The battlefield is also in our minds; of reclaiming our own histories and debunking the myths that continue to disparage our lives and bodies.  

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"Bad about You" video

The Good Sin can't shake that something "bad about you"

Seattle emcee The Good Sin brings you his love/lust tribulation video "Bad about You", which can be heard in his EP Late that came out early this year.  Produced by our dear friend 10.4 Rog, Late provides you with that laid back rap. "Bad about You" is a good mix of relateable romantic quandary complete with a singable chorus, Phonte-like crooning, electronic quirkiness, and a measured and deliberate beat. 10.4 Rog peppers Late with haunting and lingering prologues and epilogues to songs, like the one in "Bad about you." This makes for a more complete-sounding song.


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Sunday Cipher: Shakespeare swag?

Philippine theatre group go hip hop

From BBC News (Sept. 1, 2011): 

"A theatre group in Philippines takes a modern twist on Shakespeare, re-working the classics into a modern rap musical.

The aim is to help young people to understand the playwright.

"William" shows real life problems encountered by real students when it comes to learning Shakespearean masterpieces.

Marek Pruszewicz reports."

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DJ E-Man honored at 20th Anniversary of FPAC

DJ E-Man of Power 106 talks about being honored at the 20th Anniversary of the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture

Long Beach, CA native DJ E-Man will be honored with the FilAm ARTS Media Award at the 20th Anniversary of the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC) on Sunday, September 11.  The weekend-long festival will begin on Saturday, September 10th.  DJ E-Man, a veteran in the hip hop game who developed his skills in the Southern California party promotion scene and eventually rose-up as one of those Fil Am luminaries in the top-ranks of the media industry, will share the award stage with multi-award winning singer and actress Lea Solanga. 

We are proud of E-Man as he receives this prestigious award and reflect on the impact he has made for many Fil Ams and beyond!  Learn more about E-Man at BakitWhy.

In other FPAC news, Bambu and Kiwi reunite (again) this year as Native Guns on Sunday of the festival.  Also, Joe Bataan will be returning to the festival on Saturday! Yes, its time to boogaloo to the King of Latin Soul in Point Fermin Park! Great programming work by the good folks at FilAm ARTS!
   

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