2007: The year Pinoys became YouTube darlings

SAN FRANCISCO —The year 2007 was not exactly a banner year in the arts and culture, but thanks to the Internet, Filipinos made some memorable breakthroughs guaranteed to be talked about in the coming years. YouTube figured significantly in projecting the Filipino ingenuity, for better or for worse, to the world. In July 2007, the Filipino prison “Thriller" dance routine caused a delightful stir online, with 1,600 plus inmates from Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center; as of this writing, it has reached almost 9 million hits. Towards the end of the year, 16-year-old Charisse Pempengco became a YouTube darling especially among overseas Filipinos. The tiny Filipina with a powerful voice – reminiscent of teenage singing sensation Banig Roberto – sang on the Ellen DeGeneres’ show, and her performance there was generated thousands of hits on YouTube. Also in 2007, two cultural organizations stood out for their quality programming, their commitment to the community and their efforts to document their work: the Ma-Yi Theater Company (MTC) in New York and the Manilatown Heritage Foundation Museum in San Francisco. Notably, the 18-year-old MTC is cited, among its accomplishments, for their production of the critically-acclaimed “The Romance of Magno Rubio" (written by Lonnie Carter based on Carlos Bulosan’s short story), which premiered in 2002 and continued to be staged in different U.S. cities. MTC was also instrumental in organizing the first National Asian American Theater Festival in June and most importantly, publishing the landmark anthology of its plays, “Savage Stage: Plays by Ma-Yi Theater Company." “Savage Stage" (edited by Joi Barrios-LeBlanc), was published in 2006 but started distribution in 2007. The book, acknowledged as the first ever to be completed featuring Asian American plays, is significant in that it allows for an assessment of the theater group’s work paving the way for planning the future and a re-reading of the text. MHF on the other hand, (it is located on the site of the historic International Hotel) is recognized for its sustained and committed programming which included visual displays – especially its Filipino Diaspora Series using photographs, artworks and ephemeral objects to signify continued Filipino global migration – video screenings and forums discussing community issues. However, what can be considered as its most significant contribution is the publication of its board member, Estela Habal’s “San Francisco’s International Hotel: Mobilizing the Filipino American Community in the Anti-Eviction Movement." Although published by Temple University Press, the book is the result of MHF’s painstaking effort to collect accounts and preserve Manilatown’s history. A few individuals need to be acknowledged likewise for their work in 2007: Black Eyed Peas’ apl.de.ap (nee Allan Pineda Lindo) for his collaboration with Stockton’s Little Manila Foundation to produce the music video “Bebot" and his endorsement of the educational scholarship program of the Pearl S. Buck Foundation. Kularts’ Artistic Director Alleluia Panis for her commitment to present the best in Filipino American actor-performers especially in her annual Pomo (PostModern) Show in San Francisco (the last show featured Touch Blue, Ron Muriera and Sean San Jose) and in 2007, the “Pinay Stories" which took on the theme of motherhood and urban survival with performers Irene Fay Duller, Lolan Sevilla and Tina Bartolome. Intersection for the Arts’ Program Director, Sean San Jose, for his tenacious attempt to showcase original Filipino American theater works, notably Jessica Hagedorn’s “Fe in the Desert" and the Hybrid Project which presented Filipino American spoken word artists. At this point, let us cite a few artists and their works in different fields:  Performing Arts: In 2007, Tony Award-winner Lea Salonga (Miss Saigon) went back to Broadway as Fantine in “Les Miserables" (she had previously played the role of Eponine), Leslie Lewis Sword wrote and played 10 characters in the one-woman play, “Miracle in Rwanda," in New York and LA; and comedienne/singer Fe de los Reyes did the almost impossible – performing and producing the highly ambitious musical version of her life story in “Amerikana, The Musical," in San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens’ Center for the Arts. The last production is to be noted for the honest performances of its leads, de los Reyes and Eva Caparas-Benthall, with a few memorable musical moments (music by Odette Quesada and Bodgie Dasig.)  Visual Arts: San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum, for the first time in eight years, mounted a Filipino art-themed exhibition with the show, Pioneers of Philippine Art: Luna, Amorsolo, Zobel. Previous to this, the museum presented the exhibition, “At Home and Abroad: 20 Contemporary Filipino Artists," in 1998. The time gap exemplifies cultural inequity, even in the supposed progressive city like San Francisco where almost a third of its population is Asian. Two community exhibitions deserve mention. Randy Gener’s curated show, “Positively No Filipinos Allowed: The Lives of Filipino Migrant Workers in the U.S.," at the Culture Project in Soho consisted of photographs and oral history testimonies; and the San Francisco Main Library’s Filipino American Center amazing display of photographs, objects and print documents of the Filipino participation in the last world war, “Fighting Filipinos of World War II." Individual visual artists honored in the past year included Carlos Villa with a retrospective of his works at the Hearst Gallery, the museum of Saint Mary’s College as part of the museum’s Master Artists Tribute; and Michael Arcega, selected as one of SF Bay Guardian’s Goldie awardees, also held a solo exhibition, “Homin Pidgin" at the de Young Museum.  Literature: As far as publications are concerned, Marie Romero of Arkipelago Books confirmed the observation that fewer writers get published every year for various reasons that merit a separate discussion. Aside from Habal’s book, only three others were published in 2007: E. San Juan’s “On the Presence of Filipinos in the U.S. and other essays" (Sarimanok Publications, Salinas); Sarah K. Joaquin’s memoir “Of Laughter and Tears" (Carayan Press, San Francisco) and Gemma Nemenzo’s personal essays “Heart in Two Places, an immigrant’s journey" (Anvil Publishing, Manila). - Philippine News