SAN FRANCISCO — Fifty artists in six events, four of which are free admission, in venues located in San Francisco’s historically Filipino American neighborhoods will be featured in the first festival of its kind in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Ma’ARTES [muh-ar-tes] Pinoy Arts Festival celebrates the diverse “Music, Theater, Dance and Visual Arts of the Pilipino Diaspora” throughout May. The Ma’ARTES Festival will showcase in-door and out-door venues including the I-Hotel’s Manilatown Center, Bindlestiff Studio, Yerba Buena Gardens and Gene Friend Rec & Park.
Inspired by traditional Philippine festivals celebrating the end of summer and the coming of the life-giving monsoon season, three of Bay Area’s longstanding community organizations — Kularts, Filipino American Development Foundation (FADF) and API Cultural Center—are collaborating to host the first-ever Festival.
Presentations include the shamanic journey of a fourth–generation Filipino American professional in Alleluia Panis dance theater’s “She, Who Can See”; songs of a tourist psychic surgeon’s desperate quest for a green card in Jessica Hagedorn’s “Felix Starro” adapted from Lysley Tenorio’s “Monstress”; Philippine dance drama of Shakespeare’s The Tempest in “Maség Typhoon; a fired astronaut’s dream of traveling to the moon in Christina Ying’s “There’s the Moon and Then There’s You”; and “Kodakan: Pilipinos in the City Exhibition” photo tableaus exploring who and what is Filipino, by Wilfred Galila.
Free Ma’ARTES outdoor events with the feel of Philippine village fiestas will feature folk dances, lechon-tasting, traditional games as well as performances by the Florante Aguilar Music Ensemble of the award-winning documentary Harana, American Center multi-instrumentalists duo Dirty Boots, electro-violinists Cry Wolffs, hip-hop dance by Sammay Dizon and participatory activities from bike parade to chalk art to indigenous back-strap weaving.
For more information about the artists, events and the Ma’ARTES production visit: https://www.maartesfestival.com/
CALENDAR LISTING
WHO: Kularts, Filipino American Development Foundation and API Cultural Center
WHAT: Ma’ARTES Pinoy Arts Festival
WHEN: May 1 until May 30, 2015
WHERE: I-Hotel Manilatown Center, Bindlestiff Studio, Yerba Buena Gardens and Gene Friend Rec & Park
TICKETS: https://www.maartesfestival.com/
May 15-17, 2015: Alleluia Panis’ “She, Who Can See” –
Bindlestiff Studio| 185 – 6th Street SFCA | $15
May 29, 2015: Christina Ying’s “There’s The Moon and Then There’s
You” – Bindlestiff Studio| 185- 6th Street SFCA | $15
FREE EVENTS:
6pm|May 1, 2015: Ma’ARTES Pinoy Arts Fest Opening Reception
I-Hotel Manilatown Center |868 Kearny St. SFCA
May 1-31, 2015| KODAKAN, Pilipinos in the City Exhibition –
I-Hotel Manilatown Center|868 Kearny St. SFCA
1-2:30pm|May 23, 2015: MASÉG Typhoon|YBGardens Festival| Mission & 4th St
12-4pm|May 23, 2015: Barrio Fiesta| Gene Friend Rec & Park | Folsom & 6th St
12-4pm|May 30, 2015 SOMA Pilipinas Arts Fair| Gene Friend Rec & Park| Folsom & 6th St
CONTACT: Lovelie Faustino, e-mail: media@kularts.org
Phone: (415) 239-0249 www.kularts.org
MORE INFORMATION FOR EACH EVENT
Ma’ARTES Event Line-up:
Festival Opening Reception (MULTI-DISCIPLINARY)
FREE 6-9pm Fri, May 1, 2015
I-Hotel Manilatown Center | 868 Kearny St. SFCA
Live dance, music and art performances and poetry readings by local Pilipino artists:
Frances Cachapero, Ammiel Koi Holder, Anthem Salgado, Paolo Salazar, Caroline Cabading, Dirty Boots, and more. The Manila Collectibles Company will host a pop-up store selling Philippine indigenous/local products direct from artisans of Luzon, Visayas & Mindanao.
KODAKAN, Pilipinos in the City, Exhibition (VISUAL ARTS)
FREE May 1-31, 2015
I-Hotel Manilatown Center|868 Kearny St SFCA
“Kodakan” comes from the generic Pilipino term for taking photos, derived from the popular camera brand Kodak. “Kodakan na! It’s picturing taking time!”
Inspired by images in the book Filipinos in San Francisco and from the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, Artists Wilfred Galila and Peggy Peralta, with Cece Carpio, have created a series of 600+ photographs and video images of the contemporary Pilipino community to create a media project that explores changing expressions of Pilipino cultural identity over time. By juxtaposing images of “then and now,” we contextualize the Pilipino American narrative and examine perceptions of what/who is Pilipino.
SHE, WHO CAN SEE (DANCE)
8pm Fri – Sat, 3pm Sun (May 15-17, 20, 15)
Bindlestiff Studio | 185 6th Street SFCA
Conceived and created by Alleluia Panis, She Who Can See tells the story of a 4th generation Filipina American, and her struggles with her shamanic inheritance. Her world is turned upside down, disrupting her life and sanity when ancestral entities appear in her dreams and just about everywhere else.
Music by Florante Aguilar, video by Wilfred Galila, and costumes by June Arellano. It is co-presented by API Cultural Center
MASÉG, Typhoon (DANCE)
FREE 12-1:30pm, Sat May 23, 2015
YB Gardens Festival | Mission bet 4th & 3rd Streets, SFCA
Original dance theater production choreographed by Jay Loyola, musical score composed by Florante Aguilar and directed by Kularts’ Alleluia Panis will return to San Francisco presented at Yerba Buena Gardens Festival.
Inspired by the story of the Shakespearean classic The Tempest, MASÉG, Typhoon tells a mystical story of a once powerful and righteous tribal shaman chieftain who is exiled with his daughter to the fictitious Puló Island where he plots his malicious revenge.
THERE’S THE MOON AND THERE’S YOU (THEATER)
8pm Fri-Sat May 29-30, 2015
Bindlestiff Studio | 185 6th Street, SFCA
The world premiere of Christina Ying’s theater production: There’s the Moon and Then There’s You, directed by Lorna Velasco. Freshly fired from his job at NASA, aspiring astronaut David Nguyen comes across a unique lottery that will give him a chance to achieve his lifelong dream of traveling to the moon. Produced by API Cultural Center and Bindlestiff Studio
BARRIO FIESTA (MULTI-DISICIPLINARY)
FREE 12-4PM Sat. May 23, 2015
Gene Friend Rec & Park | Folsom & 6th Streets, SFCA
The Barrio Fiesta was inspired by the audacious plan set forth by Pilipino American Artists in the 1970s – to roast an entire lechon at their Barrio Fiesta in the South of Market Cultural Center, today known as SomArts.
A committee of Filipino American organizations working in the SOMA, led by Veterans Equity Center, is reviving this unforgettable event to honor our Filipino roots and our presence in the SOMA neighborhood since the early 1900s.
SOMA PILIPINAS ARTS FAIR (MULTI-DISCIPLINARY)
FREE 12-4pm Sat. May 30, 2015
Gene Friend Rec & Park | Folsom & 6th Streets, SFCA
A family afternoon arts fair at the park, jam-packed with performances and activities geared toward all generations. American Conservatory Theater presents a workshop performance of exclusive sneak preview of author, Jessica Hagedorn’s latest theater work based on Lysley Tenorio’s short story “Felix Starro” and music by Fabian Obispo.
Music performance by Florante Aguilar Music Ensemble, electro-violinist CryWolffs!; dance by the American Center of Philippine Arts Youth Dancers and Musicians and Sammay Dizon, visual arts by Paolo Salazar and Laga California Weaving Circle; and more.
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