Kathang-Pinay

2010-06-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

http://kathang-pinay2.blogspot.com/ -- I started a new blog. It's about time, enit? Blogger is weird. I am not able to post new ones but I can edit the old posts.... Free Speech TV coverage of the USSF Peoples Movement Assemblies Process History My education about the World Social Forum and the US Social Forum has just begun. Although I have known of the WSF and USSF, I haven't felt connected

2010-06-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

continued.... I picked up enough literature from various organizations to fill up a small suitcase. So much to learn about the many sites of resistance and sites of creativity. It is also interesting to see how decentralized this entire event has been and most amazing to see the leadership of young people. Grace Lee Boggs' emphasis in all of her talks is about the need to give young folks every

2010-06-26T07:03:00.000-07:00

Day 4 The dialogue between Immanuel Wallerstein and Grace Lee Boggs brought into focus what most folks at this forum already know: Capitalism is in crisis. We need to develop new ways of thinking and being beyond oppositional thinking, beyond hierarchies, beyond consumption. We need to organize our communities and imagine alternatives to the present way of living. Wallerstein: Capitalism as a

2010-06-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

Day 3 I missed the Indigenous Water Ceremony and so I went to the qi gong session in Cobo and then walked around the vendor tables before the 10am session. AM: Attended Gabriela USA session on "militant global women's movement in the 21st century". Kudos to Lolan Sevilla and her crew for this workshop which was well attended (about 40). Good mix of folks from various backgrounds. It's good to

2010-06-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

Day 2 Joined the small group from the Ecumenical Theological Seminary and St Peter's Church (as my host is affiliated with this group) and we met up with the rally right in front of the seminary. The USSF Marshal told us to join just past the globe -- the giant inflated balloon - that has been present at each social forum. So as we walked right alongside the balloon, I soon noticed that perhaps

2010-06-21T18:59:00.000-07:00

US Social Forum This 10-yr old forum has 22,000 registered! When I was touring downtown Detroit on Sunday, the streets were almost empty (very little traffic). Today, we did a dry-run of the walk from home to the venue site (over 1mile). The workshops plus cultural programs plus all kinds of other spaces... is overwhelming. I don't even know where to begin. My instinct is just to let things

2010-06-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

The Babaylan book is dedicated to Kalpna Mistry. You would have turned 30 on June 13. Thank you, Kalpna, for inspiring and challenging me to forge ahead and create energy out of the abundance and beauty of my indigenous Filipina soul. The Babaylan conference brought together folks who have been hiding in the woodwork, laboring alone with their love for indigenous Filipino knowledge and practices

2010-06-12T22:01:00.001-07:00

Gift from Mila Anguluan Coger today. Dearest Leny and Katrin, Today is Philippine Independence Day. It is a symbolic day as it is the day that I am finally starting to write the draft to my pilot project, the prelude to my dissertation, after months and months of wandering among reams and reams of Eurocentric theories and frameworks that I feel the academe requires me to use in my proposed

2010-06-11T10:43:00.000-07:00

summer is here...finally. the raspberries are in. apricots ready to pick. golden tomatoes ready. the lettuce and arugula are bolting. basil, beets, and carrots are coming along. harvested lavender yesterday and bundled them and hang them to dry. i promised them to Jennifer if she wants them. otherwise i will make lavender sachets again. the narratives for the OUR OWN VOICE ezine Babaylan issue

2010-06-02T14:02:00.000-07:00

she lingered for a long time under our gaze. as if to say: i am still here.

2010-05-28T23:08:00.000-07:00

connecting the dots.... is there a crisis in the humanities in higher ed? according to the Chronicle of Higher Ed there is. does this have anything to do with our postmodern turn emergence of secondary orality dwindling literacy rates technological innovations and impact of the above on the creative imagination? could it be that the system keeps trying to hold on to 19th century

2010-05-15T08:53:00.000-07:00

Notes from GLOBALIZATION OF RACISM (Donaldo Macedo, Panayota Gounari) By dehistoricizing race and ,by implication, racism, the dominant ideology gives rise to a fertile terrain that confuses the meaning of race and enables conservatives as well as some liberal scholars to claim the 'end of racism.' By dominant ideology we refer to the organizing principles that generate, shape, and sustain white

2010-05-12T09:06:00.001-07:00

this blog is in serious need of updating into a new template or maybe start all over elsewhere? ruminating...

2010-05-11T22:00:00.001-07:00

Bec writes about the Babaylan conference! Thank you, Bec!

2010-05-02T17:18:00.000-07:00

Thank you note to our conference crew: Dear Ones – It has been two weeks since the conference and yet it feels as if it hasn’t ended. In fact, it feels as if it’s just beginning. If you are like me, you might feel as if you’d just gone through childbirth and you had not just one baby but octuplets! And now all you can think of is how to raise these young ones; how to raise the village that

2010-05-01T10:56:00.001-07:00

Babaylan Book link and on Facebook

2010-04-26T17:37:00.000-07:00

Eileen has started a new blog based on her experiences at the Babaylan conference. Follow her and other posts on facebook for a glimpse and taste of the sumptuous feast that is the Babaylan Conference/Gathering -- the gift that keeps on giving.

2010-04-22T23:10:00.001-07:00

Babaylan Book Launch ResponseS. Lily Mendoza, April 20, 2010 I have been asked to respond to the book as a scholar, but find that task to be impossible given the short time that we have. Obviously the text before us is much like the ecology of babaylanism itself—a deep loam of intuition, a conjuration of healing from many angles, under varying lights. It is the kind of text suitable to a

2010-04-02T10:07:00.000-07:00

working draft: WELCOME TO THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL BABAYLAN CONFERENCE! On behalf of the women and men volunteers of the Center for Babaylan Studies, I thank you for hearing the call to come to this conference/gathering. This present gathering is a small link in the very long unbroken chain of Filipino indigenous spiritual and cultural practices that transcend time and

2010-03-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

Honoring Ancestry: A Journey of oneness interweaving ancestral offeringsShareBrought to you by Unity of Berkeley, Center for Babaylan Studies, CIIS Alumni Sound Voice Music Healing Ensemble, March 12, 2010 The Boro Boro gongs called us to gather. The Warsi ritual of purification invoked ancestral blessings. Offerings to the altar in the Talaandig tradition and the Dugso ritual ushered us into

2010-03-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

Honoring AncestryPls visit the Facebook page of the Ctr for Babaylan Studies for other responses from the event.And see you at the conference!

2010-03-12T14:43:00.000-08:00

Today is Honoring Ancestry at Unity Center in Berkeley. Blessed rain all the way. Monday, Katrin arrives and will have lectures around the Bay Area and LA. If you have a chance to catch one of her talks, go for it. It's a rare opportunity. Check these out!! 1)FILIPINO RESEARCH APPROACHES— WHAT MAKES THEM DIFFERENT?IS THERE A NEED FOR INDIGENOUS RESEARCH APPROACHES?SOME

2010-03-04T11:17:00.000-08:00

There are days when I have an urge to write an essay addressing an issue that is near and dear to me-- undoing racism, alliance-building, ecological issues, the need for a paradigm that connects rather than fragments -- and the potential of an indigenous Filipino discourse to offer answers. There are days when I realize that I've done my share of writing on these themes but still not nearly

2010-02-23T20:51:00.001-08:00

I accepted an invitation to lecture in another professor's course on US Imperialism. He said that most students haven't thought of the US as an empire/imperialist nation. The class will be watching "Savage Acts," reading about "white love", and other key essays on US colonization of the Philippines. Part of the course is to look at the responses to US imperialism from the point of view of

2010-02-20T16:14:00.000-08:00

Dear Leny, I embrace your Babaylan book with warmth and reverence deep into my loob! Your kababaylans have gifted me with a sensuous spirituality that is drawn from struggle, scholarship, and silence. As in a meditative walk, I pick up precious nuggets. Desire is sacred. Our planet’s skin is sensitive. Even cities teem with spirits. Texts are alive, as a matter of fact, metaphors bleed.

2010-02-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

writing the senses(instructions to students in my morning class)On your way to this classroom this morning (walking, driving, or biking), think of something you saw from the corner of your eye that, for a moment, caught your attention. What did you see? What is its name? color? location? size? texture? smell? How did it make you feel? If everything is alive and interconnected,imagine that this

2010-02-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

by the 13th century, caravan routes connecting India (hence indigo), and the Middle East to the ports of Venice and Genoa, Amalfi and Pisa, were carrying what today no less than back then seems quite magical: dyes and colored velvet, silk, damask (from Damascus), muslin (from Mosul), baudekin (from Baghdad), cotton (from the Arabic qutn), taffeta (Persian, tafta, meaning silken cloth, to shine),

2010-02-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Baylan Megino, Felicia Perez, and Jay Malvar for a wonderful interview on "Apex Express" (KPFA 94.1 FM). Listen to the archive just past the 22 minute mark athttp://www.facebook.com/l/f1846;www.kpfa.org/archive/id/58378 -- We're rolling!!!

2010-02-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

it just occured to me that i didn't blog about the retreat last month with the volunteers of the babaylan conference. for four days, we told stories, laughed, played, danced, meditated, sang, ate well, created rituals, shared dreams, cried ...i really don't know how to describe the weekend -- it was more than magical. it was energizing. powerful. healing. everything has expanded (and not just our

2010-01-30T18:44:00.000-08:00

babaylan from down under, Merlinda Bobislisten to Marie Therese Sulit explore this theme at the Babaylan conference~

2010-01-29T13:26:00.001-08:00

thank you, howard zinn.i'm teary eyed as i listen to Amy Goodman's tribute to Howard Zinn. my thoughts take me to this question: how have i honored the Filipino intellectual geniuses who have liberated me from colonial consciousness and made me proud to be who i am? how have i grieved for the ones who did not write books but whose lives should have been part of my archive of oral history...and

2010-01-27T00:42:00.000-08:00

Lama Choyin Rangdrol and Jean will be discuss Babaylan and Buddhism at the conference!!I will be posting briefs about conference offerings from hereon. stay tuned.

2010-01-24T00:21:00.001-08:00

sigh. what to do?so many folks out of work.one barista opening at Peet's and 500 applicantsmany with college degrees.we are undergoing a deep restructuringyou wouldn't know it by the way the pundits carry on. keeps beating the dead horseas if it could resurrectednot even bringing a genius back to thewhite house staff will carry the populistmessage across to an increasingly angryand confused

2010-01-20T12:11:00.000-08:00

What color is the sacred?wild animal inside your bodyduring the day they live inside youat night you live inside themsuch is color (61)how do you get it, how do you sneak past the watchful eye of the system that in categorizing holds you apart from reality? (65)not having access to shamans, drugs or spirits, Sartre is forced back onto his own resources - which is his thinking about thinking - a

2010-01-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

the largeness of vision is sometimes constrictedby the smallness of resources: money, time, bodieshow then to adjust? do i adjust the vision to fit the small?or is the vision really for the long term and not just oneevent?i do not own the vision. i'm merely riding on the waveof energy of my ancestors who wanted nothing morethan the creation of Beauty. Beauty that makes life bearable.Beauty that

2010-01-06T14:23:00.000-08:00

Happy Tandang Sora Day.She was 84 when the revolution broke out and she joined the ranks of Bonifacio.Lived to 107.I remember you.

2009-12-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

2010 - first books of the year:What Color is the Sacred? by Michael TaussigApollo's Fire by Michael SimsThe Biology of Transcendence by Joseph Chilton PearceThe Cosmic Serpent by Jerome Narby (I've read this but will re-read).how does a book find you?plus: brown belt sudoku!!

2009-12-27T11:04:00.000-08:00

Venus Herbito's new video project for the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network. This is part 2. Start with part 1.I hope it encourages you to embrace and seek Filipino traditional knowledge...***More news: We are on the final phase of book production for Reclaiming the Now: The Babaylan Is Us published by Ateneo de Davao University Research and Publication Office. Watch for the book launch at the

2009-12-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

james cameron's avatar...go ahead and enjoy the magic of Pandora.the luminous world of the Na'vitheir animist and shamanic connectionsto the tree of life and their deity, Eywa.go ahead and enjoy the magic of special effects.of computer technology. of science.go ahead and be mesmerized by fantasy images.go ahead and fall in love with the natives.go ahead and hate the colonizers.go ahead and root

2009-12-13T11:31:00.001-08:00

where did 2009 go? all of a sudden it's year's end and Obama has been in office for a year.and what does he have to show for it except more war talk? even if nuanced a bit more, this is really disappointing.well, if james lovelock is right, it doesn't matter. in his latest book, The VAnishing Face of Gaia, he writes that there will only be one billion people in the world by the end of the century

2009-12-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

As soon as I was able to acknowledge that I am now old enough to be an elder, mentor, auntie or tita to many young people, I find that there is a glowing sense gratitude that goes along with this sense of responsibility and accountability.Coming around to this realization took awhile. When I was growing up in a Protestant household, we were given these messages:Individuality and independence is

2009-12-07T20:34:00.000-08:00

If you have facebook, check this out!

2009-12-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

Posted to the Babaylan Rising event volunteers...Dear all -It is past 1am and am still awake because of the warm and exhuberant energy of the evening. Tonight we raised quite a bit -- thanks to Felicia, Jennifer, Marisza, Holly, Baylan, Lizae, Trixie and San Jose State U students, Ingrid, Mylene, Jodie, Mel Orpilla and Sam, your partners, friends, and family. Thanks, too, to the donors of the

2009-12-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

after all the posts about death...i'm ready to take this on.die to the lies that have been told...sold to us.courage is born out of this willingness to die.

2009-12-03T09:52:00.000-08:00

Death as TeacherI've been waiting for the right moment when I could sit and meditate and write lucidly about this but that moment might never come so here I am taking a break at work to scribble something. Ever since my experience with the death of Kalpna (Fulbright), my recovery and healing from the trauma of this event has been accompanied by an awareness of my own fear of dying. So I've been

2009-11-22T05:54:00.000-08:00

Merlinda Bobis writes of small stories and big stories.small: personal, familial, localbig: master narratives of nation, empire, history, globalhow do we keep the small stories from being eaten by the big story? how do we write our small stories so that they can subvert the big story?what if the small story carries the weight of the big story or lives in its shadow unconsciously?can the small

2009-11-19T19:08:00.000-08:00

thank you, Naomi and Marina! for covering my classes while i was on bereavement leave.

2009-11-12T07:31:00.000-08:00

weeping is like singing. remember the dead by singing. singing returns the body to its native inscriptions. sing from the groin. the groin is the inexhaustible resource (from Merlinda Bobis).

2009-11-09T22:05:00.000-08:00

i want to learn how to deploy tenderness.

2009-11-07T10:44:00.000-08:00

overheard on the radio the other daya military general weighing in on the healthcare debate.he said that they are seeing new recruits who are less physically fit and this doesn't bode well for the military. he said that soldiers often have to work in harsh environments that require ultimate physical and mental fitness -- Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.does anyone else see the irony in this?i better see

2009-11-01T10:55:00.000-08:00

Just finished reading Barbara Ehrenreich's History of Collective JoyBai Liza Saway told us the other night that in their Talaandig community everybody dances. From toddlers to elders, everyone dances at the ritual gatherings of the community. she said that in order to be a good leader, one must be a good dancer. a good dancer is someone who grows up with dance in her bones, with rhythm in her

2009-10-31T22:37:00.000-07:00

Babaylans in America

2009-10-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

This blogpost is for the Fil Am students at UCBerkeley and to Joi Barrios, their mentor on campus. Thank you for inviting me and Eileen Tabios to celebrate"Day of the Filipino Womyn" with you. this is what I wrote to someone about my day with you.dear one -i was at UC Berkeley last night and gave a talk to Fil Am students.themes: decolonization, revolutionary spirit and wisdom of the Filipina

2009-10-16T14:19:00.001-07:00

This blogpost is for my friends, Muki and Grace, who have recently returned from their long sojourns in the homeland and processing the return to this place that is also home.My Buddhist friend, Gail, used to remind me to slow down and take my time after returning from my trips to Pampanga. She saw my weepiness, my homesickness, my blank stares, my struggle to return to my life. Sometimes this

2009-10-08T11:43:00.000-07:00

connecting the dots continued...with thanks to Thomas Berrymythic power of the industrial visiontechnological entrancementresulting in deep cultural pathologybecause it is anthropocentric.anthropocentrism resents any demands imposed upon itso that the natural world is transformed into total subserviencesince then so much energy has gone into redemptive rather than creative energy.why the Babaylan

2009-10-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

Plutonomy, global climate change, global recession, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, religion...connect the dots.and while we are it factor in:mismanaged healthcareunemployment and underemploymentpharmeceuticals agro-industrial foods = obesity pandemicoil depletionplus:manic capitalismspectacle of punditry passing for knowledgegrowing illiteracy rates in the US900 cable channelsto be updated...

2009-09-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

Sharing this inspired reflection of Mila, after the Ritual Gathering at Lizae'sMy dear friends, sisters and family,Please allow me to try putting in words what the experience of the ritual night meant to me. The gongs have not stopped playing. From some mysterious place, they continue beating, rhythmic and distinct. They bring me back to Saturday evening and everything that flowed from it. The

2009-09-22T13:41:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning thinking:we are making historyand pondered for a while the weight of such thought.why is it so important to "make history"?who invented the "making of history"?***i have been posting (on FB) fragments of "Babaylan history" culled mainly from the work of Carolyn Brewer and Alicia Magos.people at the Ritual Gathering said: we've never heard of Babaylans.and now you have, i

2009-09-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

today is the first event of the Center for Babaylan Studies.Ritual Gathering and Sacred Music, Dance, Poetryat Lizae Reyes' home in Oakland. Lizae, Venus, Vedel, Frances -- just over a month ago, theystarted dreaming about how the ancestors would want them to support the Babaylan Conference.After two nights of brainstorming, this Ritual Gathering event was born.and it is going to be beautiful:

2009-09-18T18:42:00.000-07:00

Possible book cover for the next book...you like it? Babaylan Mandala design cover by Perla Daly.

2009-09-15T10:56:00.000-07:00

i spent two hours writing about the recent news:teabaggersayn randfear education drop out ratesthen i erased it all. i don't think i want to put anymorenegative energy out there. let the pundits take care of that.but as i have already absorbed this energy while writingnow i need to go out and do some clearing.and later get back to my list of 'to-do's' on my furlough day.but hey, if you are

2009-09-11T08:50:00.001-07:00

dear ones -we are all part of the great river and flowering mountain. years ago when i met Ver Enriquez, NVM, and all the folks in the Bay Area who were drawn to the indigenous discourse, a seed was planted. slowly, as it was watered by friendship, reflection, analysis, ritual, email and listserve dialogues, conferences, publishing, speaking engagements, this seed began to grow in all of us.now

2009-09-05T22:49:00.000-07:00

In re-reading Carolyn Brewer's Holy Confrontations, I take notes of the names of the Babaylan/catalonans mentioned in the Spanish documents that Brewer is deconstructing in order to tease out the stories behind the colonizer's narratives. I write these Babaylans' names down in my notebook - Fulangan, Cabacungan, Caquenga, Bonga, Cablingan, Bolindauan -- to remind myself that these were women who

2009-09-02T22:12:00.000-07:00

today's gift:Hi Leny, I am 21 years old, filipino, born in Manila, ........ So I started to write again and start questioning what I wanted out of life. I went to the Pistahan festival in San Francisco a few weeks after I came back and I decided at that festival I was going to buy a few books before I left. I knew the books at the festival were books that I couldn't get at your local Barnes &

2009-08-29T21:15:00.001-07:00

From Quinoa to Buddha to BabaylanShareI just made quinoa tabouleh salad. Quinoa is grown in the Andes by indigenous peoples (Quechuas). I was reading Galeano's "Mirrors" the other night and he writes about the two Colorado university professors who were able to obtain a patent for the grain and after which they told the indigeneous peoples that even though they now legally own the patent, the

2009-08-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

57 years, 57 thank yous.1. Noah loves school. This week he is the weatherman. 2. Dustin keeps the numbers up at work.3. Cal is consulting again.4. Our new Macs: a Macbook Pro and a Desktop.5. Sisters and brother all doing well.6. Babaylan Conference is happening.7. Chair of the Department.8. Qi gong and yoga breathing.9. Dreamwork10. Easing into menopause well.11. The garden feeds us and adorns

2009-08-27T15:01:00.000-07:00

i don't know why i took Madan Sarup's intro to post-structuralism and postmodernism from my book shelf last night... and i've spent all day today cuddled with it in the back patio in steaming heat scribbling notes, chuckling at times (as these texts sometimes give me cause to...)maybe it's because i needed to refresh my memory a bit since i feel i've been on a hiatus from academic reads. and i

2009-08-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

everyday i marvel at the dance of the babaylan.a while back, a babaylan in Manila emailed: Leny, it is about dance. It is not the work of the willful mind's agenda, no matter how well-intended. i am learning...and this is how she teaches me...almost everyday i get a message of surprise:she wants to move to the Bay Area to be part of a babaylan communityshe wants to create jewelry to give as gifts

2009-08-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

thanks to Jean for today's meditation on the red Tara, Kurukulla.and this, too:What kind of dialogue can emerge between the urban or avant-garde artist and the babaylan--with her traditions and healing rituals, her community, and her deep relation to the earth and the body? Are there rifts and fissures between the two? In what ways can the two modes inform and heal each other?in another

2009-08-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

Depression comes from our Indigenous Soul’s allergic reaction to a human life relegated to an uncourageous spiritual mediocrity. After all humans are not rational by nature, but sane only when blessing. And blessing is an ecstatic non-economical activity that means being willing to feed the Holy in Nature and the seed that feeds us all. Sanity and beauty go together. We cannot stay depressed once

2009-07-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

revisiting i love to you exactly two years ago today.thinking now of the triggering events that led me to Irigaray's work brought me back to a question that was posed to me two years ago: why have you never dealt with sexuality and the body in your work on decolonization? and the answer was that I needed to integrate the wisdom of my body into the cerebral work that I do. I needed to learn how to

2009-07-23T10:29:00.001-07:00

The Chatelaine's post about public education (7/21) deserves mention here because I like it when poets rant about the dire issues facing our public education.California K-12 schools are ranked at almost the bottom of the nation's schools. The legislations that have been passed over the past two decades that undermine public education funding - the near-total elimination of bilingual education

2009-07-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

this makes it all worthwhile...I was deeply moved by both the Center for Babaylan Studies and the Babaylan Files blog, as if finally so much of my spirituality, politics, artistic/literary work, and heritage research was coming into sharp focus and integrating into a holistic, comprehensible whole. I am currently looking for resources to attend the 2010 Conference, as I live in Ottawa, Canada,

2009-07-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

The Solemn Lantern Maker by Merlinda Bobis(My notes after reading this novel in one night).I read somewhere that the novel was invented for the entertainment of folks whose bland lives needed to be spiced up with adventure. In other words, reading a novel is a form of passive adventure for those who like theirs on the couch.But the mind is a trickster. What it reads seeps through to the heart, to

2009-07-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

A friend used to offer this quote by W.H. Auden often:Pray for us, for there are those whose works are in better shape than their lives...so yes, I think of this when I think of Michael Jackson.and on facebook, i posted this:... as the universe of narratives narrowed down, people began to live vicariously through celebrities' lives...perhaps all in an attempt to find the short cut to nirvana.

2009-06-24T19:36:00.001-07:00

Painting the Brown Face Red(thanks to Maria Christina Gonzalez' "Painting the White Face Red," via Lily)(This is a response to my weekend in Indian Canyon).grateful for the invitationi entered the arbor and sacred ceremonyhonoring maiden, matron, elder.saying prayers to the four directionsin my mind's eye, i was bowingpalms together in front of my chestI say silently:I am Asian. Filipino.holding

2009-06-17T20:42:00.000-07:00

This is a response from a friend, a Native scholar at UCR, who watched our youtube ad.Dear Leny,The questions you raise are so important and I think that it will resonate with diverse groups of people. I would love to have a conversation with you. Maybe we have to stop thinking about deterritorialized peoples and look at how the land claims and speaks through us no matter where we are and how

2009-06-13T22:24:00.001-07:00

Are you Filipino?Today, I'm not. I'm tribal.My dear friend Noe had his camera on hand as he approached me with this question. I didn't have time to think about my answer but there it was. As my fingers touched the beautiful Tiboli necklace I was wearing, it was as if I was asserting an identity that was different than the one signified by all the men and women wearing beautiful barongs.At this

2009-06-09T00:41:00.000-07:00

Today, I received the second rejection of our request for funding. Again, we did not fit their funding criteria even though our proposal has merit.All day I felt disappointed, angry, frustrated, hopeless. But by the end of the day I remembered that this work, this babaylan gathering, is not my work alone. I do what I can - write letters of inquiry to foundations, request for community

2009-06-05T09:17:00.000-07:00

in reviewing my posts on this blog during the month of June 2004, i look back with profound gratitude for the experiences that continue to guide my path.this path that chose me.this path that dared me to cross boundariesthis path that has gifted me with delightsthis path that shows me how to conquer fearthis path that reassures me(June 05, 06, 07 -- see the river flowing still)

2009-06-02T09:55:00.000-07:00

gems from The Shaman's Body/Arnold Mindelleven if you kill indigenous peoples, you cannot kill the indigenous soul. shamanism is immortal. you cannot kill dreamtime.the Earth dreams.our bodies dream...and transform mundane reality into a special place where life feels deep and meaningful.the body wants more than wellness; it wants challenge, risk, personal power, freedom, danger.the dreaming body

2009-05-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

Rene Villaroman reviews ABOHO

2009-05-23T12:58:00.000-07:00

Babaylan Conference 2010 youtube adThe first thing Frances asked was: who gave you permission to organize a babaylan conference?I knew where this question was coming from; it's related to other questions I've grappled with over many years along with other folks asking similar questions about the appropriation of indigenous knowledge and practices by Filipinos in the diaspora. It has been one of

2009-05-13T12:28:00.000-07:00

What will you do if a woman told you her story of violence and rape?A group of five men came into her home and raped her in front of her children. After the second rape, the children were rounded up, told to kneel and pray, and then were shot in the back of their heads in front of their mother. Afterwards, the rape resumed...This is one of the stories that Jimmie Briggs told last night at his

2009-05-09T11:19:00.000-07:00

Honoring the Women Babaylans in my life:Apu Sinang, Lola Dikang, my grandmothersEsperanza Luna, my motherThe ones who became before them but our genealogical map renders them nameless.I honor you.A shaman/babaylan is:-- spiritual and cognitive epistemological mediator. shamans-to-be encounter raw glimpses of something numinous and demanding, some threat or promise in their own landscape of dreams

2009-05-07T17:10:00.001-07:00

Adding Virgil Apostol and the healing art of Ablon.

2009-05-03T18:31:00.000-07:00

Our Urban Saint, Manong Al Robles is gone.But he'll be around to remind us to keep rappin with 10,000 carabaos in the dark.So long, Manong! You are loved by many.

2009-04-30T17:20:00.001-07:00

Would you pay $40-60, or even $600 to hear someone tell you that this global crisis is good for you?Five thousand folks just did. They paid money to hear The Dalai Lama talk about 'The Nature of Mind...and somewhere in his speech he also talked about why this global crisis is good for the U.S. He said that maybe the current economic crisis is not such a bad thing after all. Perhaps it’s a chance,

2009-04-26T10:37:00.001-07:00

News and proud moments!I'm proud to have participated in maiana minahal's soon-to-be-released poetry book, Legend of Sondayo, by writing the brief Intro. check it out!More Proud Moments:For starters, here's the Fil Am students at SSU and their version of Tinikling. And just to give a context to this: my university is considered to be the whitest campus among the CSUs and possibly the most

2009-04-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

Please attend the KAPWA Conference 08! and pass on the info!This is a joint project of the Fulbright Hays Study Tour to the Philippines 08 and PEP Project at SFSU. Hope you can join us!

2009-04-20T09:43:00.000-07:00

THE CENTER FOR BABAYLAN STUDIES IS ONLINE!A dream takes hold. It's time to take our place in the global and local dialogues on peacemaking, social justice, sustainability, and spirituality. We will speak and be heard as Filipinas/os with voices of our own.Please join us in organizing for the Babaylan Gathering in April 2010 if you share our vision.also: newfilipina.com has a new look! browse

2009-04-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

dear reader -i always pick up a copy of Open Exchange: Bay Area's Healthy Living Magazine to browse through it. i am curious about this circuit and all the people doing all kinds of therapies, creative arts, workshops, seminars in search of the "higher self" or "fulfillment" or "tantric experience" -- you get the picture. i have noticed in this recent publication that they have more Asian

2009-04-13T03:27:00.000-07:00

dear reader,a new book idea: am thinking of a book written by immigrant parents who have decolonized consciously and are reflecting back on how their parenting could have been different had they decolonized sooner. this idea is a two year old idea actually. a friend who read coming full circle said there should be a book from the parents' perspective. i guess she was feeling defensive after

2009-04-09T16:49:00.000-07:00

Some of my comments during the "Men Reading Women" event in Los Angeles.

2009-04-07T19:56:00.001-07:00

The Babaylan website is launched!

2009-04-03T20:42:00.001-07:00

dear reader,i think i was a chef in another life because cooking makes me happy, centered, calm. or maybe because my mother's spirit fills the kitchen when i'm cooking. everything i do reminds me of the way she was in the kitchen. cooking was so effortless to her. the zen of cooking - she could have written the book.like her, i always cook far too much because you just never know for sure who

2009-04-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

Dear reader,i wish you can be here for the Tibetan trunk sale this weekend. our Tibetan friends were recently given asylum but the rest of their family is still in Nepal. backtracking a bit - this family fled Tibet when China invaded Tibet more than 50 years ago. the grandfather, who was also a village elder, was killed by the Chinese.three months ago, father and daughter fled Nepal because the

2009-03-30T18:27:00.001-07:00

From Linda Nietes re this weekend in LA...Dear Friends,We would like to thank each and everyone of you for your participation inMEN READING WOMEN'S WRITINGS last Saturday. The event was a literaryfirst - there never was an event where men from different cultures hadread Pinay writings publicly. Without your participation, our Bookshop'sadvocacy for women's issues and our triple celebration would

2009-03-24T10:32:00.000-07:00

title of my talk for International WOmen's Day celebration in LA:The Power to Heal: Remembering Our Babaylan Spirit

2009-03-21T09:31:00.000-07:00

this week's horoscope made me smile...Years ago a Polish scientist toiling in Antarctica was consumed with longing for a woman he'd left behind in his home country. Spilling over with the desire to express his adoration, he gathered a mass of penguin dung and used it to spell out a large M on the frigid ground. It was the first letter of his girlfriend's name, Magda. To this day, two species of