Category: Community

Faith and Fortune

6/13/2022

Kwentong Bayan Collective at the Faith and Fortune exhibit (AGO). Photo credit: Melanya Liwanang Aguila.

Thanks to the curatorial team, Adam Levine, Ana Barajas, Bianca Weeko Martin, Gillian McIntyre, and Tahnee Pantig for inviting us to collaborate.

Jo SiMalaya Alcampo and Althea Balmes of Kwentong Bayan Collective were honoured to serve as community consultants (along with many other artists, academics and community folks from the Filipino and Latinx communities) for the exhibition, Faith and Fortune: Art Across the Global Spanish Empire.

The exhibit brings together more than 200 works of art from Latin America, the Philippines and Spain made between 1492 and 1898. It runs from June 8th to Oct 10th at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Kwentong Bayan Collective member Althea Balmes contributed to the Exhibition Audio guide. Her piece is entitled "The Philippines" and it accompanies a map of the country that is presented askew for a reason. Listen here.

Kwentong Bayan Collective at the Faith and Fortune exhibit (AGO). Photo credit: Melanya Liwanang Aguila.

Together While Apart

2/25/2022

Thank you to Megan who added colour to colouring page! Megan’s mom is a migrant care worker and community organizer.

Together While Apart
Workers Arts and Heritage Centre
March 5 – April 2, 2022
(Extended to May 14th)

Kwentong Bayan Collective is honoured to contribute to Together While Apart an exhibition of interactive colouring pages and original stories based on experiences that women and gender-diverse people have faced during the past two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Artists: Abby Nowakowski, Amber Williams-King, Dalawang Babae, Edith Chavez, Kwentong Bayan Collective, Lisa Pijuan-Nomura, Natalie King, Pink Angel, Sab Meynert, Sahra Soudi, Shira Spector, Z’otz* Collective.

Home is in the Body

12/1/2020

Kwentong Bayan Collective contributed to the book, Home is In The Body featuring 2SLGBTQIA stories & artwork from across the Filipinx diaspora. Althea and Jo contributed interviews, and Jo wrote the closing text for the book.

Please contact Anak Publishing for more info

Stories of Collective Care in the Time of COVID-19

5/5/2020

Kwentong Bayan Collective is honoured to be Myseum of Toronto's 2020/2021 Artist Collective in Residence.

We have collaborated with Myseum to present Stories of Collective Care in the Time of Covid-19 a series exploring collective care in Toronto and beyond through panel discussions and storytelling.

Please join us for a series of online conversations with essential workers, food justice advocates, and community educators from May to June 2020.

Learn about grassroots strategies of community care and mutual support. Experience some of the cultural practices being created during this time of global transition.

Free events, register online.

Covid-19 Response Must Leave No One Behind

3/16/2020

From Migrants Rights Network: "Canada is seeing a rise in Coronavirus / COVID-19 cases, accompanied by growing levels of xenophobia and racism. Crises do not affect us all equally – migrant, poor, and racialized communities will be the first excluded from response measures and the worst affected by the economic downturn.

We must demand collective responses that leave no one behind, including migrant workers, undocumented people, low-waged students, poor people, and refugees. Pandemics know no borders, neither should our solidarity.

We call on individuals and organizations across the country to join us in uniting against racism. Groups from across the country call on federal, provincial and municipal leaders to ensure worker & migrant Justice as part of the COVID-19 response.

Please sign this Call to Action and "Leave No One Behind"

Digital Literacy Drop-in for Migrant Workers

2/29/2020

We're glad to support this free Digital Literacy Drop-in for Migrant Workers in partnership with IntersectTO (a BIPOC tech community), Caregiver Connections, Education and Support Organization (CCESO) and Parkdale Project Read.

Sunday March 15, 2020
12-4 PM
This free event is designed for the Migrant Care Workers / Caregiver community.
Registration is required. For more information, please visit www.cceso.org

Becoming Labrador

10/2/2019

Please join us on Sunday, October 20th, 2019 for the screening of the feature film, “Becoming Labrador” at the 19th annual Reelworld Film Festival.

SYNOPSIS: A whole generation of Filipino migrants have travelled halfway across the world to work in the icy plains of Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador, leaving behind families and friends as they struggle to adjust to a remarkably different climate and culture in Canada. Becoming Labrador takes an intimate look at what it means to uproot yourself to try and find a new home.

Becoming Labrador
Sunday, October 20th, 2019
Screening 6:30pm
Famous Players, Canada Square
Language: English, Tagalog
70 Minutes

Co-presented by the Reelworld Film Festival and Kwentong Bayan Collective
Tickets available at <https://www.reelworld.ca/becominglabrador>

HABI - June 2019

5/27/2019

HABI: Weaving Stories of Migrant Labour and Indigenous Resurgence
A public programming series by Kwentong Bayan Collective
June 2019
Small Arms Inspection Building (SAIB)

Kwentong Bayan Collective’s new project, HABI: Weaving Stories of Migrant Labour and Indigenous Resurgence explores the inaugural convergence of National Indigenous People’s month and the newly announced, National Filipino Heritage Month in June 2019.

In the Filipino language, “habi” means "weave” - referring to the practice of weaving, or the patterns found in woven materials. HABI is also the process by which something is kept together and made whole.

This month-long public programming series will explore Indigenous history, labour, migration, and our relationship with the land.

All programs are free of charge and will be held at the Small Arms Inspection Building, located on the Treaty Lands and Territory of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation along Lake Ontario’s eastern waterfront.

View full schedule

Kwentong Bayan Collective acknowledges the generous support we have received from Mississauga Culture and the Small Arms Inspection Building to make this program possible.

Migrant Worker Tech Support

5/5/2019

We are glad to support IntersectTO - a BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) tech community in Toronto that is offering FREE Tech Support Workshops for migrant workers & organizers.

Volunteers can teach you practical skills, including:

how to update your Presto card online
how to manage settings on your devices
how to find and use apps
how to back up your data and save passwords
how to talk to your family about online safety
and anything else you want to learn!

Support is offered in English, Tagalog, Spanish, Tamil and French. Childminding and refreshments provided. The first Tech Support Workshops will be held on Sunday May 19th at the Workers’ Action Centre with more dates to come!

Pinay Power II

4/1/2019

Kwentong Bayan Collective will present "PIN@YS IN COMICS" with Trinidad Escobar, as part of Pinay Power II : Celebrating Peminisms in the Diaspora. This gathering will bring together self-identified Pinays (Filipina-identified, including queer and trans women) from across the diaspora to learn from one another and to create an agenda for peminist liberation in the 21st century.

The Pinay Power II Conference will be held April 17-20, 2019 on Tiohtià:ke, located on the greater Turtle Island. The Kanien’kehá:ka peoples - who are also known as the Keepers of the Eastern Door and are a part of Haudenosaunee Confederacy - are the traditional stewards of this land.

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