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: 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

 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!

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.

Please join us for Re-Imagining Stories of Care Work - a collaborative storytelling and audio-visual art performance about the invaluable contributions of migrant caregivers to Canada’s social, economic, and political past, present and future.

Collaborative storytelling by Caregiver Connections, Education & Support Organization (CCESO) and audio-visual art performance by Kwentong Bayan Collective. With support from Karen Ancheta, Storyteller/Facilitator and Leon Aureaus, Artistic Director, Carlos Bulosan Theatre. Presented by the Myseum Intersections Festival.

We are honoured to announce our 1st international exhibition, opening March 3rd at la Ferme du Buisson in France. Kwentong Bayan Collective will share work on the current issues, history, and future of Care Work in Canada by Black, Indigenous and Racialized women.

Take Care
Stephanie Comilang, Steven Eastwood, Jeneen Frei Njootli, Sheena Hoszko, Kwentong Bayan Collective, Hazel Meyer and Cait McKinney, Raju Rage, Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory

Curated by Christine Shaw

March 3–July 21, 2019
La Ferme du Buisson
Allée de la Ferme
77186 Noisiel
France

As of Oct 1st, 2018 our weekly Comics / Komiks Meet-Up will come to a close as Kwentong Bayan Collective moves on to our next projects.

We are grateful for all the community support and love we received over the past year. It was an honour to meet weekly with creative folks, to make komiks/comics together, and to collaborate with the Toronto Public Library, Lillian H. Smith Branch to host artist talks and the first Filipino Komiks Zine Fair in Toronto.

Our special thanks to Library Assistant Extraordinaire, Jennifer McBurnie who was with us through it all with generosity and kindness.

We will never forget the experience.

Salamat/Many Thanks,
Althea & Jo

Thanks to Ysh Cabana for writing about the Komiks Zine Fair in The Philippine Canadian News. Read article

"Toronto-based artists Jo SiMalaya Alcampo and Althea Balmes have been hosting pulp fiction weekly meet-ups since July 2017. Participants have been encouraged to network, to create and bring their comics/komiks to completion..Zines, tiny photocopied and stapled books that are often with political text and images, deck the Lillian H. Smith Library branch. Kwentong Bayan Collective believes that a new model for komiks and pop culture events will take shape over time."