Post Summer Update + Visiting Bukidnon
Happy September, Friends!
We hope your summer (vacation) was relaxing. Is that even possible??? I spent mine going on a month long trip to the Philippines and teaching dance at a week long family performing arts camp in Cazadero. The whole summer felt both long and short, mundane and novel. And now we're ready for the school year and for the rest of the year.
Since our last post, things have definitely moved forward. A few nights ago, I dreamt that the books arrived and I said, looking at them, that they're very beautiful! In particular, I was looking at the page with the diwata and her glorious hair. But then I noticed that the words were missing. The horror!
(This Diwata now appears in my dreams!)
I also said in my last post that if no major changes needed to be made, we'd have the books by September. Well, apparently, even when the changes that needed doing weren't major—a font correction on the spine, a random typo which mysteriously showed up even after the numerous edits done by several people, decisions to be made on whether to do a second review—the process still ate up weeks and weeks of going back and forth between us and the printer. It wasn't until the first week of August that we finally approved everything.
We now have a tentative arrival date of mid November. This is a bit disappointing because I was really counting on having the books for the various October (as Fil-Am History Month) events like the UndiscoveredSF and the Fil-Am International Book Festival. But I won't dwell on this, especially because, fortunately, we can get advance copies by the end of September. It isn't ideal but at least we will have something to show at the events. So, we're still in business!
If you remember, several months ago, I was very excited to share that I was going to collaborate with Bukidnon State University to work on more projects that highlight Bukidnon culture. Since them, they have asked me to sign a Memorandum of Understanding to document our intent to collaborate. So, during my trip, I went back to my home town to sign the papers. I thought all I needed to do was go to somebody's office, sign, and then be done. Instead, I got to be an honored guest and speaker of a program that was put together by the Dept. of English and Literature as well as the Bukidnon Studies Center!
(Siting next to me, Prof. Ramos-Consad) (Photo Credit: Christopher Cordova of Angelsweddingshoppe.com)
Professors and Staff and Members of Bukidnon Studies Center and Bukidnon Studies Center. To my right: Prof. Ramos-Consad, Prof. Loreta Sol Dinlayan. To my left: Prof. Ivan Villanueva, Prof. Carl Binayao) (Photo Credit: Christopher Cordova of Angelsweddingshoppe.com.
My utmost gratitude goes to my high school best friend, Dr. Rizza Ramos-Consad, for facilitating all of these! I am looking forward to more collaborative projects in the future!! On October 19 we will be at the UndiscoveredSF event in San Francisco (https://www.undiscoveredsf.com/) as well as the 5th Filipino American International Book Festival on October 12-13 (https://www.filbookfestival.org/).
Hope to see you there! May September and the rest of the year bring more opportunities for collaboration!
Till next update. Thanks, as always, for your support.