Sawaga River Press Re-Energizes
Happy Summer, Sawaga River Press Family and Friends! We hope you take some time to head outdoors and visit the beaches, lakes, rivers, creeks, campgrounds…
As some of you may have noticed, we laid low last year and this year. We attended very few events and barely reached out to our community. But now, after months of hibernation, we are back with renewed intentions to fulfill our calling to create and publish more books for our collective healing and liberation!
On this note, please check out our newly revamped website. We dare say it’s beautiful! Thank you to Ashley Alonzo for helping us better express our vision, goals, and story. Like the press, itself, our site is evolving so please come and visit our site often!
Story Walk (Davis Library, May 2023)
Earlier this year, Katrina, the Davis Library Youth Librarian, approached us and asked if the library could feature Jack & Agyu in their Story Walk to celebrate May as Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. This meant that they would feature the pages of the book along a path next to the library where passersby could look and read the pages as they walk to where they’re going. Of course, we said yes! Here is our resident reader, Jack, reading the book as he ambled down the path, and Katrina reading the pages with us. We hope Davis enjoyed Jack & Agyu!
Bay Area Women in Publishing Mentorship
In August 2022, I participated in the Bay Area Women in Publishing’s (BAWiP) Mentorship Program as a publisher and mentee. The goal of BAWiP is to provide support and mentorship to women in publishing. Every month for nine months, I met with my mentor, Oakland science fiction writer and business consultant Beth Barany, to discuss publishing. Beth supported me in my publisher journey as I figured out what it is I truly want to do and how to do it. She did not have all the answers, but she listened to me and, more importantly, encouraged me to take the time to listen to my own heart and allow its yearnings to lead me. I heard what my heart said, has been saying all along: creating books for my and my community’s healing is my calling. Which is why Sawaga River Press is now back with renewed vigor! Thank you, Beth and BAWiP for being part of our publishing journey!
Pista sa Nayon (Vallejo, CA; June 2023)
Filipinos usually celebrate Independence Day on June 12 to mark the day that the Philippines declared independence from Spain in 1898. (The Philippines also used to celebrate July 4th as its Independence Day from the United States.) Hence, throughout June, Filipino communities host all sorts of celebrations. Kababayan Kids of Vallejo, distributor of Filipino and Fil-Am children’s books and host of various literacy based programming, reached out to us to ask if we were interested in participating in Vallejo’s Pista sa Nayon. If you’re not familiar with Vallejo or Pista sa Nayon, here’s a quote from Positively Filipino: “On the first Saturday of every June, Vallejo’s annual Pista sa Nayon celebration is held at the Waterfront Park directly across the water from Mare Island. Most of the thousands of people attending the festival have no clue as to how important Mare Island was to the history of Filipinos in America and the Philippines. It is undoubtedly the only celebration of Philippine Independence in the entire United States that is within sight of a place that had a direct relationship to the declaration of Philippine Independence on June 12, 1898.”
It was so great to be back, to again meet the kids and adults who are excited about our books. They reminded us of the reasons to keep doing this hard and sometimes seemingly impossible endeavor. While there, we met Robin Aqulizan, author of the Philippine Heroes Children’s Books Series published by Bayani Books, and Jeannie Celestial, Ph.D, and Romeo Roque-Nido, authors of the Filipino Instant Pot Cookbook.
Thank you, Kababayan Kids, for thinking of us!
Sage First Encyclopedia of Filipin/x/a/o American Studies
Even more exciting, while we were at Pista Sa Nayon, Jeannie showed us the very first of its kind two-volume Encyclopedia on Filipina/o/x American Studies published by Sage in 2022. The first volume features, among many wonderful things, Sawaga River Press and our pioneering work in publishing children’s books that tell the stories of Fil-Am kids in the diaspora! I was so excited! Check it out right here.
Kultivate Lab’s Kapwa Gardens Be Free Festival (San Francisco, CA; June 2023)
To continue our collective Filipino celebrations, we also participated in Kultivate Lab’s Kapwa Garden’s Be Free Festival in San Francisco. Kultivate Lab’s goal is to enrich San Francisco's cultural diversity by building community and funding the arts & local businesses through projects such as Kapwa Gardens. Kultivate Lab is led by Desi Danganan who, in 2018, advised me to launch our crowdfunding campaign for Jack & Agyu at the UndiscoveredSF’s (another Kultivate Lab program) celebration of Fil-Am History Month. We raised close to $3,000 that day. Since then, I have been impressed by the innovative work that Desi and his crew has been achieving in building our Fil-Am community.
Yolo Ethnic Studies Academy
One of the new relationships we are so grateful to create is that with our local Youth Organizing and Leadership Opportunity (YOLO) Ethnic Studies Academy headed by Professor Melissa Moreno and Emily Henderson. This summer, we trained as facilitators and will be facilitating this August a group of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) youth in the second summer Academy to develop youth leadership in the Davis area. A big part of the goal of this academy is to help BIPOC youth tell and own their stories as they relate to the 5 Ss of Ethnic Studies: Self; Stories; Systems; Social Movements; and Solidarity. We at Sawaga River Press value Ethnic Studies and believe in creating books to support the Ethnic Studies curriculum.
Pistahan (San Francisco, August 2023)
This August 13th, we are scheduled to participate in San Francisco’s Pistahan, the West Coast’s largest Filipino fair. We will be part of the Philippine American Writers and Artists’ event and represent children’s books, along with authors Marielle Atanacio, Sophia Lee, and Christina Newhard. It should be a fun event! Come find us if you’re in the area! We will be reading Mungan and her Lola at 1:00 in the Art Pavilion.
More to Come but for now Salamat!
We have a ton (!) of things planned for the near future. We will keep you posted as things firm up more with our planning. As always, we are grateful for your support as we continue with our publishing journey. Thank you for journeying with us. Until next time, Friends and Fam!
