PAGDIRIWANG PHILIPPINE FESTIVAL
Literary Reading
Pinoy Word Expressed Kultura Arts
presents
"Paghahabi ng mga Salita at Kultura"
(Weaving Words and Culture)
The 2023 Pagdiriwang Festival Literary Reading
FEATURED READERS: Roberto Ascalon, Rose Booker, Nic Magansay, Jason Tanamor
June 3, 2023 l 1:00 to 2:00 PM
Funder and Co-sponsors:
Pinoy Words Expressed Kultura Arts (PWEKA)
Filipino Cultural Heritage Society of Washington
Seattle City of Lit
Filipino American National Historical Society
Pinoy Brown Box
Poets and Writers, Inc.
Robert Francis Flor, PhD
Producer
Co-Chair, Pinoy Words Expressed Kutura Arts
Maria Batayola
Producer
Co-Chair, Pinoy Words Expressed Kultura Arts
Chair, Pinoy Black Box
Ador Yano
Technical Support
Pagdiriwang 2023 Readers
ROBERTO ASCALON
NYC-born poet, Roberto Ascalon teaches across the Northwest. He is a Kundiman, Jack Straw, and Artist Trust fellow, a two-time Seattle Slam Team member, and the winner of the 2013 Rattle Poetry Prize for the poem “The Fire This Time ,or, How Come Some Brown Boys Get Blazed Right Before Class And Other Questions Without Marks” which earned him a Pushcart nomination. His residencies have led to multimedia exhibitions at the Frye Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and The Museum of History and Industry and earned him a trip to the White House where he had the honor of shaking hands with President Obama.
Jason Tanamor is a Filipino-American writer and author. Named as one of the "5 Best Modern Filipino Writers" by Pinas Global Newspaper. Tanamor is the author of " Vampires of Portlandia" and "Love, Dance & Egg Rolls." His writings have appeared in more than 250 publications. He's interviewed Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns n' Roses, Pete Rose, and Dane Cook, and has covered U.S. President Barack Obama. Tanamor currently splits time between Portland, Oregon and Rock Island, Illinois.
JASON TANAMOR
ROSE BOOKER
Rose Theresa Arce Booker is a poet, writer, blogger, and editor who lives in the Seattle Metropolitan Area. When she is not writing or playing video games, she works as a Library Associate for Sno-isle Libraries. She holds a BA in English, a MFA in Creative Writing, and a MLIS degree from the University of Washington. Her works include A Series of Poems within Writing Without Walls, November 2011; Soul Has Weight, Physician Thinks” in Transfer 104; “Dear Sexist Men” in Samizdat literary journal’ Collected Poems (published in TAYO Literary Magazine Special Edition: Pinay. Presented poems at PAWA: “Can You Kickstart a Moon Landing?”,” All Natural Canadian Lake Boba Tea?”,” The San Andreas Fault is Constipated”,” Review of To Love as Aswang.”
NIC MASANGKAY
Nic Masangkay is a Seattle-based community musician and poet. They graduated in 2016 from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in English. Notable highlights include Buzzfeed, Autostraddle, and Tumblr features for poem “My Gender Is for Mothers”; 2018 Jack Straw Cultural Center Artist Assistance Program Resident; 2019 4Culture Arc Artist Fellow; and independent singer-songwriter-producer alt-pop releases with EP Dark at Dusk: the Final Suicide (2019), singles “Star” (2021) and “Mothers” (2022). Aside from their solo work, Masangkay regularly collaborates with music, movement, and film artists, for remixing, scoring, production, and live sound. As they move to create more intergenerational and all-ages art, working with young people as a teaching artist is a budding focus of their practice. In their music, poetry, collaborations, teaching, and everyday life, Nic generously shares their perspective on the transformative potential of cultural work.
ROBERT FRANCIS FLOR
Robert is a Seattle native raised in the city’s Central Area and Rainier Valley. Robert graduated from Seattle University where he earned a B.A. (1966) and M.A. in Education (1975). In 1978, he received his doctorate at the University of Oregon in Higher Education and Public Policy.
His poems have been published in the Soundings Review, Four Cornered Universe, 4 and 20 Journal, the Wanderlust Journal, the Tamafyhr Mountain Poetry Review, Poets Against the War, Raven Chronicles and the Seattle Post Intelligencer (2005) and the Field of Mirrors anthology (2008). Caryan Press published his chapbook “Alaskero Memories” in 2018.
A member of Theater Puget Sound, Rain City Writers, Seattle Playwrights Circle, Playwright Center San Francisco and the Dramatist Guild, he co-chairs Pinoy Words Expressed Kultura Arts. His plays “The Injury” (2013), “Pinoy Hill” (2014) and “Pinakbet” (2015) were performed in the Eclectic Theatre. "Mabuhay Majesty" (2017) was produced at the Rainer Arts Center. The Eagle’s Curse was performed at Bindlestiff Studios in 2021. He’s developing several plays including Adama and the Demons, Salamanca Returns, Pinoys Play Ball and The Christmas Snow Globe. Radio plays Mara Hukluban – First Kill, Mara – Assassin of Souls, The Human Zoo and A Christmas in the Cordilleras are in progress. He has been awarded a 2023 Jack Straw Residency.