Book Recommendation: I Am the Change in Climate Change

 

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Bangtan Hermana Notes: BTS Paved the Way: Heavy is the Crown

There is a difference between wearing a crown on one’s head and holding one. One speaks of recognition; the other makes me think of responsibility, legacy, and what we choose to do with the recognition we receive.

When we talk about BTS paving the way, I think we need to look beyond who came first or who influenced whom. We need to examine the pathways they opened and the cultural exchanges they made possible.

Their glocal impact matters: a Korean group whose music, language, and stories crossed borders, found meaning in different local contexts, and inspired conversations that extend beyond the music industry, including philosophy, cultural studies, language, and identity. Their legacy is not about erasing the artists who came before them. It is about recognizing what BTS uniquely contributed to the landscape.

And that is what these crowns remind me of: the crown is not the whole story. What matters is the work, the people who made it possible, and the doors that opened along the way. BTS did not build the road alone, but they helped take K-pop into places and conversations that were once harder to imagine.

Seven artists, one shared legacy. The crown may be a symbol, but the impact is something we can examine.

Apobangpo! Purple and true!

Coming Soon: Poetry, Clay and Stories

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Book Spine Poetry: Feed the Weightless World

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The Book Spine Poetry is Back for Mental Health Awareness Week

 

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Museum and Galleries Month: Fundacion Sanso

In February, my writing group, Women Writing had a full day workshop on the Memoir at Fundacion Sanso. I was fortunate to share my work and advocacy on the healing and therapuetic aspects of reading; how writers benefit from close reading and its affects. Poet Marj Evasco, writers Jen Soriano and Alya Honasan were speakers too. We had a fun and productive day listening to stories, poetry and what moves our writing lives.

The staff at Fundacion Sanso made it extra special by providing us with a space where we can be and become.

Last Saturday, I was at Fundacion Sanso once again. And with the intrepid members, officers, artists all of Ang Illustrador ng Kabataan. It’s Kid Readers Speak Day & moderating a panel of young readers was a refreshing experience. The three kid panelists we had conversations with opened windows of hope, doors of possibilities & showed us mirrors where we can see reflections of our shared humanity through the books we read about.

Thank you, Fundacion Sanso for making your gallery a warm and welcoming space.

It’s Musuems and Galleries Month. If you’re in the area, go visit. There’s a cafe that serves good food and great coffee, too!

#namjooning #museumgalleriesmonth #artgaller

Disaster-Ready Kids Series Wins Best Children’s Short Story at the Catholic Mass Media Awards 2026

Bangtan Hermana Notes: 7 thoughts on RM’s Between You and Me at SFMOMA

I have always loved museums. I love the way objects hold stories, how exhibitions make connections between things we might not have thought to place beside each other, and how a visit can change what we know or what we thought we knew. Watching Namjoon co-curate an exhibition at SFMOMA has me thinking about more than BTS's or RM's influence. It has me thinking about museums, cultural authority, and the people we allow to shape our encounters with art. 

Sadly, there's talk on social media questioning the legitimacy of RM as art collector, curator and aesthete. So, here are seven thoughts on RM's Between You and Me at SFMOMA and why it holds cultural weight.

1. Who gets to tell us what is worth looking at?

Museums have their curators, scholars, collectors, and institutional histories. These matter. But our encounters with art do not always begin in institutions. They begin with a song, a book, a conversation, or an artist whose curiosity sends us to a time or places we never knew existed. 

2. An idol can be a serious student of art. These things are not mutually exclusive.

Why do we insist on treating popular culture and intellectual curiosity as opposing categories? Namjoon can be an idol, a songwriter, a collector, a reader, and a co-curator. None of these identities cancels out the others.

3. Fame can open a door, but it cannot tell us everything about what happens inside.

Yes, RM's name brings attention to SFMOMA. That is part of his cultural influence. But the more interesting question is what visitors might discover once they enter: the artworks, the histories, the artists, and perhaps a curiosity they will carry beyond the exhibition.

4. Personal taste is not the enemy of scholarship.

A collection can begin with what moves us. That first encounter can lead to questions about form, history, context, and meaning. Personal resonance and critical inquiry can exist together. In fact, isn't that one of the ways we learn?

5. Representation is also about who gets to participate in making meaning.

Which artists enter the museum? Which histories are placed beside one another? Whose perspective becomes part of the exhibition? These are not trivial questions. They shape what we see, what we remember, and what we come to recognise as part of our shared cultural inheritance.

6. We need to examine our prejudices about expertise.

Criticism is necessary. Celebrity should not make anyone immune to scrutiny. But when our first response is to question why an idol belongs in a museum, perhaps we should also ask ourselves what we assume an idol can know, appreciate, or contribute. Are we evaluating the work? Or are we struggling with the person doing it? Those are two very different conversations.

7. The best cultural encounters send us looking beyond the person who brought us there.

This is what I love about Namjooning. One person's curiosity becomes an invitation for someone else to look, read, listen, ask questions, and discover something of their own.

And as a librarian, I cannot think of a better outcome. We do not want people to stop at the first book, the first artwork, or the first question. We want them to keep going.

This is what makes Between You and Me worth discussing beyond the headlines and the fandom discourse. Art, like reading, can be an invitation to encounter something beyond ourselves. And if Bangtan has taught us anything about cultural influence, it is that the invitation can travel farther than anyone expects.

So, yes, I am proud of Namjoon. But I am also curious about the conversations this exhibition will open/has opened, the people it will bring into the museum, and the things they might discover when they get there. The point is not simply to look at what Namjoon is looking at. It is to learn how to look for ourselves. 

Kid Readers Speak: Young Panelist on KidLit

On the Trail of a Cdrama: The Lament of Autumn - Episode 3

 

A Tribute to Papu Bal On National Teacher's Day

Baltazar Abad Calimag
August 10, 1950 - October 4, 2-26

Papa drew his last breath on October 4, the eve of National Teachers’ Day. I was in Cebu with the DepEd team of facilitators, resource speakers, and crew, preparing for a three-day workshop on creating and crafting storybooks and instructional materials. During the opening ceremony of the workshop, we offered a prayer for Papa. What a sweet and thoughtful gesture to honor his life in the most simple but poignant way.

Papa taught in the Philippine public school system for three decades and a few years. For public school teachers to pray for one

of their own is a beautiful full-circle moment. I was determined to give my professional best during my session for Day 1. My flight back to Manila was rebooked for that night.

I’m proud of my Papa for being a public school teacher. I often begin my workshops with DepEd by saying this. I grew up witnessing the hard work and resilience of teachers in the public school system. And though I am teaching in the private school system now, I consider myself kin and kind. After all, I went to PNU for my bachelor’s degree and a proud holder of a UP Diliman ID number.

To see a host of public school teachers who came from all 15 regions of the Philippines brought me back to the teacher that Papa was, and to the many years of service that came with his life in the public school system. Most notable was the moment when he would serve during local and national elections. As a child, I often wondered why public school teachers put their lives on the line during elections. When I passed the licensure exam for teachers and took my oath, I realized the integrity that teachers carry. And this factors in their role during elections. For each ballot cast holds a truth and one’s freedom of choice. And it is the licensed teacher who guards the sanctity of this vote.

In 1986, Mama and I watched the ballot count at Papa’s precinct. I was 12 years old, and my mother was progressive enough to allow me to witness a piece of history that would become part of a bigger narrative of national importance. It was exciting to hear the election watchers cheer for their respective candidates. After a few hours, Papa’s precinct counted Aquino as the winner.

What followed were historic events that led to the People Power Revolution. That night, Mama waited for Papa to come home. We were glued to the television. There were no mobile phones or social media fanfare. We depended on RPN 9 and GMA 7 to deliver the news. Mama stayed up all night, and when I woke up in the morning, Papa still wasn’t home. It was only later in the day when he arrived, tired and hungry. But I remember him carrying a quiet strength that needed no explanation.

He did his duty for family and country.

This is the story of my Papa that I will keep close to me. I will bring it with me to every workshop and training I develop and facilitate for teachers in both the private and public school systems.

This is one way I can honor my Papa and the inheritance he left me. Acts of service. Quiet strength. Integrity that is never easy to do.

Rest in God’s eternal love, Papa Bal.

Bangtan Hermana Notes: Between You and Me: Namjooning is Life

When RM talked to the press at the SFMOMA San Francisco Museum of Modern Art last September 29, he was sincere, vulnerable, and the happiest I have seen him with the media in a while. I also enjoy seeing him be, become, and keep becoming. This art exhibit, which he co-curated, feels like a full circle of what he has always written about in his songs and in many of BTS’s music: agency. Choice. The right to decide who you are beyond what an industry has made of you. You can’t control my shit. And for years, he has been insistent and persistent in asserting the person behind the idol persona of an industry that dictates and manufactures.

So much of that has echoed through his work, from BTS’s music to his solo albums. And now, through art, he gets to make another kind of statement. It’s not look at me, but come and look at what I have been looking at. And in art, we find our truest humanity.

So when he said that South Korea experienced losses through colonization and the speed with which it reared its tail when it became a democracy, it also produced and created bright and shiny things, I took that thought with me. I am walking through a season of loss and losing.

With Papa’s inevitable journey to the other side, I find myself painting, creating, making pottery, and just listening to my body. I don’t know where this will lead me. I just know that being in the here and now is the better way to live this one given life to the fullest.

Here’s to more Namjooning in the future!

Bangtan Hermana Notes: ARMY Glow Up: I Stayed. I Waited. I Glowed Up. 💜

Finalist at the Catholic Mass Media Awards: The Disaster Ready Kids Series

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Add to Resume: Best Selling Children's Book Author

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