My First Komiket (1 of 3)

Komiket Poster: Zsazsa Zaturnah by Carlo Vergara

What is a Gen Xer doing in Komiket?

This was the question I asked myself the moment I stepped into The Elements at Centris for the February Komiket 2019. Of course, I was there as chaperone for our Media and Lit Club members, as well as a librarian looking for good comics and zines to buy. Turns out, the Komiket is an event for people from all walks of life who loves art, literature, culture and entreprenuership. At the Komiket, one gets to buy stickers, prints, art, comics and sequential art, zines, bookmarks and all sorts of "anik-anik" alongside the super konyotiks to the avant garde artist. At Komiket, one will have the pleasure of having a favorite art commissioned. From K-pop to anime, indigenous art and pop art, the Komiket has everything for the nerd, the geek, the scholar, the Titas and Titos, bekis, beshies and business people. It is a good place to establish linkages and networking. 

There were adults my age too who were shopping for art and literary materials. One guy asked the sellers at Kawangis Komiks on the new issues of Mai-I and the activity booklet that goes with it. He admitted that his wife is a teacher and that they own a school. His advocacy is to keep kids away from gadget addiction and to use them as tools for creating art instead. I bought from Kawangis Komiks the wordless comics that they sell and the picture book they published that was written and made by a young boy. More of this in the next blog post.

Komiks and zines for the library

I met friends from the children's book industry and former co-teachers and students in Xavier School. Why they are everywhere I go is beyond me. Fr. Johnny Go SJ was right when he said "you can leave Xavier School, but Xavier will not leave you". It was a happy reunion that confirmed my ties to the past will forever be connected to my present. 

I ended the day with a bag of comics and zines which our students and Media Arts club moderator helped select. For part 2 of this post, I will write about the comics and zines we acquired from Komiket.

November In Review: Art, Books and Music (3 of 3)

At the tail end of National Book Week, I visited the De La Salle Science and Technology Center (DLS - STC) Grade School Library for a Zine Making activity with a group of middle grades and junior high school students. This literacy and literary engagement was made possible through the effort of Ms. Candy May Schijf, library coordinator.

It was their first time to hear about Zines, let alone make one. That is why, I took simple steps and basic concepts in introducing this literary genre and format to them. Making the Zines along side these young readers and writers was a learning experience for me too. At the end of the session, there were two students who finished making a zine.

A high school student made this zine!

It was my hope that they continue making their own Zines. If not, creating their stories and producing their own works of art in whatever medium is the long term goal. Inspiring kids to read and write is the beginning of language and literary development. Engaging them to write and create their own stories in a medium of their choice is empowering. Apart from the classroom, it is the library where literacy development and empowerment through language use happen. Teachers teach these skills, yes, and students get assessed and evaluated on learning gained.

But, when librarians involve themselves in the process of creation, where individual differences are respected as well as varying learning modalities, then the librarian facilitates learning! Kudos to Ms. Schijf for making the classroom-library connection happen.

Helpful links: On Zines and Zines Making Workshop @ the School Library

SLIA Posts on Zines: Zines and Self Publishing
SLIA Posts on Zines: Zine Collection in the School Library

DIY: Zine Making for Kids
Zines: A Beginners Guide
Zines as Teaching Tools

The Lighthouse Diary Entry 6: Works of Students As Part of the Library Collection

The International School Manila I know as a child has a Children's Media Center where I would visit during summer break. Of the many collections of books in the library, there was a special shelf for books made and written by students. Most of the books were short stories and collection of folktales, poetry and essays written in English class. The librarians and teachers in ISM value their students literacy journey that they included them in the library's collection.

As an eight year old reader, seeing books made by kids and reading them made a lasting impression. I discovered that shelf filled with books, bound by hand and some by a binding machine written by kids my age and older. There were stories similar to The Little Prince with towering trees and starry skies. There were books on folk tales jazzed up into crazy and contemporary versions from old motifs (this was in the 80s). I was in awe. I wanted to write too! So, I did by starting a journal. It was only years and years later that I gathered up the courage to write my own stories.

In Xavier School, while working as a school librarian in the Early Education unit, I teamed up with Nursery and Prep teachers for book projects. Our boys made picture books, wordless books, counting books and flash cards they can use for telling stories. I kept them in a special cabinet. Now I wonder if those books and storytelling flash cards are still in the EED Library.

Fast forward to where I am today.

Imagine my joy when I discovered a packet of zines on my table one morning!

The zines were made by our grade 10s and our English teacher donated them to the library. What precious additions to the library's collection! Apart from the Personal Projects and copies of Extended Essays, I am a proud curator and guardian of these "books" and student made projects. 

A few years ago, I was part of the team who organized the Early Readers Online Project. Our high school students made stories for readers in the early grades and these are all accessible on our school's website. The stories can be downloaded for free. Visit the Community and Service of the Beacon Academy.

Ah, a few of the many things I love about my job. - being a part of the creative process as well as designing structures for data and information access so knowledge can be derived from them thrills me to no end (I know I am geeking you out!) The best thing is, I get to curate, chronicle, and document these symbols and representations of thought and creativity. What a privilege!

I know so little. Yet, I am happy knowing only this much.

The FALAKASTALAS Forum 2017 at the Philippine Normal Univeristy

My professor in college, Prof. Ruth Alido, is now the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Letters at the Philippine Normal University (PNU). When I received her invitation to be a panelist in the annual Panayam (dubbed as FALAKASTALAS), I said yes. How can I say no to my Alma Mater and to Prof. ALido who introduced me to Nick Joaquin, Paz Marquez Benitez, Estrella Alfon and Ninotchaka Rosca. What made this speaking engagement equally meaningful is that, I gave the little knowledge I know about language learning through library services to students of education majoring in Literature, Language (English and Filipino), Music, Speech and the Arts.

L-R: Sir Joel, Ka Heber, Prof. Alido, Zarah G., Sir Noel and Bebang Siy

I hope that this little knowledge multiplies having interacted with 500 PNU students!

That day of the forum was World Read Aloud Day. So, I began with a read aloud of the book, Library Mouse (Kirk, Scholastic). I had to read the book since the audience choose to. I have a copy of the e-book, but the PNU students prefer seeing a live read aloud session. Another highlight of the morning of the was my tandem telling of Juan and the Rice Pot with Jude, a music education major. I told the story in Filipino. Jude told it in his mother tongue, Cebuano.

It was an enjoyable session and I did learn and gather insights from the rest of the panelists.

Pinoy Zines

Bebang Siy shared, showed and told stories about self publishing and Zines, pamphlet like reading materials of a story or stories produced using a photocopying machine. In this day and age, writing and literature are taking a movement towards mass readership. Think Wattpad, Amazon self publishing platforms and yes, Zines. If librarians pay attention enough on Zines, we can bring our readers closer to resources that will inspire them to create their own stories. Sir Noel Taylo of CCP's Tanghalang Pilipino emphasized the importance of research when creating art with different peoples and communities. Ka Heber Bartolome remains to be a force to reckon with. Here is a man who has seen the rise and fall of leaders and the changing of the guards. His love for country is still very muc evident in his music.

I wish I could have stayed the rest of the day at PNU to visit old haunts, friends and the library. But, work awaited in Binan. So, there is reason for me to go back.