Carlos Bulosan Symposium- “Up Close and Personal"
Asian Division of the Library of Congress, The Asian Division Friends Society, The Embassy of the Republic of The Philippines, and Our Own Voice Invite you to Attend
"America Is in the Heart" for the 21st Century: the Carlos Bulosan Symposium
In commemorating the Centennial of the First Wave Migration to Hawaii by Filipino Nationals
Friday, April 28, 2006
9:15am-5:00pm
Room LJ-119, Jefferson Building, Library of Congress
1st and Independence Ave., SE, Washington, DC 20540
Contact: Dr. Anchi Hoh, 202-707-5673, adia@loc.gov
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Carlos Bulosan: Up Close and Personal
The Asian Division Friends Society (ADFS) of the Library of Congress is coordinating a symposium on Carlos Bulosan on April 28, 2006 as a centennial project to commemorate the First Wave Migration to Hawaii by Filipino Nationals. Our Own Voice, online literary journal for Filipinos in the diaspora, is the ADFS’s partner in this project to reintroduce the writings of Carlos Bulosan to the general public. Carlos Bulosan is the literary icon of early Filipino migrant experience in the United States. He is best known for his seminal work, America is in the Heart.
The symposium "American Is in the Heart for the 21st Century" will take place on April 28, 2006, 9:15am-5:00pm, in room LJ-119, Jefferson Building, an all-day affair in the Library of Congress. The symposium is co-hosted by the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines and sponsored by Philippine American Writers and Artists, Inc. (PAWA); The Arkipelago Philippine Books, San Francisco; Carayan Press, San Francisco; and Remedios G. Cabacungan. Among the noted Bulosan scholars who will be panelists are: Dr. E. San Juan, Dr. Jorshinelle Taleon-Sonza, Dr. Lane Hirabayashi, Dr. Rick Baldoz, Mr. Jeffrey Cabusao, Ms. Marilyn Alquizola, Dr. Susan Evangelista of Palawan, Philippines, and Ms. Cynthia Domingo of Seattle. Ms. Domingo will talk on Bulosan’s involvement with the Labor movement in Seattle. Other papers will center on a background of the U.S. labor recruitment in Hawaii, Bulosan's life and ideology, and Bulosan's writings.
As a quick glance at the importance of Carlos Bulosan, says Reme Grefalda, OOV editor: "We owe it to Carlos Bulosan, the writer to rescue his works from oblivion and bring him to his rightful place in the literary annals of America." Our Own Voice advocates getting Carlos Bulosan out of academe and down from forgotten library shelves by bringing him "up close and personal" to readers, young and old alike. By focusing on the body of literature contributed by Bulosan, the symposium is expected to bring to today’s audience the ideology, philosophy and vision of a great Filipino mind who valued the idea of what America was, what it is universally to all peoples, and the great faith he had in America's ideals. Bulosan’s works and words affirm the current struggle of marginalized groups, and it is the relevance of this man's raw response to the conditions that surrounded him then that still haunts us today and will be relevant for generations.
Symposium Program (Tentative)
THE CARLOS BULOSAN SYMPOSIUM
April 28, 2006
Room LJ-119, Jefferson Building
Library of Congress
Carlene S. Bonnivier, Moderator
9:30 WELCOME by Dr. Hwa Wei Lee, Chief, Asian Division
9:45 KEYNOTE ADDRESS by His Excellency Albert F. del Rosario. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of The Philippines to the United States of America
10:30 BLUEPRINT FOR A BULOSAN PROJECT:
PROSPECTS FOR RENEWING THE FILIPINO CRITICAL IMAGINATION
By Dr. E. San Juan, Jr., Philippine Cultural Studies Center, Storrs, CT
11:00 THE THIRD ORIENTAL INVASION: FILIPINO IMMIGRANTS AS 'RACE PROBLEM' IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN WEST
by Dr. Rick A. Baldoz, Visiting Fellow, Stanford University Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity
11:30 SHORT BREAK
11:45 CARLOS BULOSAN, THE POSTCOLONIAL POET By Dr. Susan Evangelista, Palawan State University – Philippines
12:15 SOME NOTES FOR RECONSIDERING CARLOS BULOSAN’S THIRD WORLD LITERARY RADICALISM by Jeffrey Arellano Cabusao, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
1:00 LUNCHEON
2:30 SONGS IN EXILE: A MUSICAL TRIBUTE by Rod Garcia
2:45 CARLOS BULOSAN’S SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE: FROM UTOPIAN AMERICANISM AND INTERNATIONALISM TO FILIPINO NATIONALIST POLITICS AND CULTURE
by Dr. Tim Libretti, Northeastern Illinois University
3:15 “ARE WE THERE YET?" MAPPING CARLOS BULOSAN'S AMERICA IS IN THE HEART by Dr. Jorshinelle Taleon-Sonza, Rutgers University
3:45 VIDEO FOOTAGE: Scenes from THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO, a short story by Carlos Bulosan adapted for the stage by Lonnie Carter, courtesy of Ma-Yi Theater New York.
4:00 CARLOS BULOSAN: THE FILIPINO WORKING CLASS LEGACY AS REFLECTED IN THE ALASKA CANNERY WORKERS' EXPERIENCES by Cindy Domingo, Co-founder, the Carlos Bulosan Historical Project in Seattle
4:20 BULOSAN’S LAUGHTER: THE MAKING OF CARLOS BULOSAN
by Dr. Lane Hirabayashi, University of California-Riverside and Marilyn Alquizola, independent scholar
4:50 HEALING BY RECOLLECTING (a power point presentation)
by Reme-Antonia Grefalda, Our Own Voice