This August we celebrated our 11th annual KULTURA Filipino Arts Festival, promoting Filipino-Canadian art, culture, cuisine and goods! The three day event took KULTURA festival goers around Toronto from OCAD university, to our Kapisanan Centre in Kensington Market, and finishing off with our finale at Nathan Phillips Square. Don’t sweat if you missed out -- here’s our recap of our #KulturaTO 2016 weekend!
Day One: TAYO: A CLUTCH & NAV Exhibit
KULTURA’s weekend began with a Friday night exhibition, unveiling the creative collective energies of Kapisanan’s CLUTCH and NAV programs. Thirteen participants showcased art installations reflecting the diverse and dynamic perceptions of what it means to be a Filipinx-Canadian. CLUTCH and NAVIGATION’s TAYO Exhibition explored the very distinct and very diverse identities of Filipinx-Canadians — examining where they intersect and stray from each other. The opening reception was a night full of support and love, as they used OCAD University’s Open Space Gallery to wrap up the free six-month mentorship and leadership program. The exhibition remained open for festival goers to visit from the 5th of August to the 23rd.
Special thanks to this year’s Program Coordinators Dorothy Anne Manuel (CLUTCH Vol. 8) and Sean Kua (NAV Vol. 3)!
Day Two: Tales from the Flipside: The Public Premiere of 'ANAK'
Our second day of KULTURA was an afternoon reading of ‘Tales from the Flipside: The Public Premiere of “ANAK”’ presented by the next generation of Carlos Bulosan Theatre artists. Festival goers gathered at Kapisanan’s black box theatre space to enjoy an afternoon reading about family -- their hopes and dreams, their secrets and lies, and what they must to do to stay together as they encounter new worlds, new stages in life.
Day Three: #KulturaTO Finale - Kain Kayle, Kultura Live!, Kultura Marketplace, Bahala Na @ Nathan Philipps Square
And finally, the finale! The most anticipated day took place at Nathan Phillips Square where over 7,000 guests from all over the world came to show their support and enjoy the 11th Annual KULTURA Filipino Arts Festival.
KULTURA’s finale included Kain Kalye: Filipino Street Eats presented by Philippine Airlines where four vendors beefed it out to win a round-trip flight to the Philippines. Keep reading to find out who came out on top!
KULTURA’s Marketplace sold everything from the latest Filipino fashions, arts and accessories to everything that one could possibly do with a coconut. There were even lineups to meet YouTube star, DOMICS.
For the first time ever KULTURA partnered up with FringeMNL to present ‘Bahala Na’ a Multimedia Arts Battle. Kat Estacio and Kristina Guison went head to head at the live art competition with their pieces. By ONE vote, Kristina's 'Settlement' piece won--congratulations!
Our performers stole the show at KULTURA Live! Presented by FACTOR With hundreds of festival goers jamming along to the tunes of Darling Cora, Sol.Dust, K!MMORTAL, Southeast Cartel, Bucc N Flvr, and Casey Garcia. DATU and HATAW came through and killed it with their performances, fusing dance styles as well as modern and traditional music. Kapisanan’s PSL participants culminated their weekly sessions by performing their spoken word pieces on the big stage.
The Firm of Justin Chan Criminal Defence presented the Bayanihan Volunteer of the Year Award to KULTURA Junior Coordinator, Ranelle Aquino. Congratulations and thank you for all your hard work!
To wrap up the whole finale and weekend, people's choice named Lamesa as the 2016 Kain Kalye winner and Philippine Airlines presented them with a round trip flight to the Philippines!
MARAMING SALAMAT to all our amazing sponsors, volunteers, partners and guests for helping us make KULTURA 2016 happen! We’re so glad that you came out to celebrate KULTURA’s 11th Anniversary with us - and we cannot wait to show you what we have in store for you all next year!
Written by Ramsha Khan