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SAN FRANCISCO, CA, June 2003 - Arkipelago Books
Publishing is proud to announce the release of GRAVITIES OF CENTER,
a book of poems by Barbara Jane Reyes.
Contained in this collection are poems and prose pieces which
exhibit Barbara’s oftentimes eclectic style/sensibilities
and willingness to experiment with form and language. With serious
and playful poems very much rooted in San Francisco Bay Area
urban and suburban cultures, settings, and vernaculars, a geographically
faraway Philippines is never absent from this Pilipina American
writer’s consciousness. Consistent throughout Gravities
of Center are themes of longing, desire, diaspora, postcoloniality,
feminism, and coming of age.
"...to experience Barbara's poems is to learn about the specifics
of a Pilipina's experience. And it is also to experience the
'universality' of desire and loss - that is, despite the consistency
of losses, the stubbornness of never-ending desire ... by engaging
us all in the poetry of Desire, you need to be as present as
Barbara is in her poems. So enter these poems, and stay a while." — Eileen
Tabios, from her Preface to GRAVITIES
"Always mindful of the terrible past that still haunts her native
country today, Reyes writes with urgency, but her poems contain
an anger quite tempered by maturity and dignity. That past also
haunts her own personal life in America: her poetry offers an
acute look of what new ethnic identity means, but again, without
sanctimonious complaints. Even when she writes about that other
terrible topic, love, she is devastating in conveying loss, but
without reaching for sentimental sympathy. At once tender and
tough, her precise voice shatters us." — Nguyen Qui Duc,
Host/Producer, Pacific Time Public Radio
"Intelligent, energetic, and inventive, Reyes's writing is nourished
by the confluence of cultures at which she resides as an urban
twenty-first century Pilipina American. Seen as both a post-colonial
chronicle and an intimate exploration of self, community, and
history, Gravities of Center hovers between conventionalpoetry
or prose, bending the genres until what emerges is a work that
will illuminate us like 'garnet crystalline fire ... burning,
to light the way back home' ." — Jaime Jacinto, author
of HEAVEN IS JUST ANOTHER COUNTRY
Arkipelago Books is a specialty
bookstore selling Filipino and Filipino American arts, books
and crafts. For more information, contact Marie Irving Romero
at arkipelagobooks@yahoo.com.
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SAN FRANCISCO, CA, February 2001 - Arkipelago
Books of San Francisco announces the publication of a much
anticipated book, COMING FULL CIRCLE: The Process of Decolonization
Among Post-1965 Filipino Americans, by Leny Mendoza Strobel.
The book, published by Giraffe Books, will be launched
on March 17, Saturday, from 5:00-6:30pm, at Arkipelago Books
on 953 Mission St (at Mint Mall) in San Francisco.
Written
by Leny Mendoza Strobel, Coming Full Circle, is the first book
that documents the process of decolonization or undoing colonial
mentality among contemporary Filipino Americans. The book is
about the recovery and re-imagination of Filipino identity
and culture. Strobel describes this process of decolonization
as she worked with eight co-researchers/participants in exploring
the importance of: (Filipino) language/s, cultural memory,
indigenous values, history, emotions, Filipino spirituality,
and community institutions. The result is a book that serves
as a guide to anyone who wants to experience the wholess of
his/her Filipino "Loob" (sense of self) and know
the power that comes from the naming and telling of one´s
life.
The book launching event on March 17th will
be dedicated to the memory of Ver Enriquez, NVM Gonzalez, and
BulletX Marasigan - whose lives and works inspired a generation
towards `coming full circle´. The author and her co-researchers will read
excerpts from the book. The event will also feature a babaylan
blessing ritual offered by Evelie Arellano Posch, a martial arts
performance by Michelle Bautista, and responses from academic
and community leaders.
The event is free and open to the public.
The event also coincides with the rallying of support for Arkipelago
Books whose presence in the Mission District as a community and
cultural institution is being threatened by the proposed redevelopment
of this area for hightech businesses.
For more information, call
415/371-8150
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