“Book Shower” at Kapitan Isidro Mendoza Public Library

Have you ever heard of or been to a book shower?  Many of you (as I) may be familiar with bridal showers or baby showers, those happy and intimate gift-giving ocassions usually organised by family and close friends for brides or moms-to-be before the big wedding day or before giving birth. A book shower operates in the same spirit as bridal/baby showers, ie. gift-giving and a grand appreciation for gifts! The Perth Manila Book Project (PMBP) donated books to the Kapitan Isidro Mendoza Public Library, Pandacan Manila last month, and they’re so grateful that they’ve organised a formal book turn-over ceremony (ie. a book shower) on 04 April 2009. In attendance were community leaders from Pandacan, Ka Sixto Carlos, Grace Cacho from the Manila City Library Council, Cely Umali the OIC of Kapitan Isidro Library, Manang Aida (who I was soooo happy to see again) and residents of Pandacan, Manila. In behalf of the PMBP, I was asked to give a short speech; a new community threatre group called the Teatro Balagtas performed traditional Filipino dances such as singkil and pandango sa ilaw ; Ms. Christine Carlos graced the afternoon with her lovely voice; and Ka Sixto Carlos gave a heartwarming speech about community solidarity, youth involvemnent in performing arts such as the Teatro Balagtas, and social and environmental projects to revivifyPandacan.

Such a happy event! <3

Thank you Pandacan for the warm hugs, thank you Perth for the books!

Here are some photos from the Book Shower:

Those books on the table are from the Perth-Manila Book Project. How cute is the red ribbon in the middle?

Guests from Pandacan.

Ka Sixto Carlos

Teatro Balagtas’ 1st performace

They’re extremely talented!

Tinikling

Teatro Balagtas

Jessie (wearing a yellow shirt) is Teatro’s young and energetic volunteer theatre instructor. He did a great job teaching the kids for their very first performance.

Teatro Balagtas will also have workshops and trainings with the Philippine Education Theater Association (PETA) next week.

Christine Carlos, singer and stage performer, graced the afternoon with a lovely song.

Marco and I are really keen on collaborating with Teatro Balagtas for future projects. We have not discussed specific plans yet but we’d really love to extend support to this wonderful arts initiative.