The Real Reason I've Been M.I.A.

A look at the 2023 Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture and its History

For several months, I was neck deep in two big projects: the first, a certain play on Broadway, for which I traveled to New York; and the second, FilAm Arts’ Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC) at the Levitt Pavilion in Los Angeles. And since the latter was held more recently, this is what I will share with you.

Day 1 Photos by Sthanlee Mirador

The first time I attended an FPAC - I was brand new to California. My young family and I moved from the East Coast and somehow found ourselves at the festival in San Pedro. Having come from a suburban New Jersey town with very few Asians, let alone Filipinos, finding FPAC was exciting. My food! My people! (But wait, why are they all into hip hop?) 

Fast forward to 2018, I’m back at the festival but this time at Echo Park. My friend is producing the entertainment - so I decided to come and support. Besides, I haven’t seen her in eons. It’s hot as balls that day but I had a good time anyway.  Little did I know that this friend would eventually become the Executive Director of FilAm Arts and would eventually recruit me onto the board.

So here I am. It’s 2023 and it’s the 29th year of the Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture. We had two days of programming, which is a day more than last year’s and we curated the vendors, the food and the artists performing.  Organizing this event on a shoestring budget and only a handful of volunteers is a Herculean task but we pulled through and successfully mounted a festival highlighting Filipino Arts and Cutlure for a crowd of Filipino-Americans who were hungry for this kind of program and non-Filipinos who were experience Filipino culture, many, for the first time. 

Day 2 Photos by Kassi King

Here are videos of the two days. Video by Emmanuel Munda. (Yes, another volunteer!) 

DAY 1. Capped by a lively performance by Jocelyn Enriquez.

DAY 2. Ended with a Kapwa Jam by Gingee.

And since it is Filipino-American History Month, let me share a bit of a background about the longest-running FilAm festival of arts and culture in Southern California. 

The Annual Festival of Philippine Arts & Culture (FPAC) was first conceptualized in 1990 as part of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department’s Festivals Program, an arts program designed to address the multicultural constituency of the city. 

Now for some history….

Organized by about 100 artists and community leaders, the first FPAC took place at Los Angeles City College on Mother’s Day, May 14, 1992, where 3,000 participants braved the aftermath of the L.A. riots that occurred the week before. Since then, FPAC has only grown stronger and bigger, moving to Cabrillo Beach in 1994, then to Pt. Fermin Park in 2001 and Echo Park in 2017.  The Festival then took a hiatus and in 2020 (we all know what happened then)  FilAm Arts held the first ever virtual FPAC, over three days! The Festival finally returned in person in 2022. 

If you’re interested, you can watch actor Jonjon Briones talk about the history of FPAC in THIS video (aired as part of the 2020 virtual festival.)

Disclosure:

I am a on the Board of Directors of FilAm Arts, the nonprofit organization that produces FPAC as well as other programming throughout the year. Learn more at filamarts.org