‘KABAMBANNUAGAN: OUR VOICES, OUR LIVES’ launched

Honolulu, HI--Timpuyog: Ilokano Student Organization, in collaboration with Nakem Youth and the UH Manoa Ilokano Language and Literature Program, launched October 29 the first-ever bilingual non-fiction narrative, Kabambannuagan: Our Voices, Our Lives.

The book is a truthful chronicle of the lives of fourteen people, all of them of Ilokano ancestry, some born in Hawai’i, and others coming to Hawai’i at a young age to live diasporic lives away from the familiar sense of home and homeland in the Philippines.

The Guild of Ilokano Writers Global Press—Timpuyog Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano Global—in collaboration with Nakem Youth, published the book.

Kabambannuagan—the prime of youth—is a product of the Nakem Youth Writers Workshop held in conjunction with the UH Ilokano Language and Literature Program’s Community Language Project.

The Writers Workshop was facilitated by Aurelio Agcaoili, program coordinator of Ilokano and editor in chief of the Fil-Am Observer, and assisted by Jeffrey Acido, program director of Nakem Youth.

Kabambannuagan is the first attempt to provide a venue for the voices of the young Ilokanos to be heard, in the English language that they are familiar with or have forced themselves to become familiar with as part of their Americanization process.

A translation into Ilokano, done by Agcaoili, was meant to have these voices heard by the Ilokano community at large particularly that part of that community that is most at home with the Ilokano language.

Edited by Agcaoili and Acido, Kabambannuagan promises to be the first of a series of publications aimed to make known to the public the various social issues related to education, immigration, gender and sexuality, culture and heritage rights, politics and leadership, and civics and citizenship.

Kabambannuagan features the works of the following: Lourdes Acido, Sharon Agamao, Rachelle Aurellano, Brenna dela Rosa, Cindy dela Vega, Glenda Duldulao, Charissa Fabia, Janelle Funtanilla, Jaclyn Galinato, Kristine Garabiles, Walter Luares, Kathryn Parado, Izaiah Pascua, and Calvin Rilveria.

To avail of a copy, write to: nakemyouth@gmail.com or call Jeff: (808) 295-7687 or Calvin Rilveria, (808) 343-9050.

(PUBLISHED Timpuyog: Ilokano Student Organization, University of Hawaii at Manoa, November 2010)