Kim Molina, Ebe Dancel, and More to Perform in PETA’s Community Arts Festival
Spearheaded by PETA’s Lingap Sining arm, 3G, Connect!, which takes its title from the words PinangGalingan, Galing, and PagGaling, is a 3-day online festival that features performances from professional theater artists and musicians, keynote and inspirational messages from PETA’s partners and guests, and featured performances by PETA’s community partners developed from on-ground and online workshops.
The festival will be streamed for free on PETA Theater and PETA Lingap Sining’s Facebook pages on October 10, 11, and 17, featuring performances from Kim Molina, Jerald Napoles, Ebe Dancel, Noel Cabangon, Juan Miguel Severo, The Juans, Aikee, Chud Festejo, Words Anonymous, Wonderlast Films, St Benilde Romancon Dance Company, PETA Lab Artists, and the PETA Choir.
There will also be keynote messages from Catriona Gray, Enchong Dee, Julian Trono, Chai Fonacier, Gab Cabangon, Isa Does, Bishop Pablo Virgilio S David, and Bishop Broderick Pabillo.
Lingap Sining, known as PETA’s advocacy arm, started as a humanitarian response program to help communities recover from disasters. In recent years, the group has also been reaching out to communities in Metro Manila that have been greatly affected by violence, abuse, and killings, as well as to orphaned families who have suffered from psycho-social impacts caused by the trauma of losing a loved one and those who have undergone problems with livelihood and community stigmatization. Gail Billones, 3G, Connect!’s executive director and head of PETA’s Lingap Sining arm, shares the challenges that the communities have had to go through during the pandemic.
“…We work with urban poor communities ‘tsaka challenged communities na nakakaranas ng violence, ng killings even. Iyung access to technology, iyun talaga, kasi nga, mahirap eh. Minsan [Facebook] Messenger lang ang kaya nilang maabot. Hindi nila kaya makasama dito sa Zoom. So talagang gumagawa kami ng paraan, minsan nilload-an namin sila, kumukuha kami ng support to give them allowances for the coaching sessions para mabuo nila iyung mga coaching sessions. Iyung mga partner artists namin at iyung mga artists ng PETA, talagang gumagawa ng paraan. Inaabot talaga iyung mga batang gusto talagang makapag-create despite the most difficult and challenging situation natin ng pandemic.”
Festival Assistant Director Raul Alfonso says, “Sa gitna ng pandemya at lockdown, hindi tumigil ang PETA Lingap Sining sa pakikipag-ugnayan sa mga kabataan sa komunidad. Naglunsad ng Arts for Advocacy, katulad ng ‘Let’s Get Creative’ at ‘Saturday Sining Sessions.’ Hinikayat ang mga kabataan sa komunidad na sumali sa iba’t ibang online workshops, katulad ng pagsulat ng spoken word poetry, paglikha ng mga sayaw, pagbubuo ng mga micro-video, at pag-compose ng iba’t ibang awitin.”
“Bukod doon sa Arts for Advocacy Workshop, for the past 1.5 years, we have been doing workshops with human rights organizations, with our partners in the diocese of Caloocan, at iyung ibang mga community organizations sa Manila na affected ng War on Drugs,” adds Billones. “May mga kabataan kami na naabot mula sa mga parokya na nag-develop ng palabas at mga artist-teachers din ng PETA ang tumulong sa kanilang magbuo.”
Featured performances from PETA’s community partners include creative outputs from Katha- San Exequiel Moreno Parish, Tanghalang Bagong Sibol, Dulaang Sagrada Familia, San Roque Cathedral Parish MYA, San Jose Ang Tagpagtanggol Parish, Sunny Side Creatives, and PETA’s Saturday Sining Sessions/ Arts for Advocacy Workshop Winners.
Billones says that their community partners were already ready to perform on-ground last April. “The 3G festival is really an on-ground festival to celebrate humanity, human rights, and human dignity. Kaso lang, nagka-pandemic, so ito ay nag-transition or nag-expand sa online platform. So on-ground, community-contributed performances ang mapapanood niyo.”
3G, Connect! is part of PETA’s Festival of Windows, a three-month long online arts festival that features multiple windows of stories and ideas presented through performances, workshops, lectures and other creative expressions. It aims to open windows for introspection, dialogue, meaning-making and imagination.
READ: PETA’s Online Festival Spotlights the Youth
There are more things lined up for PETA’s Festival of Windows. Stay tuned as we make more announcements soon.
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