Shows
Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast057: STUDY BREAK w/ The Radical Visionary, Trina!According to the Bible, it was women who first found Jesus’ empty tomb. It was to women that Jesus first appeared after he rose from the dead. And speaking of women and women speaking on Jesus… Oh, do your Ates have a decolonized Easter treat for you! Join us as we have a passionate, heartfelt, and fiery discussion with Trina, The Radical Visionary, about leaving Church, activism, and decolonizing faith, among other things.
Trina is a 2x certified Spiritual Life Coach from the SF Bay Area, CA supporting conscious leaders step into their higher calling for collective liberation. She is p...
2024-03-301h 11Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast056: STUDY BREAK w/ creative & actor, Verma Zapata!Join us in this episode where we sit down with fellow kapwatid, Verma Zapanta: circle keeper, student of hilot, and educator. In addition to all the organizations and movements she plays a part in, Zapanta hosts the yearly Filipinx healers market/gathering, Ginhawa Marketplace in the SOMA. We speak to her about how hilot came into her life and how she first learned hilot in the back of a Walgreens! We also touch on the importance of finding your people on your remembrance journey. Listen in!
…Don't forget to like and follow your ate...
2024-02-1755 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast055: STUDY BREAK w/ creative & actor, Joe Corzo!Join us in this episode where we sit down with fellow kapwatid, Joe Corzo, on his personal and professional endeavors. Joe shares some of his latest projects and features, things he has done with music, and most importantly his story of overcoming challenges and wins, as he endures the journey as an aspiring and rising Pilipino-American actor in Hollywood!
📺🎙️…Don't forget to like and follow your ates on the YouChoobs & Instagrams, hah?! Maraming salamat sa iyong continued supporta!
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Ate Ims...
2024-01-1754 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast054: STUDY BREAK w/ music artist, Swiggle Mandela!This episode was special because this was a first time for your babaylan brubrus (Ate Steph) were able to connect in-person with the esteemed @swiggle_mandela! In this episode, we touched a range of Swiggle’s experiences as a bi-racial person growing up & existing on the lands originally inhabited by First Nations including (but not limited to) the Multnomah, Wasco, Clackamas, Kalapuya, Chinook, & many others along the Columbia River— also known as Portland, Oregon. Tune into the tea on nature/animal intuition, entrepreneurial-ship, fatherhood, and of course his work as a performing rapper & community-recognized music artist.📺🎙️…& don’t forget to like and foll...
2023-11-261h 01Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast053: MOVIE STUDY BREAK! Review of "1521: The Quest for Love + Freedom"Movie Break! Join your Ates as we give our comments and opinions on the recent movie: “1521: The Quest for Love and Freedom”. In this episode, we not only talk about the movie, but we also re-introduce ourselves, since your Ates find themselves on new timelines and in distinct lifetimes and with different hairstyles!
We believe as we see all the unspeakable genocide happening to the Palestinian people Gaza, that now more than ever, it’s important to remember history, to remember the affects of colonization, and the impact of empire and what an unchecked and unbalanced power dynamic...
2023-10-291h 09Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast052: STUDY BREAK w/ Lauren Funiestas, LMFT & healer!In this conversation, we sat with the Manang Lauren, LMFT and her range of personal and professional knowledge. She is a therapist, intergenerational mental health cycle breaker & advocate, fitness coach, past life regression practitioner, & healer.
Please remember this is a passion project, and your Ates would appreciate your quick support! If you feel called to show us some love, hit the Like, Subscribe, and/or Comment(s) buttons, below!
You can also find us on Instagram: @BabaylanBruhaBookClub.
Maraming Salamat sa inyong lahat for your time, support, and consideration!
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Ate Ims & Ate Steph
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2023-09-2952 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast051: STUDY BREAK w/ Mark Teodosio, creative behind THE REALEST BAYANI comic seriesHere goes episode 2, kapwatids! We were able to sit and speak with writer and music recording artist, Mark Teodosio, on his "The Realest Bayani" comic book creation process, dating life perspectives, rituals, & his own spiritual references.
Please remember this is a passion project, and your Ates would greatly appreciate your quick support! If you feel called to show us some love, hit the Like, Subscribe, SHARE, and/or Comment(s) buttons, below!
Maraming Salamat sa inyong lahat for your time, support, and consideration!
Instagram & YouTube: @BabaylanBruhaBookClub.
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Ingat Lagi-
Ate...
2023-08-2849 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast050: STUDY BREAK w/ Ate Judy Robinson, author of "1521"We're back, Babaylan Bruhas! For season 4, we're taking a big long study break! For this first episode of our study break season, we were honored to be able to interview Ate Judy Robinson, author of "1521: Rediscovering the History of the Philippines". If you tuned into our last season, you'll know that we just finished reading her thought-provoking book. Listen in as Ate Judy shares some of the stories she had to cut from the book, as well as the inception and publishing process.
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2023-07-2149 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast049: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 18 + Conclusion: “Holy Water”We are so excited to wrap up this final episode of 1521 with discussing Chapter 18 and Ate’s Judy’s brief Conclusion chapter! Citations stemming from St. Bernadette Soubirous to Roman Baths, Filipino bathing habits to holy water; Your Ates discuss how this chapter intricately touches into the sacredness of pre-colonial relations to water.
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Podcast - @babaylanbruhabookclub
Stephanie - @st3ph.inrising
Imee - @themayarimoon
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJpjbGCP5WwlB2vPmaQUWjA
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2023-07-0344 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast048: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 17, “Bad Saint”Ate Judy takes a jump into modern times as we head into one of the last chapters of 1521, where she references the Washington D.C. restaurant “Bad Saint”. The restaurant takes its name from the first Filipino settlement in the US: Saint Malo, Louisiana. Listen in as we touch on our favorite filipino foods, and we talk about one reason Ate Judy thinks Filipinos may do so well in the diaspora.
Follow us on Instagram:
Podcast - @babaylanbruhabookclub
Stephanie - @st3ph.inrising
Imee - @themayarimoon
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2023-05-2032 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast047: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 15, “We the People” / Chap. 16, “Maynila”Listen in as we learn of the differing dividing classes of the Visayans and how even “slaves” had upward mobility in the community. Come learn how and why Manila became the capital of the Philippines. Join your Ates as we continue on our learning and liberation journey.
Follow us on Instagram:
Podcast - @babaylanbruhabookclub
Stephanie - @st3ph.inrising
Imee - @themayarimoon
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJpjbGCP5WwlB2vPmaQUWjA
End music written, produced and recorded by Dayana Capulong. (C) Dayana Capu...
2023-04-3057 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast046: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 13, “Sugbo” / Chap. 14, “Trouble in Paradise”Will the pillaging of pre-colonial Philippine villages ever end?! Join us as we continue our conversation discussing the book “1521: Rediscovering the History of the Philippines”. In this episode we dive into Ch. 13 & 14. We see the return of Legazpi in this story, witness the fighting between the Portuguese and Spanish over Cebu, and continue to take deep breaths as we lament the one-sided treaty Chief Tupas reluctantly signed.
Follow us on Instagram:
Podcast - @babaylanbruhabookclub
Stephanie - @st3ph.inrising
Imee - @themayarimoon
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2023-04-0847 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast045: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 11, “Gold, God & Glory” / Chap. 12, “1565”We have a two for one today, covering not one but TWO chapters! Chapter 11 was a great segue into setting up the next part of “How the Philippines was Conquered by conquistadors”. Entitled: Gold, God, & Glory, Ate Judy puts together a timeline of 1519 to 1564 where it continues on the narrative of when Spanish captain, Hernan Cortes, claimed Nueva Espana, or Mexico, for Spain. Spain continued its quest to send expeditioners to the Spice Islands after Magellan’s voyage. According to historians Nicholas Cushner, Charles Mann, and John Leddy Phalan - the true nature of man desiring gold and glory in the...
2023-02-1848 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast044: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 10, “The Betrayal”This chapter speaks of betrayal on betrayal on betrayal. Oh the ways man betrays man. So, now we know Magellan was killed at the battle of Mactan by the hand of Cilapulapu. Whose running the ships and crew, now?
According to Pigafetta, the men elected 2 commanders, Magellan’s Portuguese brother-in-law, Duarte Barbosa & Joao Serrao. Both men had ties to Magellan, and we read that even if they did not like Magellan, both commanders respected him. Which leads us to our second point of noting that Magellan was widely disliked by his own people, which has been debatable if...
2023-02-0431 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast043: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 9, “The Big Fish”This chapter felt like a whole lotta he said/she said/”and so they say”… Ate Judy walks us through a metaphorical “big fish” break down of the known and yet not-as-known (yet), legendary, Mactan chief who conquered Magellan in the battle of Cebu, Cilapulapu. Citing our frequent historian, Pigafetta’s words with Philippine Daily Inquirer, Ambeth Ocampo; and Daniel Gerona; along with with Resil B. Mojares, a Cebu historian and scholar who wrote the Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society and Lapu Lapu: The Conqueror of Magellan, whose work builds off the previous finds of another celebrated Filipino historian, H...
2023-01-2136 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast042: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 8, “The Battle”Let’s do a little recap on our journey with Magellan so far… First there was the Arrival. Then the Friendship. Next came the Conversion. And today… Today we talk about the BATTLE. Enter stage right: “Cilapulapu”, who we know to as simply “Lapu Lapu” today. Cilapulapu was a chief of Mactan, which was a nearby island to Cebu, where we last left Magellan. Lapu Lapu “refused to obey the King of Spain”. And after so many tributes and conversions, it seems like the next thing Magellan wanted to do was show off his military power, and Cilapulapu’s challenge seemed lik...
2023-01-0739 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast041: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 7, “The Conversion”Prepare yourselves. This chapter was a continuance of Magellan’s voyage from Rajah Kolambu, who ruled over Butuan and Caraga on the island of Mindanao, now into the Cebu. Cebu was known for the largest and best trade port, which obviously caught Magellan’s ambitious eye. Honestly, a very weird and tension filled description of Rajah Humabon, as Ate Judy states the “european construct” title for King of Cebu and their first encounters to establish relations… or nah? As Pigafetta + Bergreen’s descriptions cite the sequence of events between Rajah Humabon, his nephew, Prince Tupas, Enrique, Pigafetta, Magellan, and Magellan’s f...
2022-12-1054 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast040: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 6, “The Friendship”So, Ferdinand Magellan. Villain? Visionary? Friend? Foe? Hero? This chapter provided the unfolding timeline of Magellan’s objective to “make a name for himself” like other Portugese explorers; by originally setting out to bring commerce to the Spice Islands, particularly Moluccas, as a part of the Indonesian archipelago. Most Filipinos were told that Magellan’s purpose was to bring Christianity to the islands.
Ate Judy cites a lot of Laurence Bergreen’s Over The Edge of the World, Pigafetta, and Enrique’s lenses. We learn that Magellan was born in 1480 and became part of the royal court, which allowe...
2022-11-1946 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast039: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 5, “The Arrival”Now we’re getting into some juicy deets! This chapter held an intertwining of details cited from an Italian supernumerary ship crew member, Antonio Pigafetta. Being a supernumerary meant Pigafetta didn't partake in shipboard responsibilities besides documenting/writing about our favorite antagonist on Ferdinand Magellan. But will we shift our thoughts on Magellan after this chapter? Thanks to Pigafetta and his famous piece, Magellan’s Voyage: A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation, another author Laurence Bergreen, who wrote, Over the Edge of the World, was able to translate Spain’s “first landings” in the Philippines.
Through this trans...
2022-11-0551 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast038: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 4, “Trading Partners”This chapter was an interesting breakdown of the connection the Philippines shares with China. Dating as far back as the ninth century (Jan 1, 801 AD – Dec 31, 900 AD) , that equates to about 1000 years of exchange both countries have experienced. In fact, the oldest “Chinatown” is in the Philippines. China would trade things such as porcelain, trade gold, iron cases for perfumes, lead, colored glass beads, and iron needles to exchange for the yellow wax, cotton, pearls, shells, and medicinal betel nuts, and jute textiles that were products of the islands. It is said that Filipinos visited China before China came to the Ph...
2022-10-2244 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast037: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 3, “Boats and Languages”“We were voyagers!”. Ate Judy couldn’t have affirmed this better with all the historical references in this chapter. Citing Disney’s famous Moana as the latest character, (& probably closest indigenous resemblance on a media screen to inspire us to connect to our ancestral ways) to portray a deeper dive into the history of our ancestor’s journeyings and what that pathway created for their posterities to come.
This chapter is all about the mindful intricacy Filipinos efforted into handcrafting wooden outrigger boats (barangays, etc), that supported their rather comfortable-sounding expeditions, expanding civilization and developing communities around the islands...
2022-10-0843 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast036: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - Chap. 2 “Writers of History”This chapter is all about receipts! What was the parchment curtain and what does it have to do with pre-hispanic history? We also talk about our revolutionary crush Jose Rizal and decolonization as soul retrieval. Take a listen and join in on the conversation.
Follow us on Instagram:
Podcast - @babaylanbruhabookclub
Stephanie - @st3ph.inrising
Imee - @themayarimoon
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJpjbGCP5WwlB2vPmaQUWjA
End music by Dayana Capulong. (C) Dayana Capulong, 2022
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Time Stamps:
2022-09-2451 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast035: 1521 REDISCOVERING THE HISTORY OF THE PHILIPPINES - intro/Ch. 0/Ch. 1Season 3, Episode 1!! New season means new book. 1521: Rediscovering the History of the Philippines (by Judy Robinson) was inspired by the 500 year anniversary of Ferdinand Magellan’s arrival in the Philippine islands. Ate Judy, who was born and raised in the Philippines, but now lives in the Washington D.C. area, having an innate curiosity and love for learning, did a little digging and pieced together stories that she and even friends who grew up in the Philippines but now live in the US were unaware of. Stories such as that of Enrique de Malacca, Magellan’s slave, who was prob...
2022-09-1046 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast034: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 13 - “PAGBABALIKLOOB, CYBERACTIVISM, & ART: Babaylan Provocations and Creative Responses”What a chapter to round out the ending of this book! Episode 34, chapter 13, closing out by Ate Perla Paredes Daly, a multimedia artist and activist who collaborates with various artists, healers, and activists around the world. Her story stems from the transition of actually starting in California, and at the age of 10 years old, moved back to the island of Negros Occidental, Philippines with her widowed mother. Growing up around educated, “aristokrato/a”s like her Lola who went to Assumption College, she eventually connected the dots in college and recognized and reconciled her colonial mentalities from her upbringings.
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2022-07-0954 min
Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast033: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 12 - “THE EAST-WEST QUEST, Intergenerational Myth-Weaving and Cultural Identity”In this chapter, Ate Ethelyn tells her heartbreaking story of growing up in a valley community in Nothern Philippines, then having to move to Metro Manila where she saw the kapwa bliss of her childhood end as she tried to get used to the crowded city who she says “robbed her parents of their smiles and nurturing touch, turning them into silenced automatons.” Growing up in Manila meant a rejection of everything that Ate Ethelyn held dear during her childhood years, including the nature spirits and guardians that connected all of creation. She was able to find love in the...
2022-06-1851 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast032: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 11 - “B(E)ARING THE BABAYLAN, Body Memory, Colonial Wounding, and Return to Indigenous Wildness”Written by the vibrant and scholarly S. Lily Mendoza (Manang Leny’s sister), who graduated with expertise in studying Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino Liberation Psychology), Manang Lily takes us through her lovely dissertation on the work of indigenization among scholars in the Philippine academy - one of her life self-actualized “romances & adventure”. Having survived supporting and unconditionally loving her ex-husband who suffered from addiction, Manang Lily speaks of her experiences being able to sit and learn from the founder of the term Sikolohiyang Pilipino & elder, Virgilio “Ver” Enriquez, up until his last moments of life, at the Philippine Psychology Research and Traini...
2022-06-0441 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast031: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 10 - “IMPERIAL REMAINS, Footnotes on an Energy Healer"(TW: mention of suicide, sexual abuse)
Here we are! Part TATLO of the book, “Back from the Crocodile’s Belly”! In this chapter, written by Tera Maxwell, a scholar and energy healer, Ate Te proses her Filipino studies dissertation, challenging us to think about and/or remember how the Philippine-American War + Spanish & American imperialism has affected generations of Filipinos across the world. Tera seems to ask us to recall what private, individual memories we have as part of the collective memory - could be brought up to challenge the dominant versions of U.S. history, where Filipinos are li...
2022-05-2148 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast030: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 9 - “DJ Qbert as Cyber-Maniac Shaman:
What Does Hip-Hop Tricksterism Have to do with Traditional Babaylanism?”The author of this chapter is James W. Perkinson, a spoken word poet and adjunct professor of things spiritual in an urban college. He describes himself in the chapter as a “repentant Euro-colonizer” who unlearned some of his privilege as a “white male North American and an unwitting beneficiary of the entire history of colonial relations between my ancestors and the Philippine Islands since 1898…”
So, you may be asking just what is it that James W. Perkinson is doing in exploring Filipino Babaylanism? And that’s actually a specific question that he answers, while also confessing that he knows his...
2022-05-0749 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast029: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 8 - "TOWARDS A 'KAPWA' THEORY OF ART, Working towards Wholeness in Contemporary Practice"Listen in as we discuss Kapwa and art! In this chapter, artist Ate Margarita walks us through her take on “Kapwa”, and how its concept of “a way of being-at-home-in-the-world”, guided and influenced her decolonization journey, as well as her art journey. Ate Mar was working multiple jobs and art/activism projects while living in NYC, and the workload eventually exhausted and injured her body. For her, that was the wake up call that essentially led her to travel and spend some time living in Batanes, Philippines. Arriving, she was overwhelmed with the way the community embraced her upon day one...
2022-04-2352 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast028: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 7 - "GLIMPSES INTO THE INDIGENOUS, Cultural Portals and Ethnic Identity Development Among Second Generation Filipino Americans"In this chapter, Maria J. Ferrara seeks to give an answer to what is probably the most common question of those of us in the Filipinx diaspora, and that is “What does it mean to be Filipinx/a/o?” She discusses why we need to be conscious of challenges among second generation Filipino Americans (SGFA’s), and how scholars have conceptualized colonial mentality and ethnic identity development. She then goes into the results of her research study on ethnic edentity development among SGFA’s. Maria utilizes an indigneous perspective in understanding the experiences of SGFA’s, and how decolonization education a...
2022-04-0944 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast027: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 6 - “THE DEATH OF MARIA CLARA The Resurrection of Babaylan - Reclaiming the Filipina American Body”In this two part chapter, through the guidance of Jane J. Alfonso, we explore the breakdown of historical colonialism in the Philippines. She highlights how Colonial Theory’s (Fanon, 1995) four phrases of colonization were catastrophically implied in the Philippines:
1) forced entry of a foreign group into geographic territory with the intention of exploiting the native people’s natural resources,
2) the establishment of a colonial society that is characterized by cultural imposition, cultural disintegration, and cultural re-creation of the native’s indigenous culture (all of which are intended to further create a contrast between the purportedly superior coloni...
2022-03-2750 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast026: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 5 - “AS HEALERS DANCE, A Processual View of Panay Bukidnons’ Babaylan in Motion”This chapter was rich with information around the indigenous healers in the Panay Highlands of Western Visayas. Written by trained ethnomusicologist, Maria Christine Muyco, they bring us into a story collected by participant-observation learnings of these Panay Bukidnon (mountain people of Panay). Maria spent 2 years in 2003-2004 in the Panay Highlands specifically inquiring the process of this community’s types of healing rituals, always incorporating the Binanog, a dance practice that draws its inspiration from the local hawk-eagle called banog. The ideological aspects in Panay healing always aimed to achieve SIBOD - a mastery of structures and synchronizations that pr...
2022-02-261h 01Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast025: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 4 - “Filipino Tattoos: Pigment as Spirit”We are talking about tattoos today! If you’ve been around the Filipinx diaspora decolonization online community, you may be familiar with Lane Wilcken, also known as Manong Lane.
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Per Lane’s website, Lane is an artisan of ancient technology and art. He is widely recognized by the Filipino-American community as a "mambabatok," a cultural tattoo practitioner only using ancient hand-tapped tattoo techniques. He makes all his own tools, many of which are now extinct in the Philippines. Lane's practice is spiritual and includes meditation and prayer before composing batok (tattoo) arrangements according to the desi...
2022-02-1257 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast024: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch. 3 - "In the Mountain's Womb, Rizalista Practices as Cultural Memory"This chapter was juicy! We were truly guided by Michael Gonzalez’ words and 8 years of thesis research investigating the said debatable, 2 existing and paradoxical stories of the legendary Jose Rizal. Jose Rizal is formally known as a native reformist, physician, author of books-- a “renaissance man”, that was falsely implicated in an anti-colonial revolutionary plot and executed by the colonial Spanish authorities on December 30, 1896. Gonzalez’ work included understanding the national “official”, sometimes imaginary Jose Rizal; versus the perhaps “unofficial”/folklore (said to be told my peasants, laborers, and middle class Filipinos) version of Jose Rizal, deemed by the “Rizalistas”.
Rizalistas, a...
2022-01-3047 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast023: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch.2 - "Anting-Anting: Why Bathala Hides Inside the Stone"In the second chapter of our current read: "Back from the Crodile's Belly", we have a conversation about Anting-Anting.
In her two year long research, Nenita Pambid Domingo sought to answer the question of whatever happened to the native God of the FIlipinos when the Spanish Catholic God and its host of angels vanquished the “heathens” and their gods?
Her research led her to the myth of Doctrine of Infinito Dios (or Infinite God) telling how the Three Persons in One God struggled against the Infinito Dios also known as Nuno (or ancestor). The Nuno said...
2022-01-1546 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast022: Back from the CROCODILE'S BELLY, Ch.1 - "Audible Travels..."Welcome back, Kapwatids!
We SURE IS back, from the CROCODILE'S BELLY that was 2021, as we now enter 2022!
Thrilled to have you tuning in with us again!
WE OFFICIALLY OPEN UP SEASON 2 WITH OUR SECOND BOOK, "Back from the Crocodile's Belly", edited by Lily Mendoza & Leny Mendoza Stoebel. The first chapter segment of this three part book was written by Grace Nono, who journeyed to sit with Mumbaki, the Babaylan (indigenous priest, healer, oralist/auralist) among the people of the Ifugao province in the Cordillera Administrative Region of Northern Luzon, Northern PI.
This story...
2022-01-0154 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast021: Study Break #5 - "HAPPY HOLY DAYS"Happy Holy Days, Kapwatids!
In this final episode and study break of 2021, Imee & Stephanie discuss their experiences through the holidays.
We acknowledge various cultural holy days in different religions & spiritual beliefs, our younger church (& non-church) -related holiday years, & wrap up with energetic boundary tips as we navigate through this time of the year in spaces with loved ones, especially when you have differences.
***Don't forget - Babaylan Bruha Book Club is on YOUCHOOB too! Feel free to subscribe or leave us comments!
2021-12-0538 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast020: Study Break #4 - "DIVINE MASCULINE, PATRIARCHY, EMOTIONAL AWARENESS", ft. Rob DaltonIn this conversation, Imee & Stephanie take a study break to talk with another special guest. Rob Dalton is walking his life journey as a multi faceted being. From business professional and martial artist, to exploring the balance of divine masculine and feminine in the everyday, Rob is enthusiastic about experiencing the newness of what life may bring. (Fun fact: He is also Imee's husband!) As we sit with Rob, we dive into a discussion about the patriarchy vs. divine masculine, why perhaps men are less likely to seek emotional awareness, and his views on the modern day babaylan-ic experience.
2021-11-2027 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast019: BABAYLAN, Ch. 14 - "A Babaylan in Rome"Last chapter of our first book! Kapwa, we did that!
As we close out this final chapter of BABAYLAN, we witness the conversational interview between Chato Basa, founder of Babaylan, a Philippine women’s network in Europe with Girlie Villariba, partner of Ed dela Torre author of Touching Ground, Taking Root, friend and activist. Their net-work together during a time where Filipino rights were nonexistent, & protection and resources were not accessible gave rise to brown feminism in Europe, where through collaboration with Genevieve Vaughan’s Global Fund for Women helped create support for victims of sexual exploitation, and vari...
2021-11-0640 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast018: BABAYLAN, Ch. 13 - "Re-imagining Possibilities Before Their Words"In this second-to-last chapter of our Babaylan: Filipinos & the Call of the Indigenous, we are met with recognizing the truth when people say, “less is more”. Perhaps via pakikiramdam (intuition), we knew this woman was an esteemed writer. Turns out she is an English professor at the University of Hawaii, and though she wrote only a 4 page memoir sharing her decolonizing journey, this chapter painted so much depth and expanded perceptions.
At the age of 11 years, Professor Minahal’s artistic inspiration was sparked & fueled into her adulthood, by a fictional mortal woman heroine Bolak Sonday, who dared to bre...
2021-10-2348 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast017: BABAYLAN, Ch. 12 - "Decolonization and the Filipino Arts Community in Los Angeles"This latest episode highlights the writings of Marjorie Light as she interviews a variety of celebrated Filipinx artists and creators in the Tongva land (city of Los Angeles) in California.
The work of these artists create intricate segues into dialogue that bridges the idea of indigenous Filipino culture and the contemporary pop culture we witness in current times.
Works discussed include English & Tagalog poetry by Irene Soriano, Filipino, Indonesian, & American dance and choreography by Tomas Tamayo, Dulce Capadocia’s “Singkil stories”, stage manager and playwright Lorely Trinidad, actor & poet Giovanni Oretega’s “Colonial Mentality” performance piece, hip h...
2021-10-091h 05Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast016: BABAYLAN, Ch. 11 - "Dawad Action - A Babaylan Poetics"More than sixteen-times published poet and activist, Ate Eileen Tabrios walks us through the meta meaning of what it means to bring a poem into the world, and how that is to bring the world into the poem (citing her Conjuration #5 poem, p. 262).
Central Ilocos sur area born, Ate Eileen shares her knowledge & the story of the "Man-nawac" who healed her great grandmother.
Her passion for us to expand our consciousness through poems, having them call out to us, has led her to create several successful blog and publishing start ups. They are known as...
2021-09-251h 16Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast015: BABAYLAN, Ch. 10 - "Fusion and Fission"In this chapter, written by Michelle Bautista, we found her essay to be reigned with many paradoxical perspectives. The good, the bad, the not-good not-bad, the "just as is". Ate Michelle utilized types of food metaphors, as reference points for cultural fusions and fissions, that have created much dissonance and resonance for us / readers, while attempting to answer the question of “What does it mean to be a Filipino American?”
Don't forget - Babaylan Bruha Book Club is on YOUCHOOB too! Don't forget to subscribe or leave us comments!
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1. Grounding Prayer & @ 2min
2...
2021-09-111h 10Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast014: Study Break #3 - "DREAMS, INTUITION, SPIRIT GUIDES", ft. Krisell ValenzuelaTune in as we drop another episode with our beloved kapwatid, freestyle modern Babaylan Bruha, and multi-dimensional medium, Krisell Valenzuela!
We discuss Babaylan Bruha tings such as dreams, past lives, subconsciousness, intuition, spirit guides, and more! All while keeping the Babaylan Bruhaha’s vibes alive with reverence and laughter.
We invite you to subscribe or stay connected with us via YouTube and/or Instagram!
IG: @krisellcan.medium & @babaylanbruhabookclub
2021-09-1141 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast013: BABAYLAN, Ch. 9 - "A Deep Listening - Inang Bayan Calls Me Home"In this narrative, Karen Villanueva's succinct & specific opener caught our eyes and ears. It raised the questioning of the Filipinx conventionally conditioned life. Is it supposedly only about going to school, attending college to become a doctor/nurse/lawyer, then marry a (white) man, and settling down with a family?
In this chapter, we discuss how Ate Karen shares her immigration, assimilation, recognition, healing, and remembrance journey. She writes this piece while called back to live in the motherland; after having left her nursing profession, a marriage, a comfortable existence to follow her inner call to wholeness, w...
2021-09-111h 26Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast012: BABAYLAN, Ch.8 - "Babaylan - Accessing my Filipina Spiritual Authority"“An important aspect of this ever-evolving quest for empowerment as a FIlipina-American, was developing the ability TO BRIDGE the PERCEIVED DICHOTOMIES of white = more, brown = less, and man = more, woman = less. It is from a place of transcending this compartmentalized framework that we can find the openness to welcome the fullness of possibility into our lives. The more forgiveness and acceptance I develop for myself, the more I have to offer others. And that, I think, is truly where empowerment lies".
- Ate Trisha Agbulos Cabeje, MA in Women’s Spirituality, Babaylan, Ch.8, pg. 234
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2021-09-111h 13Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast011: BABAYLAN, Ch.7 - "Babaylan - Our Filipino Spiritual Heritage"In this broadcast episode, we discuss Ate Teresita's LAKARAN (pilgrimage/journey) with Babaylan in the province of Banahaw with a group known as Tatlong Persona Solo Dios Kinabuhayan (TPSD) in Delores, Quezon. Teresita spent 20 years sitting with GABINETE (12 elders, priestesses, and sacristans), though the son of Amang Illustrimino, Jose Illustre, was the ordering Supremo when Teresita visited.
Interestingly, priests were originally trained men but they were eventually ruled out as "MARUPOK PO SILA" (weak), so women were given a chance, and they passed training. Ate Teresita guides us into her observation that the people relied on the...
2021-09-111h 07Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast010: BABAYLAN, Ch.6 - "Katibuk-an, My Journey Towards Wholeness"Influenced by a "guidance" dream, we discuss Venus Herbito's story of returning back to the homeland after 25 years. In this chapter, she shares her immigration story, sorrowfully leaving her Lola in Manila to settling in Los Angeles, CA. Venus shares perspective on what it means to be separated from her indigenous consciousness, soul wounding, and her studies of indigenous science as a pathway to healing. In addition, we discuss her video-installation-ritual, "Katibuk-an: Journey Toward Wholeness".
1. Grounding Prayer & @ 1 min, 16sec
2. Heart Check-in @ 3 min, 56 sec
3. Chapter Overview @ 9min, 40sec
4. Vocabulary Words @ 12min, 9sec
5. Quotes @ 34min, 55se...
2021-06-2058 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast009: Study Break #2 - "BAWDY 'AWDY IMAGE"In this conversation, Imee & Stephanie take a study break to discuss the ever-continuing HAWT TAKE/TOPIC on body image - through the lens of a media, dating, and motherhood in this millennia.
Quick friendly reminder:
🔊We recognize some folks like a little bit of dis, or a little bit of dat...
👯♀️So we’re launching a lil bit of... visuals!
📺We are excited to share this latest episode is ALSO available via YouChoob (YouTube)!
2021-06-0552 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast008: BABAYLAN, Ch.5 - "Babaylan Urduja, Imperial Memories and the Filipina Diaspora"This chapter was a conversational celebration about the epic Princess Urduja. A long considered myth legend to some scholars, it is said that in 1325-1354, a Muslim explorer, Ibn Batuta recorded encountering the Pangasinan princess. He reports to have met her on the island of Tawalisi, an egalitarian kingdom where the “women ride horses, understand archery, and fight just like the men.” Princess Urduja was known to be skilled in archery and hand-to-hand combat, among other things. We invite you to consider her the Filipinx's version of the newest Disney "princess", Raya, if you will.
In this chapt...
2021-05-221h 09Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast007: BABAYLAN, Ch.4 - "To Our Lola's House, a Pilgrimage to the Place of Beginnings"This chapter was a beautiful memoir about Lola Sebia, a celebrated babaylan from a province that is adjacent to Bayhaw, Hilamonan, Matama, and Camugao - areas encompassed by the mid- and southern areas of the Philippines - mostly Visaya and Mindanao.
It is a compilation of stories spearheaded by her grandchildren, narrated initially by at the time this essay was created 53year old Ceres E. Pioquinto and his 3 siblings - Amor, Jovi, & Joerita. A wonderful chapter full of poginancy and hope, it is a delightfully tell-tales of the custodians’ experiences with Lola Sebia’s life gifts. The auth...
2021-05-081h 08Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast006: BABAYLAN, Ch.3 - "She Dances in Wholeness"This conversation stems from Chapter 3, where Agnes Miclat-Cacayan, shares her keynote address at the 2005 Babaylan Conference at the renowned St. Scholastica’s College in Manila. In this essay, she introduces us to primary Babaylans in Mindanao. Not everyone can get access to primary Babaylans. Agnes was able to establish and maintain relationships with the Babaylans before they entrusted their knowledge to her. The babaylan’s dance speaks to a holistic spirituality, something embodied and remembered deep in our bones and blood. In her dance, body and spirit are one.
1. Grounding Prayer & Heart Check-ins @ 0:30 & 4min, 40sec
2. Vocabular...
2021-04-241h 21Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast005: Study Break #1 - "CACAO & KALI"🔊We recognize some folks like a little bit of dis, or a little bit of dat...
👯♀️So we’re launching a lil bit of... visuals!
📺We are excited to share this latest episode is ALSO available via YouChoob (YouTube)!
In this conversation, Imee & Stephanie take a “Cacao & Kali” break to dialogue thoughts around recent events & healings that can be supported with ancestral practices via plants and martial arts.
2021-04-1034 minBabaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast004: BABAYLAN, Ch.2, part 2 - "Sikolohiyang Filipino"In the late 80’s, Virgilio Enriquez conceptualized a theory called Pagkataon Filipino. It was part of Philippine "indigenous psychology", also referred to as Sikolohiyang Filipino, which is a psychology of, about and for the Filipino people. We divided this episode into 3 segments for ease of listening.
1. Pivotal Interpersonal Values: Pakiramdam, Pakikiramdam @11:35
2. Confrontative Surface Values: The Spirit of Survival - Bahala-na, Lakas ng Loob, Pakikibaka @32:05
3. Associated Societal Values: The Pillars of Filipino Personhood - Karangalan, Katarungan, Kalayaan @56:46
2021-04-031h 20Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast003: BABAYLAN, Ch.2, part 1 - "The Ancient Reed of Wholeness"In this episode, we continue the conversation from Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous edited by Leny Mendoza-Strobel and published by the Center for Babaylan Studies. This is part 1 of a 2 part conversation. This discussion specifically focuses on the first half of Chapter 2, created by Katrin De Guia. It is her summarized acknowledgments of several globally celebrated Filipinx artists and their transformative works and messages. With these messages in mind, we dive into the question around who is truly considered a Babaylan in modern times.
2021-03-131h 11Babaylan Bruha Book Club Podcast002: BABAYLAN, Ch.1 - "The Babaylan in Me"In this episode, we continue the conversation from Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous edited by Leny Mendoza-Strobel and published by the Center for Babaylan Studies.
This conversation specifically focuses on Chapter 1, where we discuss the life and works of Sister Mary John Mananzan, and her interpretation of the Babaylan archetypes: Warrior, Teacher, Healer/Priestess & Visionary.
2021-03-061h 202021-02-0200 min