Toronto, ON – Enthusiasm and excitement within the Filipino Canadian community elevates as their own “Maleta (Suitcase) Stories” resonate freely on October 1st, from sunset-to-sunrise, at the internationally-renowned Nuit Blanche, an annual contemporary art event in Toronto. As the first-ever Filipino Canadian community-based art project to be included in such a prestigious event, “Maleta Stories” will, once again, reclaim art and culture as an avenue to showcase the Filipino Canadian community’s history of migration and its struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada.

Along with Filipino Canadian artist, educator and PhD candidate, Marissa Largo, the Magkaisa Centre, a progressive Filipino Canadian community centre, will interactively have visitors of “Maleta Stories” unpack their own stories of migration to weave a collective history of Canada as home to transnational communities. “Maleta Stories” will make visible the web of migration that has been weaved by Canada’s economic needs as a first-world nation.

As each Maleta story hangs on strings attached to the Centre for International Experience, a British colonial-style building, it will take participants inside the Filipino Canadian community’s history of struggle and resistance. An exhibition of community-based art, “Maleta Stories” will also feature the Kapit Bisig Maletas (Linked Arms Suitcases), a ten-piece suitcase that represents various members of the Filipino Canadian community, along with a claymation project, created by Filipino Canadian youth, that depicts their collective experiences of settling and integrating into Canada.

Visitors of “Maleta Stories” are bound to experience an evocative glimpse into the realities and possibilities of a distinct and transformative culture of resistance as created by the transnational Filipino Canadian community. It will share their perspectives in viewing and creating art that, not only witnesses, but, contributes to social change. In the midst of confronting their realities of marginalization in Canadian society, the Filipino Canadian community, through the arrival of the Maleta, will proudly showcase a unique new culture that will usher in their full participation and entitlement as contributors to their new home.

-30-

“Maleta Stories: An Independent Project for Scotia Bank’s Nuit Blanche”
Art exhibit by Marissa Largo and the Magkaisa Centre
The Centre for International Experience at the University of Toronto
33 St. George Street, Toronto, ON (Spadina and College)
Saturday, October 1 at 7:00pm – October 2 at 7:00am
Free admission
Visit http://bit.ly/mkcnuitblanche for more details

For more information, contact:
Bryan Taguba or Mervyn Mabini
(416) 519-2553
ukpc-on@magkaisacentre.org
www.magkaisacentre.org
Facebook & Twitter: ugnayanontario