FILCASA will be attending POP24’ presenting our workshop titled: Amoy Araw!: Being Active in the Community Playground.

We revisit the concept of play and the nostalgia of making friends (kalaro) in our everyday communities. By reimagining The Playground as the ideal community event, we will explore the components that make up a fruitful event which endorses sustainability, cultural interest, and values as Filipinos and Filipino-Canadians.

For POP24’ s theme this year the Tagalog word “Laro” has been selected to set the tone for this conference. Laro is about our childhood. It is about the memories and experiences that have shaped the adults that walk in place of our younger selves. Wounds, wishes; heartache and happiness; dreams that were a moment away from touching reality – so much of what we’ve learned about theworld was discovered through innocent eyes. As immigrants, many of us had to grow up quicker than our White peers. Some of us were latch-key kids, cooking meals for us and our siblings after school. Maybe you were a translator, sitting in on immigration interviews, meetings with lawyers, reading paperwork beyond the fairy tales you would read in class. Or maybe what robbed you of playing, of being a kid, was learning that where you were was not where you were loved. Laro is for healing. Laro is for you.