Welcome to Brown Nation! As you can probably see, we really do have pride in our culture, so if you got anything to show us about the Filipino Culture that you think we might be interested in posting, then feel free to send it over to:BrownNationCulture@yahoo.com
Filipino-American surfers travel to the Philippines for the first time and experienced first-hand how it i to be Filipino. Dan moreno and Jon Villar are the two surfers who never found value in their own heritage, until now. Their trip to the Philippines is a total immersion in an unfamiliar culture, which they have relied on hearsay and written articles. They will come face to face with the real Filipinos in their own native space. Dan and Jon will integrate with the communities, play Filipino music, eat native fruits and delicacies and surf the islands with the locals. At the end of their trip, both surfers will provide us with highlights of their physical, emotional and spiritual experiences. The Gift of Barong is not only a surfing odyssey, but also a nourney of culture reconnection, identity crisis and sersonal healing.
Directed by: Benito Butista + Produced by: Jocely Fomento & Dan Moreno
Brandon “The Truth” Vera (born in Norfolk, Virginia) is a Filipino-American mixed martial arts fighter, currently fighting in the Ultimate Fighting Championship as a light-heavyweight contender. He currently resides in San Diego, California with his wife Kerry (kickboxer), who was featured on the second season of Oxygen’s Fight Girls.
Vera is the son of a Filipino father, Ernesto, and an Italian-American mother, Amelia. He grew up in a family with seven boys and three girls. He comes from a wrestling background and says he gets his fighting blood more from his Filipino father’s side than his Italian mother, has a few tricks up his sleeve to keep things lively. Brandon speaks Filipino very well and although he was born and raised in the US, he keeps close tabs on his Filipino roots. He often shares his tattoo on his back (inked in the ancient Filipino writing system called Alibata/Baybayin) with the media and his fans. Clockwise, it reads mundo (earth), hangin (wind), apoy (fire), and tubig (water). Those four are the elements of Mother Nature. Brandon claimed that he went surfing one day and sought to conquer the waves. The waves brought him down and gave Brandon a profound respect for Mother Nature.
Punahou senior Christel Simms, swimming for the Philippines, finished 47th out of 90 in the 50-meter freestyle heats today in the National Aquatics Center at the Beijing Olympics.
Simms finished in 26.64 seconds. The cutoff time for the top 16 advancing to the semifinals was 25.07. Cate Campbell of Australia led the heat qualifiers in 24.20.
USA’s Dara Torres qualified with the third best time in 24.58.
Simms, who completed her Olympics, also missed qualifying for the semifinals in the 100 freestyle earlier this week.
BEIJING — Christel Simms, a Punahou School senior swimming for the Philippines, had a personal best in the women’s 100-meter freestyle yesterday, but did not advance to the semifinals.
Simms, just the seventh woman from the Philippines to swim in the Olympics, finished fourth in her heat in 56.67 seconds. Her previous best was 57.17.
Simms will swim in the 50-meter freestyle qualifying heats tomorrow.
In 2002, Mark Habana and Harry Ramos co-wrote and performed two poems, Dedication: to pay tribute to the talented and inspiring writers at the Asian American Writers Workshop (Re)Collections events, and Two Warriors. After the show, people started calling them the Two Warriors. The name stuck!
Two Warriors is a New-York based poetry duo that found life by bringing together stories of love, peace, family, tribute and tradition in their writing. In an effort to break down barriers and provide a sense of home for everyone through their performances, Two Warriors aims to involve the crowd, interact with the audience, interpret stories, infuse emotion, and inspire hearts and minds.
Here’s a list of sites that we here at Brown Nation think you should know about. These are quick links to spots on the web that relate to culture, music, and arts, as well as a listing of random sites that we like.
