With fellow authors l to r: Cori Gibb, Dennis Yang, Ron Noble, Ryan Afromsky, Leslie Ryan, Shawn Otomo
Author Ryan Afromsky, Cat in the Hat, and me
Address: OC Heritage Museum, Santa Ana, CA
I am so excited to bring “I am Flippish!” to Virginia! Sweet City Desserts is hosting my reading and signing for both days. Thank you to my cousin Manuel Tagle and Mitzi Pickard for inviting me and organizing this event. 20% of the sales proceeds will go to Caritas Manila Foundation to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan and the earthquake in the Philippines.
There is nothing like having a personally signed book to give to kids for the Holidays. So get some of your Holiday shopping done, and preorder your personally signed copies of “I am Flippish!” Please email me at LeslieVRyan@gmail.com to reserve your copies.
Please click image for Sweet City Website
131 A Maple Avenue West, Vienna VA 22180
(703) 938-8188
I was invited by Heidi Durrow, New York Times Best-selling author of The Girl Who Fell From the Sky to be a featured author for the Target Free Family Saturday Event at the Japanese American National Museum.
After the reading “I am Flippish!” I gave a Keynote presentation on the stories behind my book, my illustrator, and other fun facts. My audience also got to pin on my map (pictured) their countries of ancestry. I will never take any of the pins off. I will be counting how many pins I get by the end of the year.
Thank you Heidi Durrow and JANM for inviting me to share my book to the families.
Japanese American National Museum: Click Here For Details
Here are more details:
Celebrate the exhibition Visible & Invisible: A Hapa Japanese American History and share your story with your family and friends! You won’t want to miss out on this fun Target Free Family Saturday.
ALL DAY ACTIVITIES:
• Create a memory book to jot down stories about you and your family.
• Make a family portrait collage.
• Ruthie’s Origami Corner: Fold a fun origami camera.
SCHEDULE:
11AM: Doors open.
11AM-2PM: Make a salad and salad dressing that will soon become a family favorite with Kidding Around the Kitchen.
12PM & 2PM: Bring your memories and prepare to write! Instructor Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo will help you write your own family stories.
1PM: Take a tour of our exhibit Visible & Invisible: A Hapa Japanese American History with curator Dr. Duncan Williams.
1:30PM: Join us for a ‘mixed’ reading with! Leslie Ryan will read her book I Am Flippish and Heidi Cole will read her book Am I A Color?
2PM: Join us for a screening of the documentary Searchlight Serenade. Searchlight Serenadeexplores the big bands that were formed by Japanese Americans while incarcerated during World War II.
2:30PM: We Tell Stories will perform multicultural tales in Proud To Be Me!
3PM: Allen Say will read his new book The Favorite Daughter. This tale, dedicated with love to Say’s daughter, is one for all parents who want their children to feel pride in their heritage, and to know their own greatest sources of strength and inspiration.
4PM: Doors close.
Generously sponsored by Target, these special Saturdays are filled with fun activities giving families unique ways to learn, play, and grow together.
It was an honor to meet Ruben Nepales, author of My Filipino Connection: The Philippines in Hollywood and the chairman of The Hollywood Foreign Press
11:00am – 3:00pm
October has been designated as Filipino American History Month all over the US. In celebration of this event, the Echo Park Community Group (EPCoG) in collaboration with the Los Angeles City Public Library is launching the Philippine Heritage Collection at Echo Park Public Library. The collection will be the foundation of the literary, historical and cultural documentation of the Filipino American and Philippine experience. The “story” or experience will also highlight the contributions and sacrifices made by Filipino Americans as immigrants to this land and will showcase literary works of local Filipino authors, especially those writing about their Filipino American experiences and the development of Historic Filipino Town. Future programs will include book talks and signings, lectures and cultural presentations.
Two Keynote speakers – Cathy Serafica Deleon and Greg Villanueva. Cathy Serafica
Deleon is the Branch Manager of the Los Alamitos-Rossmoor Library of the Orange County Public Libraries. She will speak on the importance of libraries to our community and what a historic phenomenal event this is – the establishment of Philippine Heritage Collection in the Los Angeles Public Library. Greg Villanueva is an Echo Park native and successful architect, and who brought up the idea of a Philippine Heritage Collection as part of the Echo Park Library. He will share the reasons that sparked the creation of the collection. Michelle Magalong of the MyHiFi group will present a Filipino-American Historical Perspective.
A number of local Filipino American authors will also be attending. Linda Nietes of Philippine Expressions Bookshop, a mail order bookshop located in Rancho Palos Verdes, (310) 514-9139 http://philippineexpressionsbookshop.wordpress.com will be on hand with books for purchase or for donation to the collection. The Southern California authors who will speak and sign their books are: Noel Alumit, author of Talking to the Moon, a novel set in Historic Filipinotown; Lorna Dumapias, author of Filipino American Experience: The Making of a Historic Cultural Monument; Sumi Haru, author of Iron Lotus, Memoirs Sumi Sevilla will share her experiences in her successful Hollywood career ; Lorenzo Paran III, author, Pinoy in America: The stateside life in the time of Barack Obama, Facebook and Pacquiao-mania which is all about life in America; Leslie V. Ryan, author, I am Flippish, a book for juveniles, which tells a story about mixed parentage, and in this case, pride in being Filipino and Irish; Juanita Santos Nacu of San Diego and author of Storytelling. Project heart to heart: A Means to Bridge Generational Gap in post-1965 Filipino Immigrant families; Carlene Sobrino Bonnivier,author of Seeking Thirst, a novel with an Echo Park setting; Zosimo Quibilan, who will read from his book-in-progress, a poetry regarding the Filipino American and Percival Cruz, will read from his book, The Drama Queen and a two-minute story entitled My Way, about an ex-jeepney driver who became an American Idol contestant. Because the event is in celebration of Filipino American History Month, the themes of the authors’ talks and readings were chosen to fit the occasion.
Also expected to attend and sign their books are Ben Aniceto, author of Stay Tuned:The Golden Years of Philippine Radio; Teresita (Tita) Pambid Domingo of UCLA and author of Come On, Let’s Speak Tagalog; Marc Lawrence, who is married to a Filipina, a martial arts teacher and author of a primer, The Basics of Filipino Martial Arts; Albert J.Mortiz, author of Discover the Philippines Cookbook; Ruben V. Nepales, author of My Filipino Connection: The Philippines in Hollywood; Maria Ciocon, Linda Nietes-Little and Julie Wolski who will sign as contributors to the book, The Magnificat: Mama Mary’s Pilgrim sites edited by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard who is out of town. The three contributors have shared their personal experiences of healing of mind, body and spirit after their pilgrimages to sites dedicated to the Blessed Mother in Lourdes, France; Fatima in Portugal; Our Lady of Vailankanni by the Bay of Bengal in India and the Black Madonna in Poland.
Co-chairs of this event are EPLCoG Board members Caroline Lorenzo and Jose Sigala. Also on the EPLCoG Board are Joselyn Geaga-Rosenthal, President; Lisa Baca-Sigala, Treasurer; Carlene Sobrino Bonnivier, Secretary; Dr. Marc Caratao; Cora Marte; Isa Meksin and Ramona Souza.
We hope that you will come and support this project which is a wonderful outreach to build the Filipino American community in Los Angeles, with full support from Philippine Expressions Bookshop.
http://www.wilmingtonbookfestival.org/Authors.htm
The Wilmington Children’s Book Festival was a great event. I met so many wonderful families that day. We live in such a wonderful country, filled with beautiful diverse people. I am truly blessed.
With my fellow author Alva Sachs
Black Eyed Peas band member Apl De Ap with his very own copy of “I am Flippish!”
With fellow authors Lorenzo Paran III, Cecilia Brainard, and Lucy McGinley
Reading to the Fil-Am kids at the Youth Pavilion