Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Friday, May 25th 2007 – East Vancouver’s Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School will set the scene for Roots, Rhymes and Resistance X: Our Beautiful Struggle (RRR X). This tenth installment of this annual cultural event is poised to deliver Vancouver’s finest in Pinoy hip-hop and progressive politics.

• Roots, Rhymes and Resistance X: Our Beautiful Struggle
• Friday, May 25th, 2007
• Doors Open: 6pm at Sir Charles Tupper Secondary School, 419 East 24th Avenue

Organized by Vancouver’s Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance/Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilpino sa Canada (FCYA/UKPC), RRR promises to be another jam-packed affair as part of this year’s rendition of Asian Heritage Month. Always a stand out, RRR once again remains the only event in this years line up organized by Filipino youth for the community and it’s supporters. Likewise it maintains the unique mesh of integrating current political issues affecting the Philippines and the Lower Mainland’s Filipino Community.

“The Philippines is a political hotbed right now” describes FCYA/UKPC member and RRR spokesperson, Jill Laxmana. “It has the second highest mortality rate for journalists next to Iraq and the second highest for union organizers next to Colombia.” The heated situation is also coupled with the de facto Martial Law and massive illegal arrests all across the islands.

“The socio-economic conditions in the Philippines are contributing to the massive exodus of workers overseas” explains Laxmana. The Philippines which exports over a million workers a year under the Labour Export Policy relies greatly on remittances to keep the country afloat. Canada is one of the major recipients of this export labour. “[the Filipino community] here has become marginalized, it’s become routine to deport Filipino domestic workers and cliché to criminalize Filipino youth…[the community] is confronted with racist stereotypes, economic adversity, and injustice” says Maestro.

RRR X will be highlighting and examining these issues through politically-conscious artists, media and cultural presentations.

First organized in 1999 as a cultural aspect of the Philippine-American War Campaign, it has since become a staple component of the month long Asian Heritage Month. It also continues to be the only show orgnized by youth of Filipino ancestry aimed at researching, organizing, and improving their community’s current socio-economic conditions.

RRR X: Our Beautiful Struggle will feature hip hop masters On Point Collective, spoken word artist Carlo Vincente Sayo, and multi-media presentations and speakers from other progressive organizations in the Lower Mainland.

For more info please contact UKPC/FCYA at 602-215-1103 or ukpc_fcya@kalayaancentre.net