Filipino Hawaiʻi residents invited to share personal histories for anthology, free writing workshop offered

A free weekend writing workshop aimed at encouraging and documenting Filipino voices in Hawaiʻi will be offered on Maui the weekend of Friday, July 26 through Sunday, July 28 at the J. Walter Cameron Center via a partnership between the Filipino Association of University Women (FAUW) and the Maui Filipino Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

The workshops are open to those who want to learn how best to write about growing up, living, immigrating, adapting (and more) as Filipinos in Hawaiʻi in order to leave a legacy for themselves, their families, and our island communities.

With these original, first-person histories, the workshop project, “We Tell Our Story: Filipino Voices in Hawaiʻi,” also aims to increase understanding of the Filipino experience in Hawaiʻi and its impact on the history and culture of our state. The resulting stories will be shared via public forums to be held in October, Filipino American History Month, and in an online anthology made available to schools and the public. 

The workshops are offered on four major islands with a grant from the Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities, through support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The sessions will be directed by Nanette Carreon-Ruhter, an international English teacher who has directed Writing Workshops Across the Curriculum for international school teachers in Asia as an accredited consultant for the UC Berkeley Writing Project and the East Asia Writing Project. An additional resource teacher joining is Margot Q. Adair, with 10-year teaching experience at International School Manila, 5 years at Hawaiʻi Dept. of Education as an ESL teacher and a 30-year teaching veteran from Maryknoll School in Honolulu.

The Maui weekend writing workshop kicks off with check-in and introductions on Friday, July 26 from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Bring a laptop. Materials and refreshments provided. It continues on Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., with a celebration lunch arranged for Sunday.

Spots are limited. To register, visit bit.ly/fauwmaui. Registration deadline is July 10.