ASWANG CON, AS ONE WOULD HAVE IT
by Cecilia Ortiz Luna.
Most of life’s consequential events occur during conversation over a casual meal. A throwaway comment about a creative idea bouncing around one’s brain sometimes starts its journey outward into the world when another person says, “hmm…I like that.” When left to the algorithms of fate, it progresses into something big.
A scenario similar to this took place one shivery day in December 2024 at the restaurant Ten Foot Henry’s in Downtown Calgary. I was having lunch with Emma, a sorority sister.
In my job as Executive Director of Filipino arts non-profit Salingpusa Creatives, I have been perpetually dreaming up ideas for that big event that will be uniquely Filipino, that most members of the community will likely participate in, and will also appeal to non-Filipinos. After all, one of Salingpusa’s advocacies is for Filipino arts and culture to be understood and appreciated by the larger Calgary society.
Folklore has been on my mind for the better part of 2024 because I was able to get a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts to write my novel about an island populated by folkloric creatures with manananggal as chief matron.
Over striploin and seared scallops, I told Emma that I had a wild idea for an event. An entire festival around aswang. Emma put down her steak knife and fork, smiled and professed her own obsession with folklore.
“That’s a great idea. Go for it,” she said.
I have been workshopping this idea with my husband and the other members of the Salingpusa team for some time. But hearing this affirmation from Emma seemed like a signal from the universe that I was, actually, on to something.
So – I did.
I went for it.
This was the plain and unadorned genesis of Aswang Con, the Filipino Folklore Festival which will be held on November 15 at the historical and appropriately atmospheric Grand Theater, participated in by Calgary’s Filipino artists and underwritten by a project grant from the Calgary Arts Development (CADA). It will feature, among others, a folklore themed art exhibit, bazaar, cosplay competition and immersive museum.
What determined the arc from conversation to realization was who Emma was.
Emma happens to be Emma R. Sarne, Consul General of the Philippine Consulate General in Calgary with jurisdiction over the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The lunch date was our first after our surprise reunion at Likhaan, the Filipino arts festival that Salingpusa Creatives co-organized two weeks prior. Emma and I were members of Portia Sorority at the University of the Philippines College of Law in the mid 1990’s which is also called in some quarters as the Early Eraserheads period.
After the obligatory catch up on careers, families, and health, our conversation turned to Filipino arts and culture. This was a “business topic” — a personal and organizational advocacy on my part and that of Salingpusa, and for Emma, an important piece in her mandate as head of the Philippine diplomatic mission in Calgary.
We both acknowledged the growing global interest in aswang, not only among the youth of the Filipino diaspora but even among non-Filipinos. We agreed that in the gallery of folkloric monsters from different cultures, our very own manananggal is the scariest, and yes, the coolest of them all. We were both teenagers in 1984 when that herald of modern Filipino horror movies, Shake, Rattle and Roll came out. We both couldn’t remember how many Shake, Rattle and Roll movies there have been (sixteen as of this writing. Sixteen!).
A lively brainstorm ensued over dessert. I rhapsodized about this festival being associated with the resurgence of the aswang tradition in Alberta. Emma’s visible enthusiasm was spurring me to unspool the details of my wild plan. An entire event devoted to aswang? Yes – but something like a mini comic con with an aswang focus. Comic con means cosplayers. Yes! Yes! Also, the event should be a way to educate not only members of the Filipino community but also the Canadian public on the richness of our aswang tradition. An art exhibit then? Definitely.
I have always nursed this bit of worry about how a festival around the aswang will be received by the Filipino community in Calgary. Emma’s encouragement was the validation I needed because, after all, she was, quite literally, sent by the motherland to see to the cultural edification of the Filipino community in Calgary.
By the time I brought the idea home to the Salingpusa team, the plan included a bazaar, an interactive museum and photo stations. Everyone in the team was behind the proposed project. When the time came to apply for the grant, it was the team’s decision not to confine the event theme to the aswang but to the larger folklore genre, which includes deities, epic heroes and other creatures of legend.
Now, what to call the event?
A member of the Salingpusa team, Austin, came up with the term Aswang Con. There was no second or third alternatives for a name. Aswang Con was perfect.
The choice of the venue added another element to the event. The 113-year old Grand Theatre, the oldest theater in Western Canada and the second oldest in Canada, used to host visiting Hollywood and other international artists in the early 20th century. Its Art Deco interiors and low wattage lighting give the building a darkly whimsical vibe, perfect for the otherworldly themes of Filipino folklore.
The Grand is also Salingpusa’s base, holding office at the Vintage Room which used to be the dressing room for the aforementioned Hollywood acts including the Marx Brothers and Mae West. A Filipino folklore event in a building steeped in Canadian/North American art history was a nice juxtaposition.
Another juxtaposition relates to the date of the festival. November 15 is only two weeks away from the traditional Halloween day of October 31. An event about Filipino monsters would be a fitting Eastern tail end to a Western tradition revolving around ghosts and monsters.
With the blessings of and conceptual ideas from the Salingpusa team, and an official Letter of Support from Consul General Emma, I applied for a project grant for Aswang Con with the Calgary Arts Development on May 7th.
Three months later, I received the great news that CADA approved the grant for Aswang Con.
An Aswang Con team has been formed and is now in the thick of preparations for the big day. Initial announcements of the event have generated excitement in the community and the team is refining the details of the activities to provide the best experience for Aswang Con attendees. Activities include Chasing Tiyanak Interactive Museum, a 12-artist art exhibit, a bazaar, a cosplay competition, Baybayin Bingo, Diwata Diaries (storytelling session for kids).
In the happy eventuality that Aswang Con becomes a regular post-Halloween event for Calgarians, it will be part of its origin story that the key moment for its conception took place during a casual conversation over lunch.
