Conversations about creative kumustahan and cultivating caring learning environments
Overview
2 July 2021 | 34 min and 22s
In this special episode of Habi Hour, we are one with the Filpino people in commemorating the life and service of the late Former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III. Let’s listen to this read-aloud session of the book, “Ninoy, Cory, and Noynoy” hosted on Habi’s Facebook page in partnership with Dream Big Books and Museo Pambata. We interviewed the author Yvette Fernandez, illustrator Abi Goy, and one of our guest readers, Nina-Lim Yuson, founder and chairperson of Museo Pambata.
Transcript
Introductions
OLA: In this special episode of Habi Hour, we are sharing with you a read-aloud session hosted on Habi’s Facebook page in partnership with Dream Big Books and Museo Pambata. We interviewed the author Yvette Fernandez, illustrator Abi Goy, and one of our guest readers, Nina-Lim Yuson, founder and chairperson of Museo Pambata.
[Music: Habi Hour Intro]
Kuwentuhan
CHESS: As we start, we know that in the past week, we learned about the news of the passing of our former president, Noynoy Aquino. In this moment we also want to celebrate his life and the life that he’s left with us through the stories that we have.
Ipasa ko muna yung microphone to another storyteller, Gerson, to introduce our organization, Habi Education Lab.
GERSON: Hello, magandang hapon po sa ating lahat ngayon. Salamat po sa pagdalo dito sa ating Read Aloud sa kuwento na “Ninoy, Cory, and Noynoy.” Kami po sa Habi, we are a group of teachers, educators and designers, and most of our work really revolves around improving how people learn. And especially in dark times, sad times, or moments of grief, in moments of mourning, I think, the best way for us to really pay respect to people, and to the work of the people and the leaders before us is to hope and to process and to collectively learn from their learnings but also to learn together and to connect with each other as a community.
Kaya po namin naisipang gawin ito, we are very honored that Yvette is here, the author of the book to read with us. We are big fans of storytelling and we’re big fans of how the power of stories can be a way for us to share learnings and to share insights from one person, from one community, from one generation to the other. So if you are joining us, if you are a teacher, a storyteller, an artist, a designer, people who worked in government, we welcome you all here to listen and to learn from the story that we will share with you and that we will read for you.
Thank you also to Nina from Museo Pambata for being here also, for reading and participating in this exercise and also to Abi, who is the illustrator of the book. Very honored to have you all here. We invite you to learn and together take part as we pay respects to President Noynoy Aquino through this exercise. Maraming salamat.
CHESS: Thank you so much Gerson. Also to add, we know that in the past few days, that we’ve seen a lot of tributes to our late president and one of the tributes mentioned how he is really an education advocate. During his administration, we really saw a lot of education policies na na-push through. Iyan, one of them was the K to 12 and kasabay rin siya ng Habi Education Lab when we started so we saw the transition and we know that behind this big policy reform are a lot of untold stories behind the scenes. How these policies were pushed, how they were implemented. Sabi nga ni Gerson, one way that we can continue the legacy is by telling stories that we have, in different venues natin.
Ngayon we invite everyone to join us in the storytelling. Ma-iinterview natin, kasama natin in this call, the author of the book. So let me invite in our virtual space, ang ating author, Ma’am Yvette Fernandez.
YVETTE: Hello, Chess. Hello, Gerson. Thanks to the Habi Team for having us.
CHESS: Yes po, Ma’am we have an interview question for you as our author. Kumusta po yung experience of writing the story? How was it for you as a storyteller? What was your inspiration? How was it writing this story?
YVETTE: Yes, I just wanted to start by telling about Dream Big Books. Actually the very first Dream Big Book was a story about Big John, Mr John Gokongwei, the founder of Gokongwei Group. And it was actually written, the story was written for his 85th birthday. It was a gift from his children. It was a surprise and I also worked with Abi Goy on that one. And the book was given as a present to all of the guests who attended his birthday. Some of the guests who were at the birthday were the three (3) Aquino sisters – Balsy, Viel, and Pinky.
They enjoyed the book a lot and they were saying, “what a beautiful book, it’s very inspiring.” So later on, more and more people wanted that book and were bought. The Gokongweis decided so might as well make it a series of different modern day heroes who inspire because at that time, the stories that were out there were stories about Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio but nothing on modern day heroes. So we decided on doing that. Should we do it on Ninoy? Should we do it on Cory? And then my brother said, maybe you could do it with PNoy as President of him telling the story of both of his parents and actually that’s why this book is the longest kasi it’s a story of his parents and himself.
So when we worked on it, we got in touch with the Aquino sisters. We worked very closely with Balsy and Pinky Aquino on the story and then Abi went to the Aquino museum in Tarlac. Abi, do you want to talk about that a little bit?
ABI: I can’t remember na nga na we went pala to the Aquino museum! [laughter]. Yes, we did, right? Yeah, we did. And they gave me so much photos of their family na you’d never see in newspapers or anything so it’s very intimate, very special, because it’s really personal photos of the family.
YVETTE: Actually if you look at the pictures in the book, the illustrations, they are actually based on actual photos. A lot of the stories here, including this one, when they were making a snowman in Boston, actually that’s based on a photo when the president was still a young boy, that was taken into a photo that Abi saw at the museum. It was a very nice working relationship with the sisters.
I didn’t get to meet the president really except one day actually, he actually also, he started a movement called a “Araw ng Pagbasa.” One of the Quezon City councilors started it and they involved him in it so the President read a book called “Halu-Halo Especial” which is another book that I wrote back in 2006 and so I actually broke through the cordon to say, “Sir, I have this book. I want to give it to you.” I actually thought the PSG would like arrest me or something but they just let me in and I just handed him the book and he said, “ Okay, my sisters told me about it.” That was it, that was all the interaction I’ve ever had with President Noynoy pero hopefully he got to read it and I know his sisters were at the event – the book signing, the three sisters were there. They’ve been very supportive and actually, apparently this story has been going around on Viber Groups. Over the past weekend, and the sisters actually sent a text message. They took time out – they’re so sweet. They took time out to send text messages just to say that they had seen it. And they were the ones taking Summit Books for re-releasing it. That’s gracious ladies and we’re very grateful that it came from them.
CHESS: Thank you so much, Ma’am Yvette, for sharing that. Yung isa po talaga sa tumatak sa akin with what you mentioned was the importance of telling stories of modern day heroes natin na nakakasama natin every day. ‘Yon, and the second one was how you mentioned na you have a different relationship with the President. You don’t have a personal relationship with the late president but you were able to reflect on his life through research. And siguro marami sa kasama natin in this live, in different ways, meron tayong different relationship with our heroes, or with our late former president. Some of us might be working with him closely before; Some of us are citizens na nakikita natin siya sa TV; Some of us might be the family members na kasama natin in this live. We have different relationships – we have a different level of relationship with the person whose life we are celebrating but what I think magandang with this afternoon is that we are coming together to celebrate his life and the legacy that he left with us and iyon nga, siguro the power talaga of stories – nabubuhay yung mga tao through the stories that we share, through the stories that we have.
Thank you so much for your generosity also for allowing us to have this Read Aloud.
Si Ma’am Abi po if you want to add anything else. Yung different experience naman of telling a story through photos or through illustrating the book. How was it for you po?
ABI: Like any other… it’s quite challenging when you are illustrating a life story of another person. So because it’s very…it needs to be some way accurate because it’s a life story. So as much possible, I really like what Yvette said. I based my illustrations on actual events and references so the more they give me, the more they provide materials, the better…parang for me the richer the story becomes. Sometimes you can’t put the nuances in text but you can put it in through illustration. So like for the title page if you see that parang card collage thing – that’s actually made by the sisters e for their dad when he was in prison. And they had the photo of add so if they didn’t have that, parang hindi siya nasama sa story and it’s such a nice touch to their relationship with their dad. For me, parang iyon yung, it’s very, ayun like I said also a while ago, it’s very intimate that you are telling someone else’s story and as much as possible you want to be part of their lives even for a short or just a certain number of pages lang. At least nakuwento mo rin how it was during their time; what their challenges were so yeah. It’s kinda challenging but I also enjoy it when you find little things so sana yung audience nakikita rin iyon when I put all the nuances of their lives.
CHESS: Thank you Ms Abi. For this afternoon’s read aloud actually makikita natin yung photos mismo of the story. So we will be flashing it on the screen. Sa mga kasama natin this afternoon we will be seeing the actual book. Ayan, meron tayong stories – hearing it and also seeing it through the illustrations beautifully made by Ms Abi.
Iyan, kasama pa natin in this call kasama pa natin in this call, namention pa natin kanina is the founder of Museo Pamba – si Ma’am Nina. And I understand that this resource is really targeted for very young children. Pero not just young children but children of all ages also, lahat tayo may child-like wonder. So if we can ask Ma’am Nina, what is your hope for this resource? How can can parents and educators like ourselves use this book?
NINA: First of all I first read this when it came out in Facebook. You can download the e-book so I read it at once. The last four days, I’ve been looking for stories on PNoy and this one has to do with the father, the mother, and Noynoy. So it’s one of the things that sort of gave me some relief. The book is quite thick. When I say thick, it’s too lengthy for a preschooler. You have to chop it up. You can read around 3-4 pages and then discuss it so that they have a deeper understanding. It’s really about a family that’s full of love, and had a lot of trials and how they were able to overcome it. So very dramatic, I must say but it is also very important that many children and young people should read this book because it talk to you about your dedication to family and your love for country. You know we don’t have books like this. If you go out to the provinces, they don’t know a thing about this. They don’t know who Ninoy, Cory, and Noynoy is and you just have to storytell to them so it widens their minds not only about the personalities but what they did for the country that you know, they sacrificed a lot so for me, it’s a very good book on values education.
CHESS: Kung meron pong nakakarinig sa atin today – let’s collaborate and share resources as well. And I think we will all agree when Ma’am Nina said na, family is something very close to Filipinos. The value of a family is something that we can understand and resonate with. Sobrang exciting and interesting to see how this story will unfold as we remember our late president.
[Read Aloud Begins: access a digital copy of the book here]
