You might not think that "Starship Troopers" could inspire a Filipino American convention but it did — sort of.
“When I first found out that the actual main character of ‘Starship Troopers’ was Filipino in the book, when I found that out, my mind was blown," Aaron Nabus recalled. "And it put me on a journey of trying to promote Filipino American creativity whenever I could it."
As a San Diego resident, Nabus recognized that Filipinos are the largest Asian American group in the San Diego region, and this Saturday, he launches the inaugural FilAm CreatorCon to celebrate, support, and empower San Diego’s Filipino American creative community.
The convention has been a dream project for Nabus for years. He wanted to create something to highlight the artistic achievements of Filipino American creators across all mediums – from poets to comic book creators, chefs to filmmakers, musicians to tattoo artists.
"It wasn't until I saw my friend Keithan Jones put together his event, Black Comix Day that I thought, maybe we can have a convention for Filipino American creators," Nabus said.
A couple of years later, Nabus was at San Diego Comic-Con with his friends Scott Lost and Kirin Amiling Macapugay, and they took a casual picture together.
“It wasn't until I looked at the picture and we have Scott Lost, an awesome Filipino American comic book creator and then we have Kirin, who's really active in the Fil-Am community as a community organizer. And I had my Hall H podcast, and I was getting to know all these creators, and I said, what if we put all our abilities together to put on a convention? And it was that moment when I saw the picture, and my mind shifted to a more 'yes we can' attitude,” Nabus said.
As a regular attendee of Comic-Con, Nabus looked to that pop culture convention for inspiration.
"I love going to Artist Alley," Nabus said. "So I wanted FilAm CreatorCon to be sort of like an Artist Alley full of Filipino American creators. And I love going to panels. So we made an effort to create a diverse mix of panels."
But Nabus also knew he wanted his convention to have a different vibe.
“I wanted this show to be small and intimate for the first one,” Nabus said. “I want the exhibitors to be able to have a conversation with anybody that comes up to their table. Comic-Con is such a huge event, and while I love it, it's really loud, and it's really not conducive to having a conversation. So I wanted my first convention to be an atmosphere where people can have conversations throughout the day to get to know the creators, and for the creators to get to know any upcoming creators so they can give advice or at least share some stories, because I think stories are important. Basically, the convention is all about bridging the gap between generations and putting together a dialogue so that people can get empowered and find support and thrive. So that's basically where we are today with FilAm CreatorCon happening on Sept. 14, Saturday at the National City Library."
Details: FilAm CreatorCon takes place Saturday, Sept. 14, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at the National City Library, 1401 National City Blvd., National City. The event is free but organizers request you R.S.V.P.
As the San Diego Filipino Film Festival found out, National City provides the perfect hub for a Filipino event because that is where a large segment of that population lives. FilAm CreatorCon hopes to tap into that community with its free event located in the library’s large conference space.
Currently there are 17 exhibitors listed, as well as close to a dozen guests, including guests of honor comic book creator Whilce Portacio and artist/writer Bobby Rubio. Nabus will be moderating the Legends Spotlight Panel featuring Portacio and Rubio at 1:30p.m. on Saturday.
“We'll also have a panel about Filipino American women creators, one about music, one about starting a podcast, and one about content creation,” Nabus added.
One of the women creators at the convention is Mary Jhun, who moved to the United States from the Philippines when she was young.
“That sort of pushed me in the direction of speaking through a different type of language, which is art and painting,” Jhun said. “And through the experiences of different stages of my life, I sort of realized that the clearest way of bridging the gap between me and everyone else, no matter where they came from, was showing my experience through a surrealist lens, having it be more about trying to convey a feeling with different images and different symbols. When you look at my work, you might not know exactly what you're looking at, but the feeling between you and the person next to you is very similar. And that's something I wanted to convey. So that kind of fully encapsulates the reason why I made art was just to communicate without words.”
Patrick Ballesteros has a completely different style of art, which goes to the diversity of FilAm creators.
“I describe my art as bringing a lot of childhood whimsy into everyday things,” Ballesteros said. “Pop culture, especially, is something that I love, whether it be animation, games, TV, some books. Everything that I do, I'm trying to do to bring a smile to your face, and lately, I've been incorporating more and more of Filipino culture. Not just food and things like that, but stuff that I remember, things here and there from going back to the Philippines, visiting relatives but also being a Filipino here in the states and growing up here, two very different lifestyles, but I never saw why I couldn't bring those two together. So through the vehicle of my illustrations and my point of view, I try to combine those things and make it just fun.”
And combining those things sometimes opens a discussion that allows him to talk about Filipino culture.
You can meet both these artists and more at FilAm CreatorCon this Saturday at the National City. There will also be panels and food. And to put you in the mood to meet FilAm creators, you can also check out Magic Hour on Friday, which is the prelude to the San Diego Filipino Film Festival in October, which is Filipino American History Month.
