UCLA Asian American Studies Center 50th Anniversary Commemorative Expanded Edition By Al Robles, with a foreword by Tony Robles Paperback: $16.95 ISBN-13: 978-0-934052-53-5 Products Details: Paperback, 158 pp, 9in x 6 in x .8in Categories: Poetry; Asian American Literature; Art & Culture; Pilipinos; Pilipino Americans

Description

Originally published in 1996, Rappin' With Ten Thousand Carabaos in the Dark is a collection of poetry by the late Al Robles, the quintessential Pilipino American poet, storyteller, and co-founder of the Kearny Street Workshop in San Francisco. In this new expanded edition that also commemorates UCLA AASC's 50th anniversary, the book includes a forward by Tony Robles, as well as a classic essay by Al Robles from Amerasia Journal. Described by Ishmael Reed as "a journey into the heart of Pilipino soul," Robles's poetry reflected his power as a storyteller and his own activism. It includes glimpses into the lives of the elderly Pilipino Manongs, whose stories and lives he documented.

Excerpts:

Preface to 1996 Edition by Russell Leong

One moist morning in Watsonville, California, Al Robles, Luis Syquia and I were walking alongside the strawberry fields. The air smelled of fruit waiting to be picked. After picking a few strawberries off the vine to eat, Al told us this story: "Some Pilipinos asked me what part of the Philippines I came from. And I told them Jackson and Kearny Streets. And they said, 'Where's that?' And I said, 'Close to Ifugao Mountain.' They turned away, still puzzled."

And so the mystery and history, the struggle and promise of becoming a Pilipino in America can be found in the poetry of Al Robles—oral historian, artist and community poet. Perhaps no one has listened as closely to the voices of the Pilipino American community during the last thirty years, painstakingly recording the stories of first-generation Pilipino manongs who immigrated to Hawaii and to the Western United States. In his creative work, Al has reclaimed a community history for us all—Pilipino, Chinese, Japanese, and new immigrant alike. His community, though mainly Pilipino American, is inclusive. His poetry is inhabited by farm laborers, factory workers, Zen monks, pool hustlers, cooks, children, lovers, gamblers, preachers, warriors, pimps, prostitutes, young bloods, musicians, tricksters, barbers, stray Buddhas and goddesses. To each, he has given a blue note, a lyric refrain and a promise to remember.

Table of Contents:

Related Center Press Publications:

Amerasia Journal 24:2 Essays into American Empire into the Philippines: Part I. Legacies, Heroes, and Identity (1998)

Amerasia Journal 24:3 Essays into American Empire into the Philippines: Part II. Culture, Community, and Capital (1998).

Baluyut, P., de la Cruz, E., & Reyes, R. (1998). Confrontations, Crossings, and Convergence: Photographs of the Philippines and the United States (1898-1998).

Quinsaat, Jesse (1976). Letters in Exile: An Introductory Reader on the History of Pilipinos in America.

Robles, Al (1996). Rappin' With Ten Thousand Carabaos in the Dark: Poems by Al Robles

Scharlin, Craig & Villanueva, Lilia (1992). Philip Vera Cruz: A Personal History of Filipino Immigrants and the Farmworkers Movement