Pilipinx American Library (PAL)
Pilipinx American Library (PAL) is a mobile, non-circulating collection and programming platform that celebrates and collects print histories and narratives by writers, poets, artists, and scholars across the diaspora. PAL centers the Filipinx experience through the reading and sharing of texts, and other printed works and ephemera, in public as pop-up libraries, performances, and readings.
The inaugural pop-up library was presented in Other Worlds as part of No Longer Empty's Jameco Exchange exhibition, which brought books for reading and trading in public spaces in Jamaica, Queens (2016). PAL has also presented books at Jackson Heights' Diversity Plaza and participated in the BABZ Fair (2017), hosting a tribute reading with guest poets and artists in response to the first Filipino American novel America Is in the Heart (1946) by Carlos Bulosan.
Recent pop-ups, readings, or selections have been hosted at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Public Library, Asian Art Museum, Tongue Tide exhibition at Flux Factory in Queens, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Centers' Asian American Literature Festival in DC, the Wendy's Subway Reading Room at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Nous Tous Gallery in Los Angeles's Chinatown, as part of the exhibition No Longer Negotiable.
Based in Queens, NY and the San Francisco Bay Area, PAL programs are organized by co-founders PJ Gubatina Policarpio and Emmy Catedral, in collaboration with institutions, scholars, activists, curators, writers, and artists.
Facebook:
Pilipinx American Library
Instagram:
@weareyourpals
Press:
Reading at the Edge of the World: The Horizon Toward Which We Move (Part 1) – Art21 Magazine
Pilipinx American Library pops up at SF Asian Art Museum – Inquirer.net
Pilipinx American Library: Telling the stories of Filipinos in the Bay Area – Balitang America
Bi-Coastal Pop Up Library Aims to Introduce Readers to Filipino American Literature – NBC News
A Filipino Pop Up Library in Queens – Open City Mag, Asian American Writers Workshop
The Smithsonian's Literary Festival Celebrates Classic Authors and Young Writers – DCist
Reading List: July/August 2017 (Part 1) - Poetry Magazine
Playing with Words in the Most Linguistically Diverse Place in the World – Hyperallergic