Category Archives: Word

New-Gen Filipino Entrepreneurs – April Aliermo 101: How to Make Business Out of Play

By Diane Guison | Published: May 16, 2012

New-Gen Filipino Entrepreneurs is a feature series that will spotlight young Filipino-Canadian entrepreneurs, and their respective businesses in Toronto. Explore and be inspired by these Filipino go-getters in our community!

Get to know April Aliermo and her experience on how she made business out of play through co-directing Bellwoods Playschool.

WRITTEN BY RINA ESPIRITU

April Aliermo at the first Daps Revue Show in Toronto. Photo by Jennai Bundock

As the bass player for Toronto indie music darlings Hooded Fang, April is also a member of punk outfit tonkapuma and the electro-pop trio Phèdre (who are all under Daps Records, the music label she co-founded with Daniel Lee). When she’s not being a rock star, she co-directs a creative-based playschool and an all-ages series. Get to know April Aliermo and you’ll come to see that play is the highest form of research.

Please describe the service you provide.

Leah Gold is my business partner. We are entering our third year! We incorporated as a non-profit in the Fall of 2010 and have an amazing board of directors. The staff is made up of working artists and musicians. They all work part-time with the kids and still have time for their artistic endeavours. This amazing team of people really makes the program by immersing the kids in arts and culture all around the city. The kids are pretty rad too.

Also posted in Entrepreneurship, Feature | Tagged Adrian DiLena, Angel Chen, april aliermo, Bellwoods Playschool, Daniel Lee, Daps Records, filipino community, Filipino-Canadian, hooded fang, Kapisanan, kapisanan philippine centre for arts & culture, Leah Gold, Maria Bui, maylee todd, Phedre, playschool, Tonkapuma | Leave a comment

The Scene: The Pearl, A Filipino Cultural Showcase @ Miracle Thieves

By kat estacio | Published: April 25, 2012

The Pearl, a cultural series at Miracle Thieves The Pearl: A Filipino Cultural showcase at Miracle Thieves

The Filipino community in Toronto is getting a lot of buzz lately. And I don’t think the buzz is simmering down anytime soon! A quick shout-out goes out to the good folks at Miracle Thieves, who are hosting a Filipino Cultural showcase this weekend.

The week-long celebration starts tomorrow, Thursday April 26, and goes on until May 2, 2012.

Representing The Philippines through visuals, sounds, tastes and knowledge are the following exhibiting artists: Jo SiMalaya Alcampo, Michaela Cruz, Jodinand Aguillon, Alex Felipe, Eric Quebral, CMango Design, Pacific Blues, Sammy Jade, The Original Fiddy , Jen Maramba, Pinoy Culture Bookstore, Lamesa Filipino Kitchen, Centre for Babaylan Studies, Kapwa 3 Conference (Baguio, Philippines) and more.

Also posted in Culture, The Scene | Tagged alex felipe, Centre for Babaylan Studies, cmango design, eric quebral, filipino community, Filipino culture, Filipinos in Toronto, It's Your Life Handmade, jen maramba, Jo Simalaya Alcampo, Jodinand Aguillon, Kapwa conference, Lamesa Filipino Kitchen, michaela cruz, Miracle Thieves, Pacific Blues, Pinoy Culture Bookstore, Sammy Jade, The Original Fiddy | Leave a comment

New-Gen Filipino Entrepreneurs: Oliver Dimapilis serves it up, cold

By Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture | Published: April 11, 2012

New-Gen Filipino Entrepreneurs is a feature series that will spotlight young Filipino-Canadian entrepreneurs, and their respective businesses in Toronto. Explore and be inspired by these Filipino go-getters in our community!

This edition featuring Oliver Dimapilis of Cold Tea.

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WRITTEN BY RINA ESPIRITU

Oliver Dimapilis from Cold Tea

Oliver Dimapilis was born and raised in North Vancouver, moved to Toronto in 2000 to chase a girl and Second City. More recently, he also opened one of Toronto’s newest hot spots, Cold Tea Bar. A bar blogger’s weapon of choice, Cold Tea has quickly become a go-to for this city’s hipster version of Cheers.

Who and what is Cold Tea?

I opened this bar with my friends, Stacey Welton and Matthew LaRochelle. We originally tried to open up a bar hidden in Chinatown but when that fell through we found the present space down a very dark corridor in Kensington Mall.

This space was completely different from any other space we had looked at so it demanded a speciﬁc design. Since we couldn’t erect a bar in Chinatown we would bring Chinatown to our bar.

Also posted in Entrepreneurship, Feature | Tagged Chinatown, Cold Tea, Cold Tea Bar, filipino community, Filipino culture, Filipino diaspora, Filipino-Canadian, filipino-canadian community, Filipinos in Toronto, halo halo screen printing, jeff garcia, Kapisanan, Kapisanan Philippine Centre, Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture, Kensington Mall, kensington market, Matthew LaRochelle, Oliver Dimapilis, Stacey Welton | 1 Comment

New-Gen Filipino Entrepreneurs: Loriebelle of the ball

By Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture | Published: March 21, 2012

Wanna get your hair ready just in time for warmer days of Spring? Check out Loriebelle Urrutia of LBhair!

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WRITTEN BY RINA ESPIRITU

Loriebelle Urrutia, Professional Artistic Hairstylist at LBhair

Born and raised in Winnipeg, hair-stylist Loriebelle Daaca Urrutia moved to Toronto in 2006 to pursue her career in fashion, entertainment, art and culture. She has been recognized as one of the top 5 in Canada with the Contessa Hair Award. Though she’s never taken a trophy home, she happily calls herself the “Susan Lucci of hair awards.” But she did rank first place in Redken’s Cover Competition and is part of the prestigious L’oreal Fashion Week team.

Loriebelle has done hair for the MMVA’s, Breakfast Television, Much Music, TFO and currently the Marilyn Denis Show. She has lent her hairstyling skills to the likes of television actress Hannah Simone (now with the hit sitcom “New Girl), award wining R&B recording artist Melanie Fiona, CHUM television personality Dina Puliguse and the god-mother of Canada’s fashion world herself, Jeanne Becker.

Also posted in Entrepreneurship, Feature | Tagged breakfast television, fashion, filipino community, filipino entrepreneurs, Filipino entrepreneurs in Canada, Filipino-Canadian, filipinos in fashion, Filipinos in Toronto, hair-stylist, hairstyling, jeanne becker, Kapisanan, Kapisanan Philippine Centre, Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture, Loriebelle Urrutia, marilyn denis show, mmva, much music, New-Gen Filipino Entrepreneurs, toronto | 2 Comments

Represent! Taken by Cars, the first Filipino band at SXSW 2012

By kat estacio | Published: March 12, 2012

“I believe we are the first Pilipino band to be in SXSW. It was absolutely surreal to see the listing and find our name there, along with Quezon City, Philippines beside it.” – Vocalist Sarah Marco, Taken by Cars (via BakitWhy.com)

Whenever I reconnect with friends from the Philippines, I always ask what band/sound they’re currently into. Over the past few years, the band Taken by Cars has popped up here and there in our conversations. They’ve gotten so much buzz, that they even made it to TIME Asia’s Five New Bands to Watch in the beginning of 2011.

So it’s really no surprise to learn that Taken by Cars is Texas-bound for this year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival in Austin. With their own brand of dancey-electro-shoegaze-rock-&-new-wave (I know, we shouldn’t bother coming up with genres these days. Labels are for jars, right?), they have gained so many adorning fans in the Philippines, and are well on their way to catapult into the hearts of rest of the world.