(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - The Ketchikan Wellness Coalition is a recipient of the Art, Culture, and Play grant funded by the Healthy Communities program of the Alaska Community Foundation for its Mabuhay – Showcase of Filipino Art, Culture, and Community project under the Strengthening Cultural Unity Task Force. The goal of the grant is to fund activities that engage arts, culture, and play to strengthen and heal communities and enhance wellbeing. KWC pursued the funding to build a dedicated, cross-generational, Filipino dance and musical instruction program, a need identified by Health Equity Coordinator Alma Manabat Parker.

Manabat Parker, of Filipino descent and a dance instructor, recognized that the once vibrant and prominent local group of Filipino cultural performers and musicians had diminished and there is a desire from the entire community to revitalize this valuable multicultural influence in Ketchikan. “This is a wonderful opportunity to honor the traditions of our ancestors from before and to evolve into the ones that we are becoming” shared Manabat Parker. Funds from the grant will be used to bring traditional Filipino dance and music instructors to Ketchikan to train locals to become dance/music instructors, purchase traditional dance regalia and musical instruments, and support performances and events showcasing these artistic and cultural skills.

By providing formal and structured dance and music training, it will reinvigorate the rich heritage of the Ketchikan Filipino community and enhance the multicultural celebrations and local performances that are held within the general community throughout the year. Recruitment for instructors will begin January 2023 with the intent of dance/musical training to start in the spring 2023.

Edited By: Mary Kauffman, SitNews



Source of News:

Ketchikan Wellness Coalition
ktnkwc.org

 

 

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