Tunog ng mga Tala/Sound of the Stars
2025
Installation
Nuit Blanche Toronto 2025 Translating the City
Nuit Blanch East Danforth 2025
Tunog ng mga Tala/Sound of the Stars celebrates the Filipino community through parols that shine as brightly as the voices of Filipinos. Parols are traditional Philippine star-shaped lanterns that are iconic symbols of the holiday season – representing hope and joy. Imagined with bright colours and upcycled materials, the parols reflect the rich memory of East Danforth.
Accompanied by holiday karaoke, the installation evokes the Filipino love of song and the joyful Christmas season that runs from September to January. Created by both the artist and community members, the parols carry messages of hope in Tagalog and baybayin, honouring our voices and stories. After the exhibition, the parols will be gifted to local residents, extending their light into future celebrations.
Parols were made in two workshops in September 2025. The participants are Abi Sampson, ASOCIAL BLONDE,Dhani Dumalagan, Isabela Palanca Aureus, Jhenny Lynne Castillo, Kailee Cripton-Eser, Keagan Mangahas, kiki, Maryana Discutido, MEAN BEADZ, Ming , Rhys Castro, Sabrina De Leon, Siu Fong, Someday Sensei and Kindie class.
Special thanks to KAPSIANAN Philippine Centre for Arts and Culture for the support.
Abi Sampson | @HiHeidiHigh
This parol features pabitins as the tails. A pabitin is a popular children’s game that is played during fiestas, including Christmas time. A frame is made of bamboo and treats are tied to the bottom. The frame is the suspended and pulled up and down, while children jump to grab the treats.
Abi Sampson is a proud Pinay immigrant residing on the Native Lands of the Anishnabewaki, the Haudenosaunee, the Mississauga and the Wendake-Nionwentsïo people. She follows the “Picnic” philosophy of life: to leave the world a better place than when she got here
ASOCIAL BLONDE | www.asocialblonde.ca | @asocialblonde2go
PUNK TALITA is my take on the Filipino parol, a star of light and hope. The name blends tala (star in Filipino) with -ita (a Spanish way to make something cute), a mix that reflects how I love clashing dualities and bringing worlds together.
Made from upcycled fabric scraps, this piece highlights my identity as a designer whose core is giving old materials new life. My work is all about dualities, kawaii and punk, soft and tough, tradition and resurgence and this star holds all of that.
What also ties me fondly to the parol is the sense of community it represents. Both Colombia and the Philippines celebrate hope and togetherness through light at Christmas, showing that beyond frontiers there are more things that unite us than set us apart. For me, PUNK TALITA isn’t just a star ★, it’s proof that light can come from scraps, and beauty can live right in between worlds.
Asocial Blonde is an Upcycler Fashion Designer who transforms ethically sourced, thrifted fabrics into one-of-a-kind, handmade fashion pieces.
Dhani Dumalagan | @doomalagan
Scanned letters my dad and I sent to my mom from 2008-2011, on hanji paper with pressed flowers. It was a time where we ached to celebrate Noche Buenas as a complete family, reserving an empty seat at the table for my mom working overseas.
Dhani Dumalagan is a multimedia illustrator, works centered around the diasporic experience and childhood nostalgia as a First Gen Filipino-Canadian.
Isabela Palanca Aureus | @isabela.palanca
My 2 lolas (grandmothers) figure heavily in my recollections of Christmas. Vita (paternal grandmother) once crocheted what seemed like hundreds of white angels to adorn her Christmas tree; those angels, perhaps are now lost in many moves. Mama (maternal grandmother) - always embraced colour and resourcefulness when decorating, whether it was reimagining my cousin’s duyan (cradle) stand as the Christmas tree or using the stuffies she produced in her studio, Cuddly Huggable Industries. I also remember wearing itchy dresses to match my sisters and cousins, so that is a pervasive sense memory for me.
My parol is made with retaso (fabric remnants) from past projects and a dress that I haven’t had occasion to wear yet. It’s my meditation on those childhood memories of Christmas and my wishes for joy and comfort (as well as less itch) during the holidays.
Isabela Palanca Aureus is a writer, maker and mother who lives in Toronto, ON. By day, she works as a product marketing leader for software and security technology. A former board member of Kapisanan Philippine Centre for Arts + Culture and board advisor to Carlos Bulosan Theatre, Isa is an avid supporter of Filipinx-Canadian art, craft and culture.
Jhenny Lynne Castillo | @jhenny.lynne | @jhennypaints.jpg | www.jhennylynnec.wixsite.com/portfolio
Tirahan ᜆᜒᜇᜑᜈ᜔ (Home) is a parol to represent, honour, and interpret generational stories, teachings, and family carried into the new generation. It is the visual lens growing up learning Filipino heritage, culture, and dialects within a multicultural land. This expresses the directional journey of bringing the pieces of what felt lost into a life of understanding cultural identity, into realizing that the pieces were there to begin with. Those pieces of cultural identity weren’t far away, but within the people and pieces that spoke to Filipino culture, teachings, joys, and moments rooted in the moment I existed. It is within my family. It started with home.
Jhenny Lynne Castillo is an Art Director, Painter, and multimedia designer who grew up in the diaspora, experiencing and learning her whole life through multicultural lenses as a Filipino-Canadian. Visual expression and connection are at the core of my works, including family and loved ones.
Kailee Cripton-Eser | @kale1321
In many cultures, including in Filipino superstitions, butterflies are said to be a visit from our deceased loved ones and ancestors. Inspired by the ones who have left us, this Parol was made with grief in mind, the feelings of presence and protection from our passed on relatives.
Made from bamboo sticks, twine, recycled fabrics and a lot of glue. In honour of my loved ones, and yours too. Featuring medicines to send them off with prayer.
May the love and community get us through it.
Kailee is a community member from Toronto.
Keagan Mangahas | @itsyaboi_djslimj96
It will represent my first ever Comic Book Project from Marvel Comics in 2027 or 2028. Black and blue are my favourite colours and reminds me of compassion, serenity and innocence.
Keagan Mangahas is an aspiring Comic book writer, artist and cartoonist. He wants to tell stories of every superhero or villain that he knows in their own realities.
kiki
@kimimo
Playing card games were one of my favourite holiday memories growing up. Play continues to bring me and my siblings together as well as our chosen families and communities here in Canada.
Maryana Discutido | @maryanastrench
My concept is inspired by the blending of two worlds, having both Filipino and Canadian identities. Having immigrated from the Philippines at a young age, seeing snow fall and pine trees for the first time as a child brought joy, wonder and curiosity to my eyes . There are so many fond happy childhood memories experiencing a Canadian winter, playing in the snow and decorating a real Christmas tree. Combining those natural elements from Canada to a Parole, which are abundant during Filipino Christmas Season, is the perfect way to celebrate both cultures.
Maryana Discutido is a Toronto illustrator. She takes inspiration from nature, fashion, music and pop culture. Most recently, she has been reconnecting with her Filipino roots and is on a mission to share the beauty of her culture and share the value of human empathy and kindness.
MEAN BEADZ | @meanbeadz | www.meanbeadz.com
When I learned about the Filipino parol tradition, it immediately felt familiar. In Colombia, where I’m from, we also fill our homes and streets with light and colour during the holidays. On December 7, we celebrate Día de las Velitas, when families and neighbours gather to light candles and paper lanterns (faroles) outside their homes.
For my parol, I used upcycled colourful folder dividers, cut and taped into small translucent tubes resembling beads, and arranged around the traditional star-shaped structure. The result is playful and bright, inspired by both traditions that celebrate light, joy, and togetherness. To me, it reflects how Filipino and Latin cultures share that same warmth, a love for craft, colour, and community.
MEAN BEADZ I S ROOTED IN THE EARLY 8-BIT DIGITAL ERA AND A DEEP DIY MINDSET. FOUNDED BY DIEGO MEJIA, A TORONTO - BASED COLOMBIAN VISUAL ARTIST.
Ming | @mingdyynasty | @cutwithcareflowers
All the dried flowers and greenery were grown in the GTA. The design features ‘everlasting flowers’: strawflower, statice, amaranth, gomphrena, and penny cress.
Ming (they/them) is a farmer florist and is a second generation East Yorker. They are a part of Sundance Commons and operate a flower farm in the GTA growing seasonal flowers with an emphasis on soil health and sustainability. Ming is a graduate of the Canadian Institute of Floral Design, Toronto Flower School and a student of Sogetsu Ikebana.
Rhys Castro | @rrhhyyss.world
Gnayagilam Oksap is a vessel of memory, culture, and abundance. Made with mix-matched textures and materials, each piece embraces maximalism, a vibrant aesthetic deeply rooted in Filipino culture, where richness and excess are expressions of joy, resilience, and community.
As a Filipino artist in the diaspora, I reflect on the sensory memories of Noche Buena, fireworks, Simbang Gabi, and caroling. The food, lights, sounds, and rituals that shaped my understanding of family and celebration.Gnayagilam Oksap navigates the tension between distant memories and contemporary Filipino culture.
The parol becomes more than a symbol of light; it holds fragments of home, echoing the ways we preserve culture through making, remembering, and reimagining.
Rhys is a Scarborough-based artist exploring Filipino identity, precolonial ways of knowing, and lived experiences of immigration, mental health, queerness, and body image. Through playful experimentation with materials, her work becomes a space for healing, memory, and reclaiming silenced narratives across culture, land, and self.
Sabrina De Leon | @Siningdesign
Tanglaw (meaning beacon of light) upcycles the fabrics of traditional and native Filipino clothing items, representing the three main island groups of the Philippines. The outer sheer organza material is inspired by the piña fabric used for traditional formalwear, which originates from the Visayas. Also representing the Visayas are the capiz shells on the interior of the lantern, which make up a wind chime. The chime also features the gong and bells of a Mindanao scarf. Additionally, the hanging ribbons are native weavings from the Cordilleras in Luzon. It aims to transform a colonial tradition by infusing it with ancestral identity through its form and materials. Though the parol—a star-shaped lantern—was introduced during Spanish colonization as a symbol of Christian devotion, this lantern reinterprets it as a display of precolonial memory and cultural unity across regions. It is a light toward cultural reclamation and Indigenous visibility.
Sabrina De Leon is a Whitby-based painter and printmaker. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from Queen’s University and has developed a multidisciplinary practice inspired by contemporary art and her Filipino heritage. Exhibited in galleries around the GTA, her art fosters dialogue and connects people through shared experiences.
Siu Fong
My parol is based on the star topper on my childhood Christmas tree. The colors are those of the flashing lights on the tree. The parol takes me back to a world of innocence and hopeful dreams of the future.
Siu Fong is a Chinese-Canadian. She creates art that often pays homage to her Chinese heritage (e.g., a dragon alebriji, a hand-drawn dragon on a clay hand sculpture). She enjoys learning about other cultures through art and food.
Someday Sensei and Kindle class
A guiding parol light, inspired by "This Little Light of Mine," nurturing the next generation's self-worth, compassion and emphathy. It's a reminder: help one another and unify to make the light bigger, together.
Someday Sensei is a teacher.