CAROLINE CABADING
s inger     percussionist     educator

PROJECTS

 
Sugilanon
Sugilanon translates to “story” in the Philippine Cebuano language of Caroline Julia Cabading’s family. Inspired by the Philippine Kalinga Epic Poem di Ullalim, Caroline composed a Filipino-American Epic Poem and musical suite based on the stories she grew up hearing about her family as they personally experienced key moments and movements in Filipino and Asian American history. Thus this story of three generations of one family also stands as an accounting of the larger story of Filipinos in San Francisco since the turn of the century.

Brenda Wong Aoki’s “The Soul of The City” 
(Work in progress to premiere in September 2023): 
Caroline Cabading will sing in this new theatrical work by Brenda Wong Aoki. 

Jennilyn Bawer Young’s “Di Ullalim” 
(Work in progress to premiere by December 2024): 
A Creative Work Fund project, "di Ullalim'' will be the first theatrical staging informed by the Philippine Kalinga epic poem, “The Ullalim”, and the first time that the art form of the Manuullalim (a bard who specializes in reciting The Ullalim) will be presented by both Kalinga and English-speaking bards. Jennilyn Bawer Young, the Kalinga Manuullalim, will present the original poem that tells the creation story of the Kalinga people. Caroline Cabading will translate in English and sing traditional Kalinga songs related to the poem.

Club Mandalay 
Produced by Caroline Cabading and featuring her performing ensembles and guest spoken word and musical artists, “Club Mandalay” is a free monthly live show open to the public on Saturday afternoons. 

The Autonomous Region
The Autonomous Region (AKA The Manilatown Jazz Ensemble) performs both classic standards and modern arrangements of jazz favorites. Led by vocalist Caroline Cabading, this tradition-rooted ensemble also presents original compositions that fuse jazz with the pre-colonial music of the Philippines. 

Manilatown Ancestral Ensemble 
Led by traditional Philippine music steward Caroline Cabading, the Manilatown Ancestral Ensemble (formerly known as Kultura Kapwa) performs teaches the pre-colonial music and dance of the Philippine Maguindanao, Maranao, Tausug and Kalinga ethnolinguistic groups. 

"Manilatown Manang'' Documentary
Caroline Cabading is currently directing a documentary about International Hotel Activist Jeanette Lazam. Logline - When the director of a center honoring the most dramatic housing rights battleground in American history wins her struggle to have a former resident resume her tenancy 44 years after her eviction, she joins her hero on the road trip back home hoping for a mentoring experience but instead getting into the fight of her life with a hard-edged radical elder. 

Manilatown Heritage Foundation
Caroline Cabading is the Executive Director of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation whose core program is to maintain the legacies of San Francisco’s historic Manilatown neighborhood and the 1977 International Hotel Eviction by maintaining the International Hotel Manilatown Center as both a memorial to these legacies and as a multipurpose community gathering space for creative expressions relevant to today’s community.