March 2025 revolt

March is Women's History Month - a time dedicated to honoring the remarkable contributions of women throughout history. 

The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum join in commemorating and encouraging the study, observance and celebration of the vital role of women in American history. 

In February 1980, Jimmy Carter issued the first Presidential Proclamation
declaring the Week of March 8th, 1980, as National Women’s History Week.

The theme for Women's History Month 2025 is Moving Forward Together! Women Educating and Inspiring Generations.

What is a commonplace book?

Being writers and visual artists, wonder | wander | women love collecting and filling up notebooks. Our post at the beginning of the year talked about our notebook review and the journals we filled up last year. 

Sketchbook with wonder | wander | women’s own handcrafted cover!

Each journal serves a specific purpose: Morning Pages for stream of consciousness journaling, planners for scheduling and keeping track of events, sketchbooks and art books for creative outlets, idea factories and honing our skills. 

The Silk Roads: blood and gold

"No man is an island." Globalism, the interconnectedness of distant cultures, is not as modern a concept as it sounds. For millennia humans have been sharing treasures, ideas, food - and other humans, which is far less spoken of when reminiscing about the romantic past. 

First part of the exhibition: China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia

We cannot forget that the brutalism of the ancient world always accompanied its greatest beauties. That is one of the threads woven into the story of Silk Roads, the new exhibition at the British Museum.

art & empire on our shores

"What are the categories in which people imagine nature, history, place, war that make these two wars, nuclear and Native, so invisible?" ~ Rebecca Solnit, Savage Dreams

Election season in my two homelands bring to the forefront two wars - between colonizer trauma and human bias. 

an exploration of two landscapes

Our political foundation was built on the Marcos declared dictatorship - a historical event that took place in the Philippines, where we grew up and where hundreds of students and unarmed civilians were disappeared, tormented, and tortured during the decades long, power hungry, thievery of the conjugal couple Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos under Martial Law from September 1972 to January 1981. 

Filipino attire & attitude

Of the many celebrations of the 126th Anniversary of Philippine Independence, our attention was captured by the poster of NHCP Museo ni Emilio Aguinaldo and the Municipality of Kawit event - "Mga Sáyang Pumilayláy: The Lilith Reyes-Perez Collection". 

The exhibit which opens on the 12th of June 2024, at the Aguinaldo Shrine posted this promotional pitch - an instant draw for wonder | wander | women. 

opening on Independence Day 2024

As its hemline once danced the rigodon, it now emerges gently on the floor of the House of Independence, asserting once more its role of redefining beauty and femininity to embody history and the interplay between individual expression and tradition.

unicorns of Scotland

When wonder | wander | women went to see Heavenly Bodies in the Met Cloisters, we checked something else off the bucket list: seeing the original Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries. Little did we know that someone had recreated them and hung them in a real Renaissance castle in Scotland.

From our Heavenly Bodies blog post

finding new spaces

Unlike the tidy grids of New York, the streets of central London wander around oddly shaped properties, cross themselves, and split off in small paths that may lead to a dead end. Walkers in a hurry usually stick to their prepared routes or rely on map apps to keep from getting lost.

a truth giving holiday

Thanksgiving is the third in a line of problematic holidays of the fall season — holidays that may seem harmless, but that actually have a grave effect on the well-being of Native Americans. 

Thanksgiving myths vs Indigenous history

The other two are Columbus Day and Halloween. From the second Monday of October to the fourth Thursday in November, Native Americans are hammered with a barrage of racially offensive, culturally appropriative, and historically inaccurate tall tales. 

Thanksgiving Story | Smithsonian Channel

The list is extensive - Columbus Day parades, statues, speeches, and sales; offensive Halloween costumes; Pilgrim and Indian paraphernalia; and of course, all the parties, events, and classroom activities that our children are subjected to. 

historical horrors

Ancient cradles of civilization worshipped powerful female deities and revered women who practiced the holiest of rituals. Trained in the sacred arts, these priestesses became known as wise women and wisdom keepers in their communities. They may have been some of the earliest manifestations of what we now recognize as the witch. 

The Magic Circle by John William Waterhouse

So why the flip-flop from beloved healer, trusted guide, divine femme to witch, bruja, evil doer? Who decided to brand these women as witches? How did the benevolent image of a wise woman transform into the malevolent figure of the witch bandied about in fear today? 

Baroque by the River: architecture around the Thames

London is famous for the history of its architecture, but the River Thames in particular is a treasure trove of buildings with stories. Walking around the river is wonder | wander | women's favourite way of connecting with this ancient and beautiful city.

the walls of Italy

"If these walls could talk..." The story the walls of Italy tell is a story of blood, gold and a wave of artistic advancement beyond anything the early modern world could imagine. 

Siena, Italy

our island home

In past years this is the time when wonder | wander | women usually fly back to spend the holidays in our home island of Negros, in the Philippines. 

local sugarcane plantations are sadly being replaced by subdivisions

As we prefer not to risk it in these COVID times, we are made acutely aware of missing it this time. Fortunately, a new website launched recently highlights major Negrosanon arts and cultures, heritage and handicrafts, people and food.

inspiring hope and resilience locally

Fil-Am history & activism

The US is a second home for wonder | wonder | women which we have come to love it as deeply as our original homeland, the Philippines. 

The 2010 census claims there are 3.4 million Filipinos in the US although the total number is bound to be much higher by now. Filipinos are the largest Asian group in the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Washington, Wyoming and South Dakota. 

The Pioneer by Brittany England

the language of flowers

Artists and art lovers are always fascinated by visuals with multiple meanings. Layering symbolism into an image can hold our attention for longer, engage our senses and brain, and leave us feeling more satisfied than an image with shallower appeal. Maybe that's why wonder | wander | women take so many pictures of flowers.

Summer in Coal Drops Yard, Kings Cross, London

boxing day

Boxing Day is a secular holiday celebrated the day after Christmas Day. It originated in the United Kingdom, and is celebrated in a number of countries that previously formed part of the British Empire.

Boxing Day History

Boxing Day is on 26 December, although the attached bank holiday or public holiday may take place either on that day or two days later.

In some European countries, such as Romania, Hungary, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia, 26 December is celebrated as a Second Christmas Day.

Oxford Street Shopping

In the liturgical calendar of Western Christianity, Boxing Day is the second day of Christmastide, and also Saint Stephen's Day.

There are competing theories for the origins of the term, none of which are definitive. 

September | signs & symbols

September has always been a special month for wonder | wander | women. For may reasons, both personal and more.

Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry

Starting with September 1 - Mahala's birth day and Issa's labor day. We never tire of the specialness of this day for us. It truly is life changing for us both.

At the Met entrance for Heavenly Bodies

September 1 also marks the beginning of the meteorological autumn in the Northern hemisphere and the beginning of the meteorological spring in the Southern hemisphere.

aloha nights

wonder | wander | women were at the Aloha Nights exhibit of the New York Botanical Gardens recently. 

Our selfie in front of the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory

majestic Niagara Falls

As we woke back in our NYC base after our late midnight return from Georgia, wonder | wander | women review our photos and realize we are two weeks behind on our stories.

Niagara Falls, Ontario

WhaAAat? How'd that happen? Easy. We have been traipsing around. All over the place. Here there and everywhere.

To catch us all up we return to our Canada trip. Appropriately timed on Canada Day weekend this year. It was Mahala's first ever trip to Canada. Of course we all had to take her around.

Thanksgiving : truth & consequence

Last year's Thanksgiving post by wonder | wander | women seems so very far away and removed from the world we live in today.

So much has happened in the intervening year, much of which has left us astonished and astounded, bemused and bewildered, righteous and raging. A world where much has dimmed and dulled.

September eclipses & Autumn equinox

September marks several dates of import that impact us on a variety of levels - cosmic, global, national, local and personal - stirring us to the core. 

Solar Eclipse - NASA/Getty image

On September 12 and 13 a partial solar eclipse occurred - the center of the moon's shadow missed the earth, partly obscuring our view of the sun.