Why are we digging for old stories?

Dear Reader,

I'm so glad you're here.

This project had been brewing in my mind for a while, but I didn’t recognize it as actionable right away.

The seeds of the concept is from a shared love for history and questions that my son, now 9, has developed. With him, we’ve touched on all sorts of historical trivia and anecdotes: Greek and Roman events, World War II stories, the beginnings of civilization. The topics would jump from one to another, depending on the point of inspiration.

It didn’t matter – the point was to encourage by answering questions and feeding the thirst for knowledge.

Tackling Philippine history, turned out, to be more complex.

For one, we can’t just stop at dictating dry facts and a chronology of events. There’s a personal element to this too.

Lola was alive then during the war? How old were you during the people’s revolution?

Secondly, we need to see history as an ongoing story that links past, present, and future. Decisions, events, and ideas that happened then are connected to what we see today.

Why are there so many people in Manila? Why do we have so many different dialects? 

Let’s answer the questions shall we. But let’s answer as one people.

So, here we are, with The Story When. It is a collaboration of storytellers sharing stories from the past.

We start by retelling the stories our parents, grandparents, titos and titas, yayas and ninangs have told us. We do this because what we have in our history books is not enough.

Too many stories are unrecorded.

The Story When is a collection of human stories, Filipino stories, retold and recorded before we all forget.

It is our story, ongoing, as one people. With all our different, arguing and unified, loud and silent points of view. Let’s hear them all.

Happy reading!

Candice Quimpo
Founder & Editor

PS: If you're interested in taking part in our storytelling project, there are many ways to participate.