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Alpas is an independent digital publisher and creative collective born from the struggle to balance practicality with passion. We believe that your creativity should not be hidden as it is a vital contribution that deserves to be archived and to be heard.
THE STORY
HOW EVERYTHING STARTED BY THE CREATOR
Everything started with a simple idea, but that idea didn’t just appear out of nowhere, it was born from a realization that hit me in the early morning as I attended an online class.
I was deep into developing a full-stack project to pitch for a potential client, building out the architecture for their website and as I was crafting the Content Management System (CMS), I was focused on how to make it easier for them to showcase their work without needing to touch a single line of code. I later on I noticed how I made it easy, how I made sure they could publish, edit, and update their portfolio with just a few clicks.
But that Friday morning, June 5th, in the early morning where we are scheduled to have an online class, my mind wasn't entirely on the client's project. On the side of my screen, in an another tab, I reread what I wrote the night before, that's when the two worlds, the technical and the creative, collided.
I looked at the CMS I had just built and then back at the writing piece I wrote. I asked myself, What if I could build something similar for us?
What if I could build a platform managed not by a corporation or a client, but by a community? A place where Filipino artists could upload their works, and I would handle the code, and the infrastructure, making it all accessible for those who don't have a background in tech.
As a student of IT and also a writer, I realized this was my way of bridging the two halves of myself. For a long time, I had been looking at literary magazines and independent publishing houses on Instagram. Some had beautiful websites but others, mostly don't have one making it struggle to maintain a presence.
But I noticed a pattern, most of these spaces were entirely independent, unbacked by grand institutions or universities. They were made because people were desperate to share their work outside the walls of academia.
That is where Alpas was born.
It is my answer to the practicality that consumes us. I know what it is like to choose a career path because it is "safe" or "stable," and I know what it is like to feel that dream of writing or drawing slowly fading into the background. I want Alpas to be a sanctuary for those who have had to choose practicality, a place where they can step out of their daily roles for just a moment to live that dream. I want to give them the stage to get their names out there, to have their work recognized, and to be seen, not for their usefulness in the workforce, but for the beauty of their passion.
Our Mission
A space for dreamers
We all have a story to tell, and to some they found a medium in art to do so, so much so that they dream to pour their life into it, but our country is corrupted, not by only our government, but also to our dream as an extension. And so art was set aside to survive, but we cant only aim to survive, we also want to live, and that is what Alpas is for, we want to be a place where you can live that dream even for just a moment.
Preservation & Politics
Our purpose Beyond the page
Our target artists is Filipinos, as we want to give the spotlight to them, especially the youth filipino artists. We Filipinos, are very artistic, passionate and have a very rich culture, and we want to support that, we want to cultivate the arts, and in this time where it is very important for the youth to know politics, we want to give the voice to those who have something important to say, and we want to make it clear that we encourage political pieces to push for more discussion and awareness.
Art is political, and we could not afford to be apolitical in this country.
TheCollective
Built by a community
Alpas aim to be powered by a group of volunteer editors, beta readers, graphic designers, social media managers, creators and many more who share a single vision in which to ensure no Filipino dreamer has to carry their passion in silence. We are currently looking for those who have time, even just a little to be one of the support of the platform, for few hours a week and on any given time, we want to make sure that we wont take more time than you can give.
TheMembers
Madonna Galido
/BILINGUAL TRANSLATOR
CJ
/BETA READER
Chloe Casanoba
/CREATOR
INTERESTED TO BECOMEA VOLUNTEER?
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Share your work with us and become a part of our growing creative collective.
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