The Culturally Intelligent Storytelling Launch · More Than a Book Launch
A Conversation on Filipino Stories in a Global World
The Philippine launch of Culturally Intelligent Storytelling for Southeast Asian Creators brought together creators, media practitioners, educators, and institutional leaders to explore how Filipino stories can remain culturally rooted while connecting with audiences across cultures.
The gathering also marked the formal donation of the book to the Ateneo de Manila University Rizal Library, the first library to receive a copy under Ned Legaspi’s planned library donation initiative.
About the Launch
From Santa Monica to the Philippines
First launched internationally in Santa Monica, California, in November 2025, the book introduces the CIS Bamboo Framework, a culturally grounded approach to helping stories travel across cultures without losing their roots.
Organized by the Ateneo de Manila University Rizal Library in partnership with Areté, the Philippine launch placed the book in conversation with the creative industries, media, and the academe.
The program moved beyond a conventional book presentation. It asked how storytellers can remain accountable to identity, history, and community while speaking to audiences whose cultural assumptions may be different from their own.
What happens when a story leaves the culture that created it and enters another?
Program Focus
What the Culturally Intelligent Storytelling Launch Brought Together
A book launch, a library donation, and a cross-sector conversation on the future of culturally grounded Filipino storytelling.
Hosts and Featured Voices
Voices at the Culturally Intelligent Storytelling Launch
The conversation brought together practitioners and educators whose work shapes storytelling, media, culture, and public life in the Philippines.
Jervi Wrightson (KaladKaren)
Media personality, television host, and UP Diliman Broadcast Communication graduate.
Galvin Radley Ngo
Director, Ateneo Institute for the Science and Art of Learning and Teaching.
Mark Nepomuceno
ABS-CBN.
John Kenneth “Ken” De Leon
Head Writer, GMA Network.
Direk Ruel S. Bayani
Director, producer, creative executive, and board member of the Directors Guild of the Philippines.
Noel Ferrer
Producer, talent manager, broadcaster, educator, and MMFF Executive Committee member.
Dr. Christine Cox
Chair, Department of Communication, Ateneo de Manila University.
Dr. Maria Regina Hechanova-Alampay
Dean, Dr. Rosita G. Leong School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University.
The Framework in the Book
Stories That Travel Without Losing Their Roots
The CIS Bamboo Framework guides creators from cultural grounding to creative development, audience response, and the deeper connection a story produces.
StoryRoot
Ground the story in culture, identity, context, and community.
StoryCraft
Shape the narrative with intention, clarity, and cultural awareness.
StoryPulse
Listen to audiences, observe response, and adapt without erasure.
StoryLeaf
Examine the understanding, resonance, and connection that emerged.
After the Launch
Coverage of the Culturally Intelligent Storytelling Launch
In-person attendance was by invitation. The program was carried on the official Ateneo channels. Coverage and updates stay available through the links below.
The Road Here
The book came home. It launched internationally in Santa Monica in November 2025, but the Culturally Intelligent Storytelling launch in Manila is the one that mattered most, because these are the readers the framework was written for. Fourteen months after the first room in Diliman.