A Tree In Bani

My involvement in publishing is a long one. From a short film imprint we (we, being ex-colleagues now happy living the corporate lifestyle) called animalsquared to an ill-fated Skyline production label, it has taken the best part of a decade to get myself up and running and doing this again.

Why A Tree In Bani?

Well, I have always enjoyed writing and writing in length at that, but it has always been considered an unrealistic career pursuit, or at least that is what we are told. Add a few years of me climbing that same corporate ladder as my peers and sprinkle a few flakes of life lessons on-top of that, and I had eventually realised that my focus had changed for the better.

What was initially an attempt to purely get my own work published and out there, has turned into something more meaningful and collaborative, and I am actively involving and collaborating with various artists, illustrators, technicians and the more business-minded among us to get involved to build something for the future.

A Tree In Bani is an attempt to shed light and help those creatives who have, for whatever reason, been neglected and to try and even-up the exposure for people who are as talented -if not more so- than the typical industry-approved outfit. So there.

Yeah, I get all of that, but why A Tree in Bani?

I think that it comes as an unfair disadvantage that some people are not given the same opportunities and pathways as others, and so I attribute my own tenacity to my family in the Philippines, who at the centre of our provincial compound have a century-old tamarind tree at its centre, a living being that has seen generations grow underneath it.

A Tree In Bani is dedicated to my mother, Myrna Casequin Conte Obillo, who died earlier this year.