IN AN attempt to repackage literature and to make it more appealing to the MTV generation, the UST Center for Creative Writing and Studies (CCWS) launched “Ustinig: Thomasian Writers Read,” a compact disc (CD) featuring Thomasian writers reading their selected works, last Feb. 15 at the Chiang Ching Kuo Conference Hall.
“Ustinig the CD is a display of the Center’s willingness and openness to utilize the new media technology not only to enhance letters, but to deepen appreciation for literature, as well as expand the audience for it,” CCWS assistant director Joselito Zulueta said in his welcome remarks.
Ustinig contains 29 cuts spread over 75 minutes of play from acclaimed Thomasian writers Rebecca Añonuevo, Cirilo Bautista, F. Sionil Jose, Michael Coroza, J. Neil Garcia, Nerisa Guevara, Jose Victor Torres, Lourd de Veyra, Ophelia Dimalanta, Joselito Zulueta, Ramil Gulle, and Vim Nadera.
The first three cuts, “Pagkatapos ng Aksidente,” “Bago ang Babae,” and “Lantay,” are read by Añonuevo. Bautista, on the other hand, reads the next three pieces, “Third World Geography,” “Athens, Ohio,” and “The Intensity of Things. National Artist Jose follows suit with excerpts from his novel “Poon.” Next is Coroza reading, “Alak,” “Ang Kanilang mga Pangalan,” “Palaging may Ulan,” and “Putol.” J. Neil Garcia in tracks 12-14 reads, “Gift, 6,” “Kaluluwa, 57,” and “Pieta.”
Tracks 15-17, “Chime House,” “Closing the Sky,” and “The Last Rite,” are read by Guevara, while Torres and de Veyra read a composition each, “Tagalog,” and “The World was Hot.” Dimalanta reads next with her three poems, “A Kind of Burning,” “Sisulu,” and “Love, Lie Still.” Zulueta follows with “Sunset” and “The Atelier of Journalism.” Gulle then comes in with “Big,” “Lady Tiger Jazz,” and Ode to Forgetfullness.” Nadera closes the album reading the last two tracks, “Kabaka,” and “Xoce’s Slam Song.”
Meanwhile, Dimalanta’s book Lorenzo Ruiz, Escribano, which contains the English and Filipino text of a verse drama on the life of the first Filipino saint, was also launched. The Filipino text formed the basis of a highly successful opera production in 1995, which was produced by UST. Teodoro Lorenzo A. Fernandez
