Tag: June 18, 2010

FLORAL designer Rachy Cuna renders Filipino leitmotifs into colorful floral constructions in DramaCuna, originally installed at the National Museum and now running at the UST Museum of Arts and Sciences until June 15.

Cuna, who calls himself a floral architect, used materials native to the Philippines to promote the local crafts.

Upon entering the exhibit, visitors will immediately see the intricate “Kulasisi,” inspired by the bird of the same name. The work which uses bamboo, buri and fossilized roses shows interconnected baskets that represent the nest of the bird, which is endemic to the Philippines.

FOR A PROFESSOR, explaining a complex history while keeping the audience interested can be a daunting task. But wrap this lecture around an elegant musical show, and one can definitely have the best of both worlds.

Canciones de la Revolución Filipina: Songs of the Philippine Revolution from 1872 to 1898 is a lecture-concert presented by Tawid Publications with support from Ministerio de Cultura of Spain, Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation and Instituto Cervantes de Manila. The event was held last April 24 at Salón de Actos, Instituto Cervantes in Ermita, Manila.

THE HEROIC need not be ascribed only to extraordinary men of extraordinary feats; even the plebeian citizen has the capacity to become heroic.

The Center for Art, New Ventures and Sustainable Development (CANVAS), with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, launched Everyday Filipino Heroes, an outdoor banner project cum art exhibit held in connection with the May 10, 2010 elections at the Vargas Museum in the University of the Philippines (UP).

IT’S POETRY on wheels.

In an unconventional mix of love for literature and the environment, Instituto Cervantes, together with Renato Redentor Constantino and the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC), launched the “Berso sa Metro: Jeepney Poetry Tour (La Poesia Viaja en Jeepney)” last April 17, a poetry-reading event which made pit stops at various bookstores in the metro via electric jeepneys, an innovation of the iconic Filipino transport vehicle ran by electricity and does not require gasoline to fuel its engine.

A Different Bookstore in Bonifacio High Street, Powerbooks at Greenbelt 3 in Makati and Mag:Net Café in Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City were the three stops of the route which served as venues for the readings.

A hiss curling around
the ears, cutting the dirty
beige façade of a building.
Tonight, I use gunmetal grey—
a fast color for this city, this canvas
where flowers shoot
from the barrels of Remingtons;
where empty theaters,
smoke-blackened gates,
and half-burnt bath-tile walls
are robed with layers of
stickerpaperstenciled murals
in paintaerosol.

IT WAS exactly like my first day in the University.

The air teemed with that familiar awkwardness as I entered the room, yet the fellows seemed to know what they were there for - their heads high despite the imminent critiques they would have to endure for the next few days.

For the past ten years, UST held an annual National Writers Workshop, where only two to three fellows were Thomasians, the rest coming from other schools.

But this time, the workshop was exclusively for members of the Thomasian community—students, alumni, faculty members, and non-teaching staff – and I was one of them.

IT’S NINE in the morning and Wide-hipped Neighbor is starting the didactics on her husband, who most probably has just woken up. We heard last night that he was once again laid off a construction job. Word has it that he drove the loading truck towards the site’s barriers and into the street, filling the air with drunken laughter as he did.

And here goes Fred, two hours late for work. He’s staring at the ceiling, fingernails scratching his left palm, ears shut from the children’s squeals, from Old Maid’s attempts to shoo them away from her gate, from the repeated honking of horns at the nearby road. I lie here, staring at his profile, but he doesn’t mind. He looks at ease just lying there on the crumpled bed sheets.

Lovely women
clad in animal skin
strut the streets
with phony smiles
and painted faces.

Clever men with
crooked schemes
play games, perform
magic tricks.

They vanish
as their prey
rummage through
empty purses.

Sleek rides
strike
in intense speed.
Red, green and amber
do not mean
the same thing: ‘Go!’
But she can’t tell.
She moves ahead,
never knowing what hit her.

Azer Parrocha

EyoW PfoUwhsZ! N4i!n+1nD!h4n nY0oHw Pfu0H b4nGzZ 5!n4$4b! kOwhH??? (Hello po! Naiintindihan n’yo po ba’ng sinasabi ko?)

MARAHIL kung wala ang sumunod na pangungusap, mahihirapan ang sino man na basahin at intindihin ang simpleng tanong na nakasulat sa paraang kinaiinisan ng marami sa kasalukuyan— ang jejemon language.

BATONG BAHAY, hindi munti. Ang mga kuwento ng pamilyang naninirahan doon ay sari-sari.

Dito umiikot ang Batong Bahay: Naratibo ng Kahirapan at Tagumpay ng Isang Karaniwang Pamilyang Pilipino (UST Publishing House, 2010) ni Clarence Batan, guro at mananaliksik ng sosyolohiya sa Faculty of Arts and Letters. Ito ay kuwento ng pamilya ng may-akda na tinulak ng determinasyon at pag-asa upang makaahon sa hirap at makapagpatayo ng bahay na yari sa bato. Nahahati sa limang kabanata, binubuo ito ng mga salaysay ng mga miyembro ng pamilya at kung paano nila matagumpay na naipatayo ang pangarap nilang tahanan mula sa unang porma nito na gawa lamang sa pinagtagpi-tagping kahoy.