More than two months have passed, and I still catch myself thinking of Patricia Evangelista’s book launch at Aldaba Recital Hall at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The event was dubbed as her homecoming, Evangelista being an alumnus of UP’s Department of Speech Communication and Theater Arts. She and her book, “Some People Need...
Category: Books
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Six Filipino women show the way
Women who have marked the political landscape with grit and grace and who continue to engage the burning issues of the day for the people’s general benefit are the subjects of a new book, “Six Filipino Women for Justice.” Published by San Anselmo Press and edited by Asunción David Maramba, the book features profiles of...
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A poetic documentation of the Philippine Covid-19 experience
Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Joseph Adrian Buensalido launched two new books on the Covid-19 pandemic on Dec. 7, 2023, at Makati Medical Center. “Mikrobyong Maliit, Pandemyang Pasakit 2 (Ang Tinulang Salaysay ng Pandemyang COVID-19, Monkeypox At Iba Pa)” continues the poetic documentation of the Philippines’ pandemic experience from January to December 2022, including the Omicron era, the “Poblacion...
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All-women anthology ‘First Draft’ released
The anthology “First Draft: Essays by Ten Women” is off the press, published by Tahanan Books, edited by Lorna Kalaw-Tirol, and with an introduction by Mariel N. Francisco. It features the narratives of a group of women who had been meeting for over 10 years in different homes and restaurants to share their compositions for...
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Timely remembrance of martial law off the press
Ultimately, they write to remember, and to fight: to remember the terror of martial law and its lingering impact on the lives of Filipinos, and to fight the foisted narrative that those terrible years comprised a “golden age.” This avowed mission runs relentlessly through “Serve,” a book of stories by and interviews with former members...
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Building a castle: Our Hogwarts Philippines story
(With Giselle Goloy, Cherie del Rio-Tan, Anne Frances Sangil, Edwin Madera, Beejay Bautista and Abbey Santos) In the early 2000s, I was part of an outreach event for Pinoy Harry Potter. We were at SM Manila, in an activity center crowded with sets, people in costumes, and children. I was dressed for my role and...
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‘Tayo ang Liwanag’: Leni’s account of presidential campaign
Leni Robredo’s “Tayo ang Liwanag: Journeying through Our People’s Campaign” will be launched on May 9, a year to the day of the May 2022 presidential election. The launch will start at 3 p.m. at the Museo ng Pag-asa (Museum of Hope) at 84 Cordillera St., Barangay Lourdes, Quezon City. In a livestream on Facebook...
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To (finally) launch a Philippine sex cinema book in the US
I had long wanted to launch my new book, “SekSinema (Gender Images in Philippine Sex Cinema Enfolding Pandemia),” not only on our soil but on foreign land as well. A wide distribution of my books has been on my bucket list ever since I was published by UST (University of Santo Tomas) Publishing House in...
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The Marcos restoration (but have they ever left?)
The Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) launched its 16th book, “The Marcos Restoration: The CenPEG Papers on Election 2022,” last Oct. 19 at the University of the Philippines Diliman. The book, a compilation of policy analyses over a 17-month period from January 2021 to May 2022, and with Temario C. Rivera and Bobby...
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Books at the fair: reading as resistance
Time has become a privilege one carves out from these days of want and fear: time to muse, to make sense of what’s going on, to read. Reading is crucial: an act of will, of resistance. Slogging through the tremendous crowd on the last day of the Manila Book Fair last September, one gaped at...