The song “The Impossible Dream” captured the national imagination when a man lay dead on the tarmac—a tragedy precipitated by his decision to return to his homeland despite the imminent threat of political persecution. He was, after all, foremost among the fiercest opponents of the dictator who had been in power for 17 years. Days...
Category: Culture
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‘Wrap artiste’ Ditta Sandico offers a look at the future of fashion
Ditta Sandico, “wrap artiste,” clothing designer and indigenous fashion advocate, discusses her 40-year journey in the fashion industry in the recently launched book, It’s A Wrap: Unraveling the Future of Fashion. Published by Far Eastern University, written by Francine Medina Marquez, and edited by Gayle Zialcita, It’s A Wrap draws inspiration from indigenous communities, most...
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Reclaiming connection in seemingly ordinary moments
Irene Laturnas Velasco and I are both from Negros Oriental. She grew up in the town next to mine, and long before we became close we already shared many common friends and stories. She is friends with my older brother and cousins, too. But strangely enough, it took adulthood for us to really find each...
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‘Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 4’ confronts Philippine theater
Film and theater operate on fundamentally different contracts with their audiences. Cinema is more controlled: It is edited, color-graded, scored, and packaged for the screen. Theater, on the other hand, refuses all of that: It is raw, immediate, unrepeatable, and alive in ways that no camera can fully simulate or contain. For “Ang Babae Sa...
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Plant a tree, but make sure it’s not mahogany
Every tree has a story, a name, a role in healing, Glenda Flores Co told her audience. She spoke in elegant Filipino—“Bawa’t puno ay may kwento, may pangalan, may silbi sa paghilom”—at the close of the program held to launch the book “Philippine Native Trees 404: Rooted and Rising” last April 28 at Club Filipino...
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Power and survival take the stage: A review of Peta’s ‘Ctrl + Shift: Changing Narratives’
The Philippine Educational Theater Association (Peta) once again brought socially engaged storytelling to the stage with “Ctrl + Shift: Changing Narratives,” a four-play production that challenges audiences to confront the realities shaping contemporary Filipino life. Divided into two contrasting sets, the show, held April 12 to April 19, navigated themes of power, corruption, survival, and...
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“Endo”: Precarity in Philippine theater
Most of the trademarks of a Peta play can be gleaned in “Endo,” the company’s latest offering for the second quarter of the year. Snippets of dialogue on the burning issues of the day (fuel prices, flood control projects) slide in every now and then. The koro is in full throttle, signifying the bigger community...
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Vivid portraits of Filipino Americans Philip Vera Cruz and Narciso Manzano
Filipinos are generally unaware of the personal histories of Filipino Americans who played significant roles in the transitional period of the Commonwealth, the Japanese Occupation of the Philippines, and the postwar republic. Pioneering authors Craig Scharlin and Lilia V. Villanueva have produced two books on such key figures—Philip Vera Cruz, who led Filipino immigrants in...
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Light up a cigar for we are in nobody’s service
PHUKET, Thailand—Why do sex workers always figure in a scenography where they lean on the ledge of a balcony, their hair undulating in volume or in chaos, while smoking a cigarette? Does the smoke from the cigarette bear the air exchanged in the lip-locking kisses, the promises of romance, and the depths of intimacy, only...
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Dulaang UP’s ‘Ang Kaliitan ng Kasalukuyan’ finds the self we were told to forget
There’s a particular Filipino habit of dressing up sacrifice as virtue. For instance, we call our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) “bagong bayani,” or modern-day heroes, and mean it sincerely, but the term also makes their leaving feel inevitable—noble, even—rather than the product of a system that has failed to give them any other option. The...