There was no better day to open the first-ever Bikol Book Festival than last Easter Sunday, April 17. Like Mary Magdalene who came to visit the tomb of her teacher, the delegates visited the graves of two of our pioneering women writers in the region, Dr. Maria Lilia F. Realubit and Soccoro Federis Tate. Realubit...
‘Necessary Contexts’ and the question of being human in a world that is becoming less and less humane
Editor’s note: These are remarks delivered by the author at the recent online launch of the book “Necessary Contexts: Essays for Our Times,” published by Gantala Press and Alfredo F. Tadiar Library. As I begin, I thought of mentioning an important detail that caught my eye in RosarioGarcellano’s first book, “Mean Streets: Essays on the Knife...
‘Harvest Moon’: Stories, poems and photos of climate crisis
In a world where changes are increasingly disruptive, creative works matter more than ever, not just to better understand our complex reality through stories, but also because stories shape our imagination and inspire the future. “Harvest Moon is a book that heeds the call to reimagine how we are going to survive and thrive in...
Virgin Labfest: ‘untried, untested, unstaged’ plays back on stage this June
Exactly two years and three months since Covid-19 shut down all of Manila theater, the Virgin Labfest will return on June 16–26 to the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), marking the reopening of in-person theatrical performances in the capital region. Or so the plan goes, according to the organizers of the 17th edition of...