When it comes to “The Reconciliation Dinner,” Floy Quintos’ play on two families at odds with each other’s political views throughout the 2022 national elections, there is a clear target audience: middle- and upper-middle-class Filipinos who spent the past year tiptoeing through uncomfortable or openly hostile political discussions with loved ones. To those who can relate, this production feels like catharsis, with a clarity of information and...
Category: Culture
Post
‘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...
Post
Justin Jones: Black, Filipino, civil rights activist
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Republican-dominated House of Representatives in Tennessee in the United States has expelled two of three Democrat lawmakers who took part in a protest action calling for more gun-control measures a week after a school shooting in Nashville in which six persons, including three children, were killed. One of the two expelled is...
Post
Dulaang UP’s ‘Rosang Taba’ races against insidious forces
Recently, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” again ignited conversations on fatness and body issues, but for all the wrong reasons, precisely because the film offers little to no nuance about the lived experiences of plus-size people, and instead creates a dehumanizing spectacle out of it (see Roxane Gay on the film). It is so demeaning and...
Post
Socially aware entertainment and theatrical spectacle
It truly feels like prepandemic days when you have to juggle two (or more!) theater events in a day. And at this moment, campuses are leading the charge: Blistering heat notwithstanding, it’s a highly satisfying shuttle between venues on Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City. I didn’t really know what to expect from Dulaang UP’s “Kung...
Post
4 Chinese women show social context of deployment of beauty
Women’s agency is illustrated in how they deploy their beauty as cultural capital. But they do so amid certain factors, which shape, facilitate, and even constrain such deployment. In China, as shown by four famous Chinese women, the deployment of beauty lies at the intersection between individual agency and social, cultural, and even political structures:...
Post
Sisterhood produces sculpture of connections
To mark its 90 years as a sorority of empowered women, the University of the Philippines’ Sigma Delta Phi (SDP) pooled its talents and resources in partnering with the state university to bring into sculptural form the characteristics that make the Filipino woman and the connections that she makes possible. Envisioned as a work by...
Post
She shows the way to volunteerism and empowerment
On International Women’s Day, Patreng Non easily comes to mind as a Filipino woman who constantly strives to help, to empower, and to make a difference. It would seem that Patreng—formally Ana Patricia—is everywhere. Last month, the 27-year-old founder of the Maginhawa Community Pantry was busy going to and from San Jose in Nueva Ecija,...
Post
Peta’s ‘Walang Aray’ balances light drama with spectacular music
The sentiment that drives the Philippine Educational Theater Association’s (Peta) full production of “Walang Aray”—itself a comedic adaptation of Severino Reyes’ 19th-century zarzuela “Walang Sugat”—is a triumphant one. From its title to its celebratory tone, the production proudly announces itself as Peta’s return to live theater unscathed, emphasizing that nothing can replace the experience of...
Post
Protesters vs Kaliwa Dam disheartened but unbowed
The members of the Dumagat-Remontado tribe protesting the construction of Kaliwa Dam are back home in the provinces of Quezon and Rizal, disheartened that their nine-day, 148-kilometer march to Malacañang ended without a dialogue with President Marcos Jr., but unbowed. “We won’t stop until he (Mr. Marcos) responds to our letter,” tribe leader Conchita Calzado...