Events: Critical Cultural Reading Series Highlights The Future Productions

May 30, 2018

The Critic Culture—along with the Department of Fine Arts and The Department of Filipino (AdMU)—offers an interview with the editors and writers of Balangay Productions, a print that promotes alternative methods of making and printing the book. The speakers were Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles, Maricristh Tuando Goodes, Ime Morales, Beverly Siy, RM Topacio-Aplaon, and Ronald Verzo. There will also be a performance by members of the City of Flowers actors and Writers(NETAT), and the launch of At Night We Are Dancers by RM Topacio-Aplaon and Lola Ora by Princess Erika Solitario. The interview is on Wednesday, 13 June 2018, from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m., at SEC B 201A, Atheneo de Manila University. The interview is open to everyone. 

About interview

The Bay productions of the couple writers Bebang Siy and Ronald Verzo were born out of some spaces that the two saw in the production of literature. Also in the daily interactions with its writers and communities, the two decided to use Balangay Productions to help change some unfair practices, and to develop alternative ways to make and print a book.

In this interview, these sources and needs will be heard, as well as the dreams of A day for writers and communities. We can learn how The Balangay works throughout the process, from writing, closing, printing to enriching the library.

The interview also featured the Lunduyan Of Flowers actors and Writers(NETAT) represented by Maricristh T. Good, and RM Topacio-Aplaon, Ime Morales, and Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles. They will discuss their books in The Future and the process of producing and printing them.

There were also performances from Jesus Calvario, and from the NET members, including Julius Gregorio, Michael Angelo Santos, Jaime Villafuerte, Margaux Gavieres, Mary Deane Camua, Israel Saguinsin, Jenina Reyes, Jasmin Joy Reyes, Princess Erika Solitario, Adela Corazon Silva, Jeniña dela Cruz. Several new books of The Future will also be launched and will be attended by several other writers who have already printed the Booker.

The interview is free and open to the public. Teachers and students are also invited to literature, creative writing, English, English, Communication, and Contemporary Arts.

About speakers

Mesándel Virtusio Arguelles is the author of 17 books of poetry in Filipino including Kurap under (DLSU Publishing House, 2016) and Pesoa (Balangay Books, 2014), both finalist for the National Book Award in 2015 and 2017. His volume of selected poems from 2002 to 2014, Your Life Will Always Fail, was published by Ateneo de Naga University Publishing House in 2016. In 2017, Talik (Balangay Books), the first book in his Talik Trilogy, was released. A recipient of multiple national awards including Manning Miclat Award for Poetry and Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, Arguelles has also received fellowships from UP National Writers Workshop (2000 and 2012) and Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center National Workshop on Art and Cultural Criticism (2016). He is co-editor of the online journal hal., works as a book editor and translator, and teaches literature and creative writing at the De La Salle University—Manila where he also pursues doctoral studies. Translations in English of his poems by Kristine Ong Muslim have been published or are forthcoming in a number of international publications such as Circumference: Poetry in TranslationConstruction Magazine, The Cossack Review, The Adirondack Review, The Missing Slate, and Asymptote. A full-length CD album of his poems set to music titled Dying Lovers is released in March 2018.

Maricristh Tuando Well is a graduate of ma lessons at the University of the Philippines. He is currently teaching on the BA Creative Writing program at Bulacan State University. Athens and UP became involved in the poem. Some of his works have been published in Anvil, Ateneo Press, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, UP and PUP Press and other publications. He is a member of the City of Flower Artists and Writers (NETAT). Prior to the academy became a risertser of a non-governmental organization and researched the status of garment workers, engras, call centers, and multinational agricultural corporations in Mindanao.

Ime Morales writes poetry in English, and also occasionally writes works for children. His book Why Cheat Teens Have Sharp, Black Teeth of Future Productions was born within a classic in UP Dark when he was completing his Master's Degree in Creative Writing. It to be more than ten years before it was printed. Currently, Ime is part of the Commission on Higher Education as a consultant who is promoting a campaign on free education in the country in the coming years. He is the founder of the Freelance Writers Guild of the Philippines and a small group of writers known as FLOW. Ime blogs on yinyangnotebook.wordpress.com

Beverly Siy is a writer, translator and copyright advocate. He graduated from BA Creative Writing in THE UP Dark as a laude. Bebang was active in the field of publishing. He was one of our country's Book Champions and Intellectual Property Ambassadors in 2015. Two of his books became finalists at the National Book Awards for Essay and Anthology categories. Her It's A Mens World earned the Filipino Readers Choice Award in 2012 for the Essay category. He lives in Quezon City with his wife and two children. Go to her blog babe-ang.blogspot.com for latest writing tips. He can also be contacted on [email protected]

RM Topacio-Aplaon is a novelist from Imus, Cavite. He has written a handful of novels on his hometown, among which is Lila ang Color of Farewell (published by the University of the Philippines Press in 2015) and Alguien ya contó las horas (published by Balangay Press in 2018). He is also a painter and an amateur musician.

Ronald Verzo grew up in Sta. Mesa, Manila and studied in San Beda College. He moved to Bacoor, Cavite where he eventually co-founded the Cavite Young Writers Association (CYWA) and was its president for seven years. There he labored on works focusing on the development and study of local literature in the province. This linked him to similar efforts of groups in other provinces. He is the editor of CYWA's Lita: Poems on Women, which won the Filipino Reader's Choice Awards 2013. He also published several anthologies from local writers through Balangay Productions, a multimedia company and independent press he co-directs with Beverly Siy.

About Critical Culture

The Christian Culture includes some indexes such as the MLA International Bibliography, Arts and Humanities Citation Index (Clarivate), Scopus, EBSCO, and the Directory of Open Access Journals. Christian Culture is known for several networks of literary, language, and cultural studies in Asia, America, and Europe. Visit http://journals.ateneo.edu/ojs/kk/ or write to [email protected] if there is a question regarding submission and subsequent interviews.


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